It’s hard to say where the business ends and the family begins for Alex Willcock, 57, and Felix Conran, 27, the British father-son founders of furniture brand Maker & Son. Willcock was introduced to Conran’s mother, interior designer Sophie Conran, in the early 1990s through his then-employer, design and restaurant impresario (and Sophie’s father) Terence Conran, who died last year. So it was perhaps inevitable that the couple’s two children would also become passionate about design (their daughter, Coco Conran, has a fashion line). And since Conran and Willcock founded their company in 2018, Willcock’s home, Kemps House — a 17th-century brick country house in West Sussex that he moved into with his second wife, Charlie Kinsman 17 years ago — has served double duty as the company’s headquarters and showroom. Nearly every room features at least one of the brand’s opulent yet modern sofas, armchairs, beds or love seats, all made entirely from natural materials and upholstered in linen, velvet and brushed cotton in a palette of rich, earthy shades of moss green. to burnt sienna.
The house was designed in the 1660s by British architect John Kemps. “He’s done a lot of the housing in the area, but he made this one for himself,” Willcock says. With its original 17th-century elm and oak staircase, high ceilings and huge sash windows, “it really has its own spirit and energy,” he says. But it is also imbued with the creativity of the current residents. In the early 1980s, Willcock trained as a cabinetmaker at the Parnham House of renowned British furniture designer John Makepeace – a 16th century house in Dorset that Makepeace then ran as a craft school and where Willcock first met Terence and studied under celebrities such as British modernist architect Norman Foster and post-modern Italian designer Ettore Sottsass – and his carpentry tools can be found all over Kemps House. Like many of the family’s creations over the years, including, in the large living room, delicately fluted glass serving dishes made by Willcock and Conran; in the bright kitchen, thick-rimmed white bistro plates designed by Willcock and Terence; and, in a number of rooms, Conran sculptural lamps whose curls of ultra-thin maple veneer hang from the ceiling like inverted fountains. “There are many more pieces in the house that were made by us or someone we know than pieces that aren’t,” says Conran with a laugh.
Earlier this month, this artisan home was the setting for a celebratory luncheon hosted by Willcock and Conran for a small group of family members and friends, including Tony Niblock, the co-founder of kitchen company Plain English; Tawanda Chiweshe, the designer and studio director at Alaska Alaska c/o Virgil Abloh; the jewelry designer Emma Milne-Watson; and Brogan and Sebastian Cox, the designer spouses behind the furniture brand named after the latter.
The meal, held before the last wave of the pandemic, was intended both as a pre-Christmas celebration and as a tribute to the mother of all inspirations: nature. An aperitif served along with sparkling rosé in the woods behind the house was followed by lunch at a leaf-strewn table indoors. Roast beef rib, buttermilk Yorkshire pudding and seasonal vegetables such as fennel and butternut squash preceded a dramatic and particularly well-received dessert: an orange and almond cake flambéed at the table and accompanied by a rich frozen custard whose leftovers guests snuck into the kitchen to enjoy while the party went on into the late afternoon. Here, Willcock and Conran explain how to host an equally warm and memorable winter gathering.
Challenge your guests
The meal started with an elegant, slightly naughty appetizer: narrow strips of toast made from bread Conran had baked that morning (a nutty whole-wheat bread and a springy sourdough), homemade butter (sculpted, for a whimsical touch, in the shape of a Maker & son sofa) and brown, salty Arroyabe anchovies from Cantabria, Spain. “This dish, which is so simple, has to get every element right,” says Conran. “There’s nowhere to hide, so it’s about the ingredients themselves. It was a chance to challenge the guests a little – so many people tell me they don’t like anchovies – and to give them something to talk about.” Copper sparkling rosé from local vineyard Black Dog Hill served in crystal coupes from Dorset housewares boutique Brassica Mercantile (whose founder, Louise Chidgey, worked with Willcock at London design store the Conran Shop) helped allay any lingering skepticism.
Keep the party moving
The aperitif was served in the small wooded area above the backyard of the house in and around the roundhouse, a 16-square-foot cabin with curved walls, clad in cedar clapboards that Willcock had built as a sort of meditation retreat using reclaimed Georgian doors and windows from a nearby storeroom. Guests sat inside, on a enveloping Maker & Son armchair and love seat flanking the structure’s wood-burning stove, or chatting next to a nearby bonfire. The walk back to the house for the main course not only gave guests a different view of the building – “the front of the house has this wonderful symmetry while the back is a crazy mishmash of windows,” Willcock says – but it also helped to switch the mood on. “We moved out of this rather primordial environment, through the kitchen, where the food was prepared, and into the large lunchroom, which we had hidden from view when everyone arrived, for the big reveal,” he says. “There’s something really nice about changing the landscape that way,” adds Conran. “It turned the main course into a feast.”
Forage for both decorations and ingredients
Anita Bell, de senior stylist at Maker & Son, brought the exterior of the estate in by stringing a garland of foliage—a wild chandelier of sorts made from branches of the garden’s 30-year-old eucalyptus tree and from a redwood with lush, fir-like leaves— above the dining table. That same green accentuated the mantelpieces and serving tables and ran the length of the old cloth merchant’s table where the guests sat. The menu was also inspired by the surroundings of the house. “It’s important to use seasonal produce as much as possible to remind guests of the ultimate source of everything we eat,” Willcock says. Forty-day-aged broiled beef ribs were accompanied by anise-spiced fennel, nutmeg-warmed pumpkin, and fresh horseradish picked the morning before by Conran’s girlfriend, documentary filmmaker Emily Smith. (She and Conran, who live together in London, met through her Instagram account, @down2forage.)
Think carefully about lighting
“At this time of year, nothing beats the combination of velvet upholstery and candle or firelight,” says Willcock. “Where possible, I like to use beeswax candles made in the nearby town of Lewes, which hosts a frenzied pagan ritual celebration with fireworks every November. The candles burn with a particularly warm glow and spread a subtle honey scent.” Gold wash taps dotted the dining table, some in carved wooden candlestick holders made by Willcock himself, others freestanding and dripping onto the tablecloth, a Maker & Son design in an ultra-heavy white linen the company imports from Florence and used for sofa and cushion covers. Even as sunlight streamed through the room’s oversized windows, the candles created an intimate, cozy atmosphere.
Be kind to yourself
“I like to work backwards when planning a menu,” says Conran. “I think about the most time-sensitive dishes and work around them and the oven space I have available.” With this in mind, he chose an appetizer (the toast, butter and anchovies) that had only a short prep time before the guests arrived, a side dish (potato dauphinois) that could be cooked ahead of time and then simply crisped up when the time came and a dessert (the almond orange cake and frozen custard) that could go straight from the freezer to the table. This gave him plenty of time and space in the kitchen to prepare the slow-roasted beef and vegetables, and ensured that he remained a calm host. “If you can enjoy the day, chances are other people will too,” he says.
Choose an activity that suits the audience
Given the group’s love of furniture and design, after dessert Conran and Willcock introduced one of Terrence’s favorite parlor games: making miniature chairs from the cages used to hold corks in champagne bottles. Each guest was given one of these pliable metal frames and Conran and Willcox showed how, with careful manipulation, the pressed metal top becomes the seat of the chair, the wire its back and legs. Sebastian Cox took it one step further and used the table top to create a voluminous armchair with wing back. “I always like to do something, even if it’s really crazy,” says Conran. “It’s playful and engaging and gives everyone something to remember about lunch. When someone describes a meal they enjoyed, they don’t start with the food, they start with the where, the who, the how.”