Early beginnings

Kate – We met whilst studying at the University of the Arts in London. I did a degree in surface design, which is very different to what we do now!

Sam – I studied fine art but started making art and design works for friends after graduating, which then grew into a fabrication business.

Kate – We both graduated in 2008 when the whole economy crashed. We both found it a bit tough to get into the creative industry, so I ended up going down the journalism route, and I’ve since been working for interiors magazines for the last ten to twelve years.

Sam – Kate was working at Elle Decoration and had ideas and saw gaps in the market. We always wanted a creative outlet to work together and develop creative solutions.

Kate – We wanted to do something together but couldn’t find our niche. We then came across a door handle whilst we were on holiday with friends and thought, ‘This is it – this could be the idea!’

(Portrait photography by Douglas Pullman)

Sam – We started Swarf in 2019. Everything is made here in Norfolk under one roof. We deliberately moved next door to a company that already has a workshop and is happy to share their equipment – they are just on the other side of the wall!

Kate – The great thing about it is that we can have tight control over the quality, and there’s zero waste in terms of packaging. And if there is anything we can’t do here, we always use UK suppliers – we try to keep our footprint to a minimum.

Working with HØLTE

Kate – HØLTE was looking for someone who could make handles for them, as many of their doors had recessed handles at the time. We had some meetings with Tom and Fi (HØLTE’s founders), and we got on well on a personal level – we have a similar design ethos, and our values match up.

Sam – I think we’re a fairly natural fit. HØLTE has been at the forefront of where their materials come from and declaring their carbon footprint.

(Handle detail photography by Adam Scott)

Design style

Kate – As a design journalist and features editor at Elle Decoration, one of the things that I used to struggle to find for my news pages and kitchen and bathroom supplements was hardware. It was either very traditional or really wacky and also costly. I think we occupy a space between – we are contemporary but classic enough to suit anything from a classic Shaker kitchen to something sleeker and more modern. We are pretty playful in terms of shape and colour, which is one of our USPs.

Sam – I think my fine art background has taught me to think creatively – it means I keep pushing at ideas. That’s driven some of our designs, like the ‘Holmes’ bent bars. The idea behind some of the handles is to mix up positioning and think about how you’d grab a handle at different heights.

Colour is a big thing for us – we like to offer a range of colours. When we first started, people wanted a lot of brass handles, and I think we were some of the early ones to offer those. Kate saw how everything was going bright and colourful, though, and that no-one else was doing it at the time. Now a lot more people want colourful handles – it’s interesting how things have changed.

Kate – I think when we choose colours, it’s based a lot on personal taste and instinct. A lot of our inspiration comes from looking back to the past – people like Charlotte Perriand and Ettore Sottsass, who had amazing use of colour – all of that influences us. One of the colours we introduced recently is red oxide – a reddy brown, brick-like colour. It’s becoming quite popular thanks to those terracotta and neutral tones becoming more popular on the broader design scene. But, I think because Sam is outside that interiors world, it helps keep Swarf’s identity separate from being driven by trends.

Material focus

Kate – We always try to shout about how durable our materials are, such as the marine brass and the very high-quality stainless steel we use. We also offer a refinishing service to refurbish handles back to how they looked when they were new. They should last practically forever.

Sam – A lot of hardware on the market is made from poor-grade materials. The materials we use have an inherent value – we can even repurchase the handles when a customer no longer needs them.

Kate – Customers are pickier about quality; provenance is a big thing. More of our customers want to know where materials are coming from, where it is being made, and what’s happening to all the waste products. Also, if people buy a beautifully handmade or bespoke kitchen, it would be a shame not to continue that same quality with the touchpoints and fixtures.

Future plans

Kate: We’d like to add to our product range – we’ve been talking about doing things like rails and other accessories for the kitchen as well. Another side of the business is Sam’s fabrication company, which works on bespoke designs. HØLTE has commissioned things like cooker hoods and islands, so we could maybe do more than just handles.

We’d also like to make metalwork and workshop environments more accessible to young people; we have considered doing courses and more social impact projects such as apprenticeship schemes.

Sam – I think this is just the start of more on-shore manufacturing – it’s the start of the next ten to twenty years of more products like this being made in the UK. We’re proud of our making heritage in this country – without sounding too nationalistic! You can point at a map and say where the workshop is, provide good jobs for people, and show what you’ve made at the end of the day.

Kate – I hope there will be more awareness of things getting made in this country, and for it to grow – there’s no reason why we can’t. If you’re prepared to pay that little bit more, you get better quality and something that can be easily maintained and last forever.