From sourcing Appalachian timbers to firefly-hunting, the Everett family explain why their very English kitchens business actually has deep and personal American roots...
Story by Andrew Nixon
Naked Kitchens is an example of the very best kind of Anglo-American relations. Based in Norfolk in the east of England, the brand has an ever-growing presence in the USA, with more and more American clients choosing to buy British and take advantage of the increasingly convenient shipping and customer service.
And for Jamie, Jayne and Alex Everett – the family team behind the brand – nothing could be more natural than working in the States. In fact, the story of Naked Kitchens is rooted in their American connections: the people, the craftsmanship and the timber.
From idyllic vacations with Ohio’s Amish community to unlucky baseball accidents, the Everetts sat down to share their favourite stories of hopping across the Pond…
“I love doing kitchen projects in the USA,” says Alex Everett, Naked Kitchens’ CEO. “Our American clients seriously appreciate quality and craftsmanship. And I just enjoy anything to do with the States because I spent so much of my childhood there.”
“Well, without our connection to the US, Naked Kitchens wouldn’t exist at all,” adds Jamie. “It was through working with American timber merchants that we got into making solid kitchen furniture in the first place.”
The story begins back in 2005, when Jamie and Jayne visited another family business: Walnut Creek Planing of Millersburg, Ohio. At the time the Everetts were selling furniture made of Appalachian timber (“The best walnut and oak in the world,” says Jamie) but, unimpressed by the manufacturing options available in places like China, they began looking for the right people who could make worktops and tabletops to their specification, while matching their ethos and delivering real quality.
Those people turned out to be the Kratzers of Walnut Creek. “We’ve never had an official contract with the Kratzers,” says Jamie. “We looked each other in the eye, shook hands and there was immediately complete trust on both sides. And all these years later we still don’t have a paper contract: we all just do exactly what we say we’re going to do. It just works really, really nicely.”
Having found the right American partners, the Everetts doubled down with them when the financial crash came in 2008. Until then, they had been buying finished Appalachian timber from large merchants and sending it to Walnut Creek. But now the Everetts took the opportunity to purchase a huge quantity that was still in an unfinished condition known as ‘green’. The Krazters took on the responsibility of air-drying and storing it – a new process for them – meaning the two family businesses were effectively vertically integrated. “At one point we had over $1million of timber tied up with Walnut Creek, so there had to be complete trust,” notes Jamie.
Such a commitment meant regular visits from the UK to Ohio to oversee production – but the close-knit Everetts had a happy habit of combining business trips with family vacations, and Jayne and Jamie would often fly over with their three children in tow.
“I first went over when I was seven years old,” recalls Alex. “I would come into the factory and hang out in the mess room with the guys and make Airfix aeroplane models. I also remember when Dad threw a baseball at me and broke my nose…”
That incident has gone down in Everett lore, though there is still some dispute over whose fault it was. “It was a perfectly good throw!” insists Jamie, with his tongue firmly in his cheek. “You just didn’t raise your hand up quickly enough to catch it. Probably you hadn’t got used to the weight of a baseball mitt yet…”
Another visit to the States involved hiking in the spectacular Allegheny National Forest in Pennsylvania – a trip the whole family remembers as idyllic, surrounded by some of the finest oak trees in the world. Ten years later, Jamie ordered a batch of oak planks from exactly the place – and turned them into the stunning timber floor of the Georgian Hall kitchen.
But most exciting for the Everett children were the vacations with the Amish community of Ohio. The connection came about through Jayne and Jamie’s obsessive interest in sourcing all things wooden and beautiful, which saw them getting introductions to local craftsmen.
“We were always looking out for really well-made, gorgeous things,” says Jayne. “Especially unusual items that you can’t get in the UK. For example, we had forty professional maple baseball bats made for us, all hand-turned by a specialist who used to make them to order for the MLB.”
The most important introductions were to the Amish and Mennonite communities in and around Mt Hope, Ohio - especially Andrew and Ernie of Homestead Furniture and Design Center, and Mervin Miller, a little way up the road. “It started with beautiful mission stools, then chairs and tables,” explains Jayne. “We would fax our designs to Homestead and they would make them and then ship them over along with all the Ohio timber. Customers absolutely loved them: the mission stools would sell out the moment we put them on our website and we always had a waiting list for the next batch.”
The Amish are famous for their exceptional craftsmanship and the elegant simplicity of their furniture – a perfect match for the Naked Kitchens ethos. But working with people who avoid using computers and email is a challenge. The only way to do business with the Amish community is to visit in person. Luckily, that was very much a treat for the family, as young Alex and his siblings Georgia and Horatio wholeheartedly embraced the Amish way of life.
“The Amish families would come to meet us bearing the outfits and hats they’d made specially for the children,” Jayne recalls. “They were wonderful, generous people. The kids would stay with them and they loved it. I remember driving along and overtaking this horse-drawn buggy with a lot of lovely Amish kids waving at us – and I suddenly spotted that our daughter was one of them!
“There would be huge barbecues with a hundred people, and all the youngsters would play hopscotch and softball or volleyball, and they’d run around catching fireflies in jars. No devices in sight! It was a magical time.”
For Alex, those childhood vacations were the start of a lifelong love of the USA and he’s still constantly going back and forth, not just to Ohio but to LA, San Francisco, Boston and more, on business or for pleasure.
And for Jamie in particular the journey over the Atlantic is a positive joy. A former RAF pilot with a keen interest in flying, he recently bought a Cirrus SR22 plane in South Carolina and flew it home solo on a five day adventure via New York, Nantucket, Goose Bay, Greenland and Iceland.
That plane is now sitting in Norfolk, England, ready when needed for another transatlantic flight. And for a family with such a deep love and personal connection to the USA as the Everetts – plus an ever-growing American customer base for Naked Kitchens – it’s fitting that hopping across the Pond has never been so easy.
Whether you're in the UK, the US or anywhere else, the Naked Kitchens team would love to help make your dream kitchen a reality. Get in touch with us today.
See also:
From our place to yours – an interview with the Everett family
Sustainable kitchens: What makes an environmentally-friendly kitchen?
