PRODUCTS: Living Brass @ ABI Interiors
Living brass is an unlacquered, raw brass that brings warmth to a space, and creates a warm, luxury feel. The brass is free to react with its environment, developing a unique, antique patina over time. As it has no protective coat, there is nothing to flake off or chip in highly trafficked areas, and maintenance of the finish is simple. Of course, this high-end, classic finish comes usually comes with a hefty price tag to match.
However, Greenway Associates recently came across new-to-the-UK brand - ABI Interiors - who is bringing quality living brass products to the UK market, that perform well, without breaking the budget! Their secret? All their products are designed in Australia, and manufactured in their ISO 9001-certified facility in Guangzhou, China, that consists of over 60 staff members. And their products are not just ‘QS-friendly’, they are ‘designer-friendly’ too - with BIM files available for every product in their BIM library.
We visited their new showroom during Clerkenwell Design Week, and spoke with their Marketing Director, Jordy Woolley about the company and their growing presence within the hospitality sector.
Products from ABI Interiors on display in a suitably sandy Australian backdrop!
Top Right - ABI Interiors Marketing Director, Jordy Woolley, enjoying the showroom opening during Clerkenwell Design Week.
GA: We’ve noticed designers increasingly favour materials that develop character over time. It feels like ‘living brass’ is having a real moment in hospitality and interior design. Why do you think this finish is resonating so strongly right now?
Jordy: I think there's been a real shift in how designers and their clients relate to materiality. For a long time, the conversation was dominated by cool, clean finishes: chrome, brushed nickel and that very controlled, precise aesthetic. What we're seeing now is a genuine appetite for warmth and for surfaces that feel geared towards real life rather than ultra-manufactured.
Our “tumbled aged brass” finish speaks to that directly. It has an inherent story to it, a quality that you simply can't fake. In hospitality especially, where every surface is a touchpoint in the guest experience, it carries weight.
GA: As this kind of brass is designed age over time, it has an added benefit for hospitality front of house spaces, where maintenance can be an exhaustive process. How intentional is that ageing process in your product development?
Jordy: Completely intentional, and that's actually one of the things that distinguishes how we think about this finish from how it's sometimes approached elsewhere in the market.
When we develop a tumbled aged brass product, we're not just thinking about how it looks on day one. We're thinking about its trajectory: how it will deepen, how the high points will wear differently to the recesses, and how the overall character will build over months and years of use. That informs decisions at every stage, from the initial composition through to the depth of the tumbling process.
We actively involve our manufacturing partners in extended material testing because we want to be confident that the ageing that happens in-situ, is the ageing we intended. A finish that develops beautifully over time is a product that earns loyalty; it becomes more personal to the space it's in.
Tumble aged brass is designed to patina over time
GA: Across the market, unlacquered and aged brass products are often significantly more expensive. What drives that difference, and how does ABI approach accessibility without compromising quality?
Jordy: Our position has always been that exceptional design shouldn't be the exclusive territory of ultra-premium budgets. The way we approach that is through scale and an uncompromising relationship with our manufacturing team, working in volume without ever compromising the integrity of the process.
We're not cutting corners on materials or finish quality. What we're doing is making sure that the value we build in at production translates directly to the customer, rather than being absorbed elsewhere in the chain. The result, we believe, is a product that genuinely competes with anything at a significantly higher price point.
GA: As an Australian brand building presence in the UK, how has that transition been so far?
Jordy: The UK market, and London in particular, is incredibly sophisticated. The design community here has strong relationships with the brands and suppliers they trust, and earning a place in that ecosystem takes genuine commitment, not just a good product catalogue.
What's surprised us, in a positive sense, is how receptive the trade has been once they engage with the product directly. There's a quality of conversation here that we really value: designers and specifiers who want to understand the story behind a finish and the reasoning behind a design decision. That aligns closely with how we think about what we make.
The Australian design sensibility, which tends towards a certain precision and restraint, combined with a genuine appreciation for natural materials, translates well here. We've found more common ground than we perhaps expected.
GA: With the new Clerkenwell showroom now open, what role do you see it playing in the UK market?
Jordy: It's the physical heart of what we're trying to build here. We've always believed that for a product with this level of materiality, finishes that reward close inspection, hardware that needs to be held and felt, the experience of encountering it in person is irreplaceable.
Clerkenwell made sense not just because of its geography within the design district, but because of the community that exists here. Architects, interior designers, specifiers, hoteliers - this is where those conversations happen. We wanted to be genuinely embedded in that, not just present.
The showroom was designed in partnership with Conran & Partners, and that collaboration was important to us precisely because it wasn't just about creating a backdrop for product. It was about designing a space that reflects the same values we bring to everything we make: considered, precise, warm. A space where the design community can come and have real conversations, not just browse a catalogue on a shelf.
That's the role we see it playing: not a transactional space, but a destination.
LG level at ABI Interiors’ new Clerkenwell showroom
GA: If you had to choose one product or finish that best represents ABI Interiors right now, what would it be and why?
Jordy: If one product captures where ABI Interiors is right now, it's the Milani Swivel Hob Mixer Set. It embodies everything we stand for: restraint, precision and a quiet confidence in form. There's a temptation in design to over-elaborate, to add detail for the sake of it. The Milani resists that entirely. Every element of it has been considered and then, more importantly, edited. What you're left with is something that feels inevitable, as if it couldn't have been designed any other way.
The swivel function is a good example of that thinking. It's not a feature we added to be clever. It solves a real problem in how people use their kitchen space, and it does so without any visual noise. You don't see the engineering, you just experience the result. That balance between function and form, between problem-solving and beauty, is what we're always chasing at ABI Interiors. For me, that's what makes it the most honest expression of the brand at this moment.
View the entire Tumble Aged Brass range online, or visit their showroom in Chelsea Harbour, or their new showroom at 250-252 Goswell Road in Clerkenwell, London.