At Your Service

My client’s, Stan & Anne, requested a dining table as part of the interior design service provided by Neil for the new house. Many standard or ‘off the shelf’ tables were considered for their appearance and budget early in the process. Neil then introduced the idea of a custom designed table that could more specifically relate to the house for the same budget as those that had been previously considered.

The site on which 123 House now sits provided many fond memories for the local community and for my clients. My clients Stan & Anne had provided the community with excellent warm and friendly service as they owned and ran an Ampol service station on this site for thirty years before decommissioning the service station and subdividing the site to sell two single residential sites and maintain the one on the corner for themselves. 

The house designed for the now retired Stan & Anne enabled them to return to the community in which they are treasured, to enjoy a house custom designed for them that will allow them to age in place. The house features many embedded reminders within the building fabric of their former experiences of the service station and their connection to the local community.

The design driver behind the dining table was ‘memory of place’ celebrating the fact that my clients owned and operated an Ampol Service Station for over thirty years on this site of their new house, with the custom dining table at the heart of their new home.

When it came to design the centre piece of their new home, a dining table, I sought to reflect an essence of ‘community service’ and provide my clients with an opportunity to reflect on their connection to the site through conversations with guests at their table as the table provided them with cues for their ‘memory of place’ as conversation starters.

The old Ampol logo was reduced back to its graphic profile as the plan profile of the tabletop. I observed the common practice of stacking car tyres within service stations as a way of efficiently storing them. This concept of the tyres offering a column of support developed further as the profile of the silhouette of stacked tyres became the simplified graphic outline that was transferred to the two circular timber legs of the table.

An engraved text statement ‘At Your Service’ was originally intended around the edges of the tabletop. This text statement was intended to offer yet another opportunity to start a conversation with guests and for me reflected my client’s history of service to their local community. It could also have been interpreted in a more tongue in cheek way by their own family as they served them with home cooked food.

The selected timber use in the table was sustainably sourced. It is hoped that due to the table having been designed to tell the story of the family’s heritage that it will have a long life from generation to generation within the family.

By custom designing furniture such as the ‘At Your Service’ table, Neil was able to support local manufacturers and gain valuable feedback directly from them as the detailed design is reviewed prior to fabrication by Remington Matters.