Features / design
The mind behind some of Bristol’s best designs
The design of a shop has a steadfast spot in its success, with more and more people being inclined to clean and quaint aesthetics. For Liam Rush – a furniture maker from Old Market – his far-stretching design work from London to Bristol has what he likes to call a “smooth, efficient and concise” finish.
From bespoke furniture for picturesque Victorian homes to designing several noteworthy food hotspots – Liam Rush has aced the formula to create spaces that are reflective of the owner’s emotions.
One recent feat for him has been designing Dongnae, a Korean restaurant that opened on Chandos Road in September from the team behind Bokman in Stokes Croft.
is needed now More than ever
Timber benches, curated pictures and bespoke stools: Dongnae’s interiors perfectly lend to the word’s Korean meaning ‘neighbourhood’.
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A mutual friend of Rush who works at Farro – a bakery he designed – connected him to the Dongnae’s co-owner Duncan Robertson and without wasting time they straight got into choosing what’s right for this new place.
He added: “Duncan approached me at the start of 2024 early on in the process to sort of have a chat about me helping with the new restaurant.
“We kind of looked at the place in March, had a few meetings about what sort of aesthetic thereafter and stuff like that.
“They wanted to go down the route of like a darker timber to try and recreate some of the woods you get in Korea and Asia.”
The chosen timber for this project, Sapelli comes from West Africa and Rush hasn’t used this material for commercial projects. He admits that people usually go for Ash or Oak which even though are nice timbers has been the case because people are “riding the Scandinavian trend a little bit.”
Most of the timber used to design Dongnae is Sapelli from West Africa
Sapelli used at Dongnae has a dark reddish brown which tends to darken with age, something that a lot of people generally don’t prefer.
“It’s quite a typical timber, but I think the reason why you don’t see it is because it’s used for external joinery traditionally. It tends to then be painted over.
“It’s got high resin content, the oils in the timber are quite high which is why people prefer to use it for external joinery. It already has quite a natural resistance to water impregnation or water decay.”
Apart from Dongnae and Farro, Rush has used his skills to design parts of Sonny Stores, interiors of Paco Tapas, the bakery counter at Harts Bakery and many other noteworthy destinations in Bristol, Bath and London.
Rush believes he is incredibly “fortunate” to share a workshop in St Philips’ with other makers: “It’s a communal workshop.
“We’re often helping each other out with projects, even though we’ve all got our own businesses.”
All photos: Benjamin Pryor
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