A new sustainable kitchen design from Reform: an interview with Thomas Dinesen

Dinesen flooring is the best of the best – I dream of a home with wide planks of their white-oiled Douglas fir wood. If money was no object… Now you can get a little slice of that exclusive Dinesen world at a slightly more affordable price. Reform – a Danish company that provides minimalist, architect-designed fronts and tops for IKEA kitchens – has unveiled a new sustainable kitchen design made of surplus wood.

Created with architecture firm Lendager Group, the UP collection utilises high-quality, solid wood off-cuts leftover from Dinesen’s projects in galleries, restaurants and bespoke homes across the world. Inspired by the ‘classic craftsman kitchen’, the UP kitchen is minimal and elegant, available in white and dark oiled with integrated handles.

It’s a brilliant meeting of minds – Reform combines quality construction, function and timeless design in its work; innovative, cross-disciplinary practice Lendager Group specialises in promoting circular economics in sustainable architecture and our future cities; and Dinesen is a family-owned company with a respect for the wood as a natural resource and a passion for nature. Here sustainability isn’t just about reuse and recycling, but about creating a product that will last the test of time and endure, only getting better with age.

Since 1898, Dinesen has been manufacturing plank floors with a dedication to the best quality and craftsmanship. Every plank goes through 20 hands on its way through production to ensure quality. Here I talk to fourth-generation owner Thomas Dinesen about sustainability and the story behind the UP collection for Reform.

How did the collaboration with Reform and Lendager Group come about? What was the inspiration for a sustainable collection? 

Lendager Group are Danish architects who only work with sustainability in their architecture around the world and it is them who have designed the kitchen. Dinesen delivers the wood, whereafter Reform processes the wood and produces the kitchen. To create a sustainable kitchen has meant a lot to all three of us as companies; it made this collaboration something very spectacular and durable. Reform wanted to offer a sustainable kitchen, Lendager drew it, and it consists of Dinesen’s surplus wood.

How have the off-cuts been used to create the kitchen cabinets? How do you fit pieces together?

The UP collection is an upcycled kitchen made of solid, reclaimed Douglas fir from Dinesen. The boards are 13-15 cm wide and vary in width from front to front to ensure minimal waste. The fronts are finished with either light or dark oil, and variation in grain, colour and shine can be expected as this is a natural, reclaimed material. These subtle differences contribute to the unique nature of this design, and bring out the organic nature of the material.

We use the same wax that Dinesen does to repair any holes, cracking or other small irregularities. Knots are an essential characteristic of reclaimed wood and can cause some variation on the fronts. We want to emphasise the unique and organic nature of the material, which is an integral part of the UP collection’s design.

What does sustainability mean to Dinesen?

Sustainability has the greatest impact on Dinesen. We find all our raw wood by ourselves in the forests of Germany, in which sustainable forestry has existed for over 300 years. We are provided with only the very best parts of the big Douglas firs; trees that might be over 100 years and 50 metres tall. They need to be treated with respect and that feeds a sustainable approach.

Where does the wood for the UP collection come from and how is it treated?

The woods come first and foremost from Germany and a smaller part from France and Belgium. Our own foresters find the suitable trees which are cut open on local sawmills. The planks are driven to Denmark where we dry and and process the tree.