In Conversation with Amy Gill | Smith & Goat

Writer and expert2 years ago

Always on the hunt for bespoke homeware, we wanted to introduce you to Smith & Goat. An independent brand that creates beautiful objects from the harsh material we know as concrete.

The Smith & Goat distinctive range softens the very industrial fabric into statement homeware pieces. Creating modern sinks to marble effect candle holders, it's one to have on your radar. We caught up with Amy, co-founder and wife of the brand, on everything to know about Smith & Goat...

Thank you for taking the time to talk to us today! Please tell us about yourself?

We are Smith & Goat an independent, family-run business that makes beautiful objects from concrete. From plant pots and trays to sinks, tables and countertops we create it all. Reggie and I set up Smith & Goat and we now have a small team working alongside us living the concrete dream, both in the workshop and from a variety of coffee shops.

What’s Smith & Goat’s story - how did it start?

Around five years ago, Reg started making pots for our own plants (we became obsessed with plants like so many) in the garden shed and the business and passion for concrete grew from there. Over the years we’ve evolved organically to take on projects of all sizes, both residential and commercial and we spent the last few years in our E17 shop which we sadly closed this month to focus on finding ourselves a bigger home to showcase our work. It’s been a steep learning curve with the concrete and being a small business - every day throws up different learning. We really love what we do and are so lucky to meet great people and work on amazing collaborations.

Where did the idea to work with concrete come from?

We are both creatives and wanted to find a way to work together (possibly changed my mind now). Reg worked with concrete for many years being a landscaped gardener, but it was always as you would imagine, dark, brutalist and cold. However, we knew from our own experience how beautiful it can be by adding colour, shape, and creativity. People can’t quite believe what can be made with concrete and we wanted to showcase the possibilities. You never know how it’s going to behave so every piece created is unique in some way.

Can you describe the design process and how you get your two-tone effect?

Designing is a collaborative process, both within the business and from ideas that people bring to us. We love getting round a table and thrashing out ideas as a team, usually with some food and drink involved. The best ideas usually come late in the evening or the middle of the night. Once we have a design idea, we carve a negative from wood, which is then poured in silicone to make a mould before being cast in concrete. Depending on the weather most things dry overnight and are demoulded with a nice ‘pop’ sound, polished and sealed to a perfectly imperfect finish. The two-tone effect is our favourite and we create this by mixing up buckets of different pigments and blending them together when pouring the mould. Then we cross our fingers and hope people like it! There is a lot of trial and error along the way.

What has been a Smith & Goat highlight for the brand?

We’re proud of the fact that people want a piece of Smith & Goat in their homes. People make such big choices when renovating their space and the fact they choose to have us in there is a big thing that we’re truly humbled by. Recently we have worked on collaborations with Lazy Oaf and Goodhood, both brands which we were already huge fans of and admire so to see our items in their stores was a big starry-eyed moment for us. Being stocked in The Hut has certainly evoked the same ‘pinch me’ moment, we can’t quite believe how far we have come this is truly a huge highlight for us.

Have you got any exciting projects coming up you can share with us?

We are working with our favourite hair salon Buller & Rice to open their third space. They are a sustainable lifestyle salon focused on lowering waste and biodynamic hair care. We previously worked with Anita and Stephen to create pieces for their beautiful salon in Walthamstow and we have kindly been given the opportunity to work with them again. Both Anita and Stephen have an amazingly creative eye and so many exciting ideas so it’s an absolute pleasure to be working with them. Watch this space……. It’s going to be stunning.

What’s the biggest piece of furniture Smith & Goat have been asked to create?

Our biggest project must be for MVF Global who moved their offices to one big roof at Wenlock Works Shoreditch. The idea behind the move was to create a nurturing and inspiring environment which would enable everyone who works there to thrive. We loved that concept and were involved in creating a 6ft long concrete terrazzo worktop for the reception area. We worked closely with the interior design studio at Trifle* to create a bespoke terrazzo finish, trialling different sizes and colours of aggregates. The entire space is so impressive, and we are over the moon to have been a part of it.

Do you have any sustainable initiatives you can share with us?

We are aware of our responsibility to use as many sustainable choices as we can, it’s something which we work on every day. We try to work with brands that have sustainability at the heart of the things they do, making sure their focus is in line with our own. We recycle as much concrete material as we can, using the waste material to make chippings for our beautiful terrazzo effect. We are conscious when packaging online orders and use as many recycled boxes as we can, we use eco-friendly filler and we don’t add unnecessary packaging. Small things, but things that we hope make a difference.

Away from Smith & Goat, what's your favourite thing to do?

We have two young daughters so you can imagine we spend a lot of our time entertaining, but they are both creative so we don’t mind getting our craft on, back to the old school pipe cleaners and PVA glue. Aside from the kids, we are big foodies so often enjoy discovering new places to eat.