Design studio Afroditi ‘weaved a story based on wood’ for London restaurant Humo, bringing in multiple kinds of timber to clad its rustic interior.

The focus of the restaurant’s design is its four-metre-long grill, which uses wood instead of electricity or gas. Different species are used to impart different flavours, with Humo saying timber comes from sustainable sources.

Afroditi reflects this in its interior design, which it describes as ‘single-minded in its approach and based on the myriad of guises that timber can take’. Walls and floors are covered in wood, from the ‘jigsaw’ floor to the restaurant wall that showcases all the types used to cook at Humo.

Other materials speak to the wood-fired dishes, with dark stains and rough-cut stones chosen to evoke ash and fire. The studio hasn’t revealed exactly how it’s achieved this, but the smell of wet forest and moss permeates the restaurant as a backdrop to the ‘live flames’.

Humo’s menu offers flame-grilled seafood – cooked using whiskey barrel wood – as well as smoked vegetables and raw, aged fish.

12 St George St, London W1S 2FB, United Kingdom

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