Designing The Abacus Bed
We sat down with Kirsty Whyte, the designer of our new Abacus bedroom range – a modern interpretation of Heal’s historic iron bedsteads – to discuss her inspiration.
Can you describe Abacus to us?
The Abacus bed was designed using a traditional early 20th Century iron bedstead as inspiration. Traditional detailing has been pared back and the lines of the bed have been modernised to form simple contours.
A contemporary satin black-powder-coated finish takes the place of an old-fashioned ‘Japanned’ finish, which involves numerous layers of black lacquer. Turned wooden detailing punctuates the headboard, and is reflected in the form of the range’s bedside table.
What’s the story behind this range?
Heal’s started out in 1810 as a specialist mattress maker. Later, the company began making beds as well, and its reputation as a furniture maker is rooted from there. From the early 20th century, Heal’s became synonymous with the four-poster bed – even its logo, which continued to be used until the early 1980s, featured one.
We are lucky enough to still have a few of the early Heal’s catalogues from that time, which were crammed with variations of metal bedstead designs. The four-poster bed itself was initially derived from the canopy bed, which featured curtains on all sides to provide privacy and warmth.
These designs came to be used as distinctive focal points in a bedroom. The intention with Abacus was to draw on Heal’s design heritage, infusing a modern aesthetic through finish and elegance of line.
What made you want to create a metal bedframe?
Heal’s is constantly renewing its collection for its customers. While reviewing the product collection we felt adding in a metal bed that could also be a four-poster was an opportunity not to miss. The bonus was that we have such a long heritage to draw inspiration from.
How do you go about creating a new range like this one?
Our Heal’s bedroom buyer created a brief, which detailed price points and a mini mood board with the design details and finishes she was looking for. Then I started hand sketching, which is the quickest way to get ideas to paper, detailing spindle shapes and headboard profiles.
We then sat down and filtered through our favourite ideas and then I condensed these down to a top two, which I then developed further through sketching and Computer Aided Design renders
What was your design process? Did you do a lot of research or was it quite organic?
As a designer, I try not to research similar designs too closely as I want to have an original piece, so the design was more organic, derived though sketching mostly.
So how do your designs go from sketches to reality?
There are various stages of development from sketching, to creating the technical drawings for production. Jemma and I also visited the manufacturer to view the samples and make minute tweaks, to their finish and assembly. Once all that was ironed out, we could go ahead with production and photography.
Why was the name ‘Abacus’ chosen for the range?
The name ‘Abacus’ was inspired by the look of the product; the solid oak diamonds on the headboard spindles are reminiscent of a traditional abacus calculating tool.
Browse the Abacus collection
