Megayacht News Radio
Megayacht News Radio introduces luxury-yacht enthusiasts to the leading shipyards, premier design studios, and even superyacht owners who bring cruising dreams to life. As the official podcast of MegayachtNews.com, we feature real stories of real interest, helping American yacht owners and their representatives make better-informed decisions when it comes to commissioning and using their yachts.
Megayacht News Radio
Crafting Elegance on Superyachts: Silverlining Furniture's Fusion of Tradition and Innovation
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When tradition waltzes with innovation, the result is the timeless elegance by the team at Silverlining Furniture. This episode peels back the curtain on nearly four decades of passion and precision, where each piece of furniture tells a story steeped in family heritage and creative spirit. Mark Boddington, the maestro behind the studio, shares tales that trace the lineage of artistry running through his veins and how Silverlining Furniture harmoniously blends age-old handcraftsmanship with cutting-edge technologies like 3D printing.
Sail away with us into the world of custom superyacht interiors, where luxury meets the resilience of the high seas. Mark delves into the art of designing spaces that not only cater to multi-generational families but also adapt to the myriad activities that unfold on a yacht. Discover how Silverlining Furniture confronts the unique challenges of marine environments by selecting robust yet opulent materials that transcend mere aesthetics. The company's commitment to sustainability sets sail as well, ensuring that the beauty of the ocean is matched by conscientious craftsmanship.
Embark on a journey through Silverlining Furniture's rich history and the art of bespoke design, which you can also experience in the company's upcoming book. Overall, Mark offers a glimpse into the studio's creative process, from the collaborative dance with clients to the birth of innovative ideas that push the boundaries of luxury design. Access a world where dreams are skillfully transformed into tangible masterpieces. Whether it's a dressing table sculpted around a beauty regimen or a chair that carries the echo of a family's laughter, Silverlining's website is your portal to its universe of refined craftsmanship.
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Welcome everyone! Currently celebrating 39 years in business, Si lverlining Furniture is far more than a custom furniture maker. Its team of more than 60 craftspeople is actually better described as a team of magicians, because time and time again, they make the seemingly impossible possible. From super yacht owners to celebrities like Madonna, kevin Costner and the late David Bowie, Silverlining Furniture's clients come from around the world to its UK studio knowing that they can and will get extraordinary, exceptional creations. As a matter of fact, some of the toughest, most far-fetched requests have been met, with everything from custom colors to finishes and treatments that only a few people in the world are actually capable of creating. Mark Bonington, the company founder, joins us on the podcast today to talk more about how his team works. We'll cover how, together, they combine time-honored hand craftsmanship with cutting-edge technology like 3D printing, and how the in-house research and development department plays a significant role, including in sourcing the increasingly important sustainable materials that the designers and, of course, clients want. So, mark, welcome to Megayacht Newsradio.
Mark Boddington:Good morning, Diane. Thank you for asking me to be part of this podcast.
Diane M. Byrne:It's a pleasure to have you, so I always like to start with how people got in yawning, because there's usually a great story, and I know you've got a pretty interesting backstory, particularly with what your family has been involved in for many, many years. So why don't you share how your interest in design and how your interest in yachting both started?
Mark Boddington:well, thank you, I think. I think the first thing is, I mean, I, our family, I came from a seventh generation family. We had a brewing business in the UK making beer and for one reason or not, I didn't go into the business, although the business is not going anymore, but I think for me, in furniture making it was definitely a case of nature and nurture and an interest from a very young age. I mean, both my maternal and paternal great grandfathers, who were very successful businessmen, were patrons of the arts. On my mother's side he had the biggest collection of pre-raphaelite pictures of anyone in the world because he was a very successful banker, and my great-grandfather, great-grand great-grandfather. On my father's side he was a supporter of the arts and crafts movement and in fact, his house that he built on the back of being a successful businessman was a showcase for a guild called the new century guild, which was a guild set up in 1882 by artists who thought, post the industrial revolution, that craftsmanship and creativity was just would disappear. And he was a great supporter of this organization, this guild, so much so that when he died he was actually bankrupt because he spent so much money on commissioning all these artists and craftspeople to make things for this house. So it's from a young age also.
Mark Boddington:When I was young, my mother, who was she, was actually a teenager when Second World War broke out and she never went to school, she never learned to drive and she was a self-starter. I mean from a young age. She used to take me to most of the stately homes in England and I remember seeing the incredible furniture from the 18th century by people like Thomas Chippendale, furniture from the 18th century by people like Thomas Chippendale, thomas Sheraton, george Hepplewhite, and also incredible 3D carvings by a carver called Grinling Gibbons. I mean these carvings are so deep you can put your arm inside. They're very 3D and I think that sort of rubbed off.
Mark Boddington:You know the best of the past and through my mother's you know she was very creative. She was an incredible cook. If she, if she had opened a restaurant, it would have been a Michelin star. She made all her own upholstery, she restored her own furniture. We created a garden together. She was an amazing creative and I think that brushed off of me. So it's a combination of sort of in the genes and my upbringing, I guess. And I was fanatic at woodwork, you know, throughout my education and then, when I failed my exams to go and do land management at Reading University near London, my sister said why don't you follow your passion? And fortunately I was very lucky. That's what I did and 40 years later I'm still following my passion.
Diane M. Byrne:That's amazing that your sister helped encourage you too, because so many times you hear people not meaning to be negative but family members say well, you know, maybe you should try something else. They don't necessarily support the passion because they think that it's not going to be profitable for somebody. They think that you should be the doctor, the lawyer, the business person right. So it's really nice to hear that your sister not only recognized what you were good at but believed enough to say this is a viable business that you could create.
Mark Boddington:Yeah, I totally get that. I think my late father would have expected me at the time to go on to be an accountant, a lawyer. I totally get that. I think my late father would have expected me at the time to go on to be an accountant, a lawyer or run a business. But the great thing is actually in the job I do. I have to do all those things.
Mark Boddington:Running a business. You have to be a diplomat, you have to be an entrepreneur, you have to be creative, you have to be a diplomat, you have to be good with management and it's something that I've learned. You know. Now we've got to nearly 70 people wearing all those hats and all those disciplines as you grow a business, but also trying to keep the family spirit, like my former family business, but also keeping the creativity and not becoming too corporate. You know the world is. You know our world is all about personalization, being individual, collaborating with our clients. So we try and make it as sort of uncorporate as possible, but obviously, with the number of people we have, you have to have departments and you have to have discipline and structure and things.
Diane M. Byrne:Yeah, good point. It's always that balance right between letting the creativity fly and making sure that one-on-one is always adding up to two on those balance sheets, right, yeah? So then let's fast forward a couple of years after you established the company, to when you landed your first yacht project. What was it and what was the experience like?
Mark Boddington:well, I think, fortunately, our first introduction to the yachting world is with was with one of the greats, andrew winch, or winch design, who the company's now become.
Mark Boddington:And we were very fortunate because andrew was a great supporter of british craftsmanship and I think he he saw Silverlining from a very early age you know, because we worked together for over 35 years now of the talents we had and we actually got the first project because his head of design, or then head of design he worked with us on it, on a important land-based project with our first landlord, the Duke and Duchess of Westminster, eaton Hall. So we worked on that project and this, this gentleman called Matthew went to work for Andrew and they had a very prestigious project for an Asian royal family and they needed the furniture quite quickly. Matthew knew we were very reliable from previous projects, so it was a baptism of fire. I think we only had about 12 weeks to draw and make all the furniture. And the first thing that struck me I'd never been or seen a superyacht. You know, I'm not in. I'm not in that world of being wealthy enough to own my own superyacht, neither did my family.
Mark Boddington:And just the sheer scale. Now, this boat we were working on was 54 meters, which is considered quite small now, or 177 feet, I better say, for our american audience, and but it was just the sheer scale of this vessel. I couldn't believe it. I remember going to holland to go on this boat and I just couldn't believe it. My eyes were sort of popping out my head. So the scale.
Mark Boddington:It was also the discipline that yachting industry seems to have compared to the architectural world. You know, often houses building, they just don't get finished. But the discipline in the yachting world I think is phenomenal. You know yachts have to leave on a certain date. The planning and the discipline and how the teams work I think is much better organized and integrated compared to land-based projects, organized and integrated compared to land-based projects. So it was. It was when I call it a baptism of fire. It was like learning very fast that this industry is very different to the sort of building trade of never getting things finished. Fortunately we managed to do it all in the time and everyone was very happy. So that that was our first yacht and obviously it was a pleasure to work with Andrew, who's gone on to become one of the icons in the industry.
Diane M. Byrne:Definitely, absolutely. You know. It's interesting what you just said about how yachting has a discipline that is missing from land. Architecture, in terms of projects, absolutely positively, must be done by a certain date because there's a schedule the yacht needs to leave and undertake. I'm wondering what other differences there might be between designing for a yacht versus designing for a fine home. I know one of the things that your team takes into consideration is the light changing. You know, the reflection of light coming in from just sheer sun coming through a window, but also reflection of the water. That seems to be quite different compared to what would go on in a house. A house doesn't move, so the light is really only going to be west, east, etc.
Mark Boddington:Yeah, I mean it's a very good point. I mean, working for yachts, you know, is completely different. I mean, for us it's it's blurring the boundaries between sort of indoor elegance and stunning landscapes. And obviously the other thing for yachts you can have all seasons in a day. You know, you can have thermal shot from literal hailstones. Obviously yachts now a lot of them explorers they go to very cold parts of the world antarctica so the yacht environment is very challenging.
Mark Boddington:And the other thing that a lot of things that affected recently is yachts have become multi-generational. When we first started they were often for one family and now, particularly since covid, people want to spend more time with their families, so they're multi-generational. So you might have young grandchildren and you might have, you know, the, the older generation. So they need to be multi-generational. Uh, they're multi-functional as well. I mean you know what's a yacht for. It's to live, move, work, play, exercise, relaxing. So you've got to allow for all those changing emotions and moods.
Mark Boddington:We're finding that spaces. They might be a nightclub at night and they might be a workplace during the day. We just recently done a project where one table it can seat 38 people or it can become eight other tables, including card tables. We've got another project where it's a coffee table, then becomes a dining or breakfast table and then it rises again to become a standing desk. So it's interesting how people want different. You know all the flexibilities of everyday life in one space, you know.
Mark Boddington:But coming back to the light I mean light on boats is very challenging, as you say, the light levels can change literally by the hour and that's something that we've taken into into consideration for our designs how the light would reflect in terms of the level of finish, the textures on furniture, but also in terms of uv light fading materials, because obviously uv will fade, you know, any natural material. So it's actually selecting finishes and materials that actually get enhanced by the changes of light. And then in terms of the change of mood, we've done quite a number of pieces of furniture that are backlit, so during the day, as it becomes dark, they change their mood and color. So it's almost you've got two decorative finishes in one piece of furniture.
Diane M. Byrne:I like that. That sounds really beautiful. Actually, I was imagining, as you were describing everything, how the light would change and the mood would change, so I'm sure the clients really appreciate that. With something else, when it comes to yachting, I was wondering about if you could describe what a typical client meeting is like. I realize there's no such thing really as a typical client. Everybody is obviously very different, but I wonder if there isn't a common denominator in the sense that there are a lot of people who can see in their mind's eye what they want, but being able to actually describe that to somebody like you might be a challenge. So how do you basically extract that vision from their brain and make sure that you can interpret it in a visual way for them to see so that they say, yes, yes, that's exactly what I meant I think, and even the element of surprise too.
Diane M. Byrne:I'm sure you, you always want to give them the element of surprise. So how do you do all of that?
Mark Boddington:I think the first thing is to try, obviously, build that relationship and find out how, how they live, what are their interests and what's important to them. You know, for us it's about creating experiences and how it makes that client feel. So you know a sort of classic example. It wasn't on a yacht, but we had a client from china and he had obsession with with Formula One and cars. So a lot of the pieces that we designed for him had a you know, aesthetics taken from, you know, car design. We also use materials that that are used in his favorite cars. So I had to find a connection with something that he loved and and and his, his interests in his life. So it's how do we get a connection with with, with the person? How do we make that connection? You know what makes them tick for that piece of furniture, I mean.
Mark Boddington:Another example is we did a dressing table for a lady client and obviously how a dressing table set up, what it stores and where everything is, is very personal to a person. So we literally measured every cosmetic. We did a survey. In fact, the the stewardess on the yacht provided us a survey of every product that she'd used for the last five years and the quantities so we could design this dressing table all around her needs. It also had three sets, three different types of lighting on it, so we could change the lighting during the day and change it in the evening, so it wasn't harsh, you could change the temperature of the light. And I mean, just show you how successful is the clients gone on to commission two more of these for different properties in the world.
Mark Boddington:So it's it's. How do you? How do you make it work for them? What makes them tick? What sort of functional things? It's really important, even though aesthetics are important and materials and finishes, but you know it needs to work every day in an intuitive way for them. You know it's made for them and it's really important, I think, for us to have a storytelling element to every piece, and that's what I love. You know, when I hear clients or new clients come to me saying so and so was telling me about how they got involved making this, where the wood came from, the history of the word, and you know they become advocates for Silverlining and, and I think we've been really you know when people talk about us and how they love interaction with their piece of furniture, I know we've probably got the job right.
Diane M. Byrne:Done a good job. Yeah, that sounds great. One of the things, too, I know you are doing a lot of work with is sustainable materials, and just a moment ago you were talking about the importance of aesthetics and function. It's important to have furniture that looks beautiful, but particularly in the case of the example you gave with the vanity for the woman, you wanted to make sure that it suited all of her cosmetics properly. How does sustainability and how do sustainable materials come into that? On the one hand, I'm sure there are some materials that are quite striking, but then there has to be the ability to work with it properly and for it to be durable on board, especially in the environment that yachts operate in. So how do you examine it? How do you balance that? How do you test it?
Mark Boddington:well, I think for us, one of our processes is the material discovery chain. Uh, you know part of the process and that's unveiling the extraordinary and that that also needs to take into account. You know the client's view on sustainability and also a new thing that is really cropping up is well-being. It's not just sustainability, it's well-being. So, for example, a lot of products give off gases, things like toluene, formaldehyde and that's the new big thing in interiors and yachts is well-being as well as sustainability. But you know, we offer a vast array of new sustainable materials. We have we have our own dedicated r&d department that we've set up to look at new materials, how we can use materials in a different way, and another area that clients are looking for they want less maintenance. They they want less crew, they want longer periods of having to maintain and care for things. So, as well as sustainability, it's longevity and also well-being.
Mark Boddington:We're looking at materials like cork, which can be regenerated. We're looking at waste materials like clay repurposed clay, repurposed leather, using leather offcuts. We're looking at materials that derive from nature, from secondary industries, like leather made from mushroom mycelium, bamboo straw. We're looking at leathers made from palm leaves, all things like that. Recycled paper is a new material we're looking at leathers made from palm leaves, all things like that. Recycled paper is a new material we're looking at.
Mark Boddington:So it's how we can use everyday materials and turn them into the extraordinary. We have an expression called neo luxury and for us that's taking a very ordinary. So it may be taking like a very bland wood, like doug, which is very sustainable. It grows obviously all over North America and Europe and we treat that with salts, which is non-toxic, and make it go white so it looks like marble, because normally it's a sort of orange-yellow colour which isn't particularly nice. So we find new ways of how we can take sustainable materials and make them extraordinary, new ways of how we can take sustainable materials and make them extraordinary as well as discovering, you know, the whole world of interiors, be it car design, you know, is looking for these new materials that are kinder, you know, to the earth and and to the world it sounds like there's a lot of information sharing going on in in terms of the design world, you being able to see what the auto industry is doing.
Diane M. Byrne:Perhaps artisans in other industries are playing with materials and posting results, maybe on their own websites or some forum somewhere, so probably there's a huge advantage today in terms of being able to uncover new possibilities compared to 20 years ago.
Mark Boddington:Absolutely I mean obviously I don't know whether it's a benefit the World Wide Web or the fact we've got 24-7, you can communicate with anybody. You can WhatsApp someone too in the morning and send them a CV in seconds or endless pictures. There's probably got to be some advantages. But I think the thing with the internet now you can find the world expert in seconds. You can go to Instagram, you can go on the World Wide Web and become an expert in cork and find that it's light, that it's impermeable to liquids and gases, it's chemical resistant. So we can all become experts in seconds, which is probably a good thing but in some cases a bad thing.
Mark Boddington:But you talked about the car industry thing. But some some cases a bad thing. But you talked about the car industry. If you take leading brands like uh in the uk, bentley and rolls royce, they weren't doing bespoke interiors 20 years ago and you've probably just read the news. Rolls royce are just increasing their factory, I think by 25, just to cater for bespoke, the spoke side of their car industry. And we've actually had all the car people here McLaren, rolls-royce, bentley have been, because there's a lot of synergy between us.
Mark Boddington:You know, we're in the luxury business. We're in the business of creating iconic, long-lasting products and I think it's very healthy. You get that sort of cross-pollination, but we look at architecture, we look at engineering, we look at nature under the microscope. For example, there's two amazing books, one called pollen and one called seeds. I don't know if you've seen the books, but go and buy them on amazon and you'd look at the pictures, the colors and the structures of pollen and seeds under the microscope. They're unbelievable and you can see where people you know, architects like thomas heatherwick, zaha hadid gets their from.
Mark Boddington:Nature has most of the answers and unfortunately, man has been interfering and that's where we're going wrong. So if we can get closer to nature, so for us we actually study nature. We're trying to find a new, non-toxic, very durable natural finish and we've been studying the leaves of a particular palm, because when the water goes on it, there's no penetration. The water runs off and yet it absorbs on the underside. So, looking at cuticle waxes of plants, how can we take the technology that's literally in that plant skin and turn it into a finish in wood that isn't oil-based, so using petroleum products or any toxic chemicals, but something that's very durable and easy to maintain?
Diane M. Byrne:Interesting. I love that. To attract the upcoming generation and keep a steady flow of craftspeople and R&D department personnel in your company, tell us about how that program works and who are the type of people who are attracted to it.
Mark Boddington:I mean how it works. We're trying to create a platform to ensure that the skills are creative and the making skills are here tomorrow. And the other thing you know our owners or clients as pioneers. They actually want to invest in the arts and supporting them. You know it's part of their philanthropy. So it's really important that, collaboratively with the client, we support these skills. But also it's about making craftsmanship and creativity relative relevant to the 21st century.
Mark Boddington:You know, obviously, years ago people used chisels and hammers, but now we have 3d printers, we have lasers, we have robotic machines and I think also I'm a firm believer that as robotics and artificial intelligence takes over, I think niche industries like sculpture, art, furniture making, ai won't take them over, because for mass production, I think AI and robotics work. But how can you teach a computer to be as creative as a designer? They can draw with their hands. They can think. They can think about color. They can think about scale. They can draw with their hands. They can think. They can think about color, they can think about scale. They can think about proportion. So I think the creative industries will actually really grow and be a benefit of robotics and AI and the number of people in the industry. So we should support that.
Mark Boddington:But how do we do it? At Silverl ining, we actually go to the colleges and we support the colleges. We support people at school age. We have a lot of internships as well as our own training program. So for us, our internal training program is how do we make it relevant today? So what can you make furniture of today? Can you use carbon? Can you use GRP? Can you use repurposed materials? Can you use carbon? Can you use grp? Can you use repurposed materials? Can you use sustainable materials? How can you use technology and traditional hand skills and marry the two to make something you know relevant and define what 21st century craftsmanship is?
Diane M. Byrne:I like that explanation. That's perfect. Before we wrap up, I want to give you an opportunity to talk about something pretty exciting that you have coming up. I know you have a book coming out soon, so tell us about it, and when can people expect to see it and buy it?
Mark Boddington:Well, we're planning for it to be on the shelves in the late fall this year, so hopefully after Thanksgivinggiving for the americans. We've done four books over the years, but this year, this time, we thought we'd do something very different, something that would ask questions. So the book is all about why people come to Silver lining, both as employees but also as clients. It's 280, it's going to be about 280 pages. It's a large format book. It's made up of four sections. The first part part is an introduction of who we are in our journey of the last 40 years. The second part is going to showcase 18 collaborations with our pioneering clients.
Mark Boddington:It highlights and it and it, and it's almost the question the client asked can you make me a table that will fit 38 people? Can you make me a cabinet to you know my collection of snuff boxes or whatever it is. So what question did they ask? Why did they come to Silverl ining? And it's also that section is about the inspiration. But behind that, that commission, the materials, the story behind the design and the materials and the making and whole, whole journey from from inception to completion. And then the third part is to describe how we work and how we inspire clients and the final section, which we call infinite possibilities, is composed of innovative ideas and craftsmanship and sketches to actually spark imagination and to hopefully get clients or the reader to to to see what question they would ask as if they were imagining client or a real client. What question they would ask as if they were imagining a client or a real client. What question would they ask so it can be done and made for them.
Diane M. Byrne:I like it, food for thought. Well, we look forward to seeing the book and we look forward to seeing, of course, all the wonderful creations that will continue coming out of the studio. Mark, thank you so much for joining us today and talking about your company and helping inspire some more people to think big and dream about beautiful pieces they can have on board.
Mark Boddington:Thank you very much, Diane. Thank you.
Diane M. Byrne:Everybody. To learn more about what Mark and his team at Silverl ining can do for you, you can visit their website, which is silverliningfurniture. com. Until next time, I'm Diane Byrne.
