About Us

Our Privacy Policy

At New from Old we take your privacy seriously and will only use your personal information to administer your account and to provide the products and services you have requested from us. If you would like to view our privacy policy in more detail please contact us on rick.forward@newfromold.co.uk

We have won two Interior Design 2017 BUILD Awards

We have been awarded Best Bespoke Wooden Kitchens and Furniture Designer, East England, and also Most Innovative Residential Kitchen Project.
For the kitchen that won the award Rick was able to work with his client’s aspirations, reflect local environmental characteristics into the design detail of the furniture, use new and traditional methods of cabinetmaking, and create a unique solution for his clients’ requirements, all with minimal environmental impact. Rick hopes to complete more projects like this in the future.

Green Energy for New from Old

As part of our ongoing commitment to minimal environmental impact, we are now generating our own electricity from photovoltaic panels.
We re-use our waste wherever practical and safe, and to this end we have a wood burning stove to burn our sawdust to heat the workshop.

Occasional table designs

Our occasional tables are handcrafted from new sustainable Oak hardwood which is certified as coming from sustainably managed sources. They measure approximately 48cm high, except for the Glasgow table which is approximately 67cm high. The designs of these unusual striking pieces are inspired by architects and cities from around the world.

Sustainability in the kitchen manufacturing process

New from Old was recently approached for comments on any or all of the following topics:

The general need for sustainability in the kitchen manufacturing process - why it's important.
The way manufacturers are addressing the challenge of finding sustainable resources for cabinetry (both in terms of types of materials used and offsetting any timber used).
Woods that consumers should look out for - ones to use and ones to avoid - and ecologically sound manmade alternatives.
The eco credentials of worktop surfaces, such as stone, synthetic and composite materials, and the available options for a sustainable workshop.

This is our response:

Sustainability in the kitchen manufacturing process
Sustainability is largely about the materials used rather than the process of manufacture, although some processes can be more damaging to the environment than others. Broadly speaking, the more labour intensive a process is, the better it is for the environment. Put very simplistically you can a drill a hole using a brace and bit and use no electricity, or use a CNC machine. The advantages of a CNC machine are speed and accuracy, so any process comes down to profit margin and cost.

Self generating heating and electricity
Some practices within manufacturing can be described as highly sustainable, for instance, the use of workshop waste and off cuts to heat the workshop, and boiler technology is now advancing a pace so that the boilers can generate electricity as well as heat.

Reclaimed Pine and Sustainable Woods
The choice of materials can hugely affect how sustainable a process is, and again, broadly speaking, the less processed a material is the more sustainable it is, so solid wood is more sustainable than man made particle boards, but an MDF made without formaldehyde and from forest thinnings (brashings) is more sustainable than a standard MDF, and English Oak, grown from a well managed wood is far more sustainable than a tropical timber, however well managed its growth has been.

Here at New from Old, we tend to use only locally grown timbers that are accredited as sustainable, and we never use tropical woods or by products of the tropical timber industry. However, primarily we use reclaimed timber, largely pine. Not only does it rate very highly on the environmental products score, but being reclaimed it comes with character and history in it, which our clients love.

Sustainable Kitchen Work Surfaces
Choice of work surfaces is a bit of a nightmare, but solid wood must be best. However, not every client is prepared to maintain an oiled worktop so alternatives need to be offered. Again the more processed a material the less sustainable it is, so granite, slate and marble could rate quite highly, but then how damaging the mining operation is to the environment is still unquantified. Worktops from recycled materials such as glass, plastic, stonedust, are all worthy alternatives but for the resins used to cement the fragments together. I don’t believe anyone has as yet directly compared all these available products on a sustainability chart, but it would be an interesting exercise.