One Day With Cox London

ONE DAY WITH | MASTERS & MUSES | WORLD OF CABANA 

"We are artists first and foremost." Chris Cox, who alongside his wife, Nicola, is the founder of Cox London – the art-forward atelier that crafts bespoke furniture and objects – shares the rhythms and rituals of their day. Chris explains why the pair are spending more time hidden away in their new studio, returning to artistry.

INTERVIEW BY BUSOLA EVANS | MASTERS & MUSES | 11 NOVEMBER 2025

Cox London founders Chris and Nicola Cox, pictured at their studio in North London. Image by Inge Clemente. 

Nicola is very good in the mornings. She is up at 6am and usually doesn’t need an alarm clock — I get up between 6-7am. We have lived in our home in Palmers Green, north London, for 15 years and our bedroom faces east so we wake up to the rising sun, which feels very zen. We used to roll out of bed at 8am and be at work by half eight but these days it takes a bit longer; you have to build a lot more self-care into your routine.

We have both committed to personal trainers. We either go to the gym or walk our dogs, Buddy and Jagger. I go to the gym twice a week while Nicola usually does three sessions. She is generally more disciplined and consistent than I am. 

We are chalk and cheese, but that's why we get on so well. It's how we've survived working and living together all this time. For breakfast, Nicola usually has a bowl of oats while I am more likely to have toast and coffee. If I'm more relaxed, it'll be at home and I'll walk out into the garden and feed the fish and tend to some plants.

We have always needed to merge with nature. It's a big influence in our work, and what brought us to the area. We looked for a beautiful park before the house. So we found Groveland Park – there's a lake, woodlands, open fields – where we walk every day.

The primary bedroom in Chris and Nicola's North London home, featuring their Polypore chandelier. Their living room is pictured top. Image by Inge Clemente.

We are both makers at the core. As a five year-old I remember learning stuff from my aunties, like cutting the dart out the end of a ribbon on Christmas presents. When I was six, I remember our landlady teaching me to make a whole ship with characters and masks out of folded paper. By the time I was seven or eight, there was no question I was going to art school and would end up working with my hands.

We met at Wimbledon School of Art in 1993, while studying sculpture. Nicola went on to join a bronze foundry and practiced lost wax casting and became a master of her craft. I went to work for an antique metalwork restorer for seven years, so our two skills have just collided again and again over the years.

Whatever medium an artist works in, they should never be without a studio. Our studio is on a former industrial site in Tottenham, and we have recently built ourselves a separate studio from the main Cox London studio. It has three offices, a kitchen, bathrooms and a big open space with five-meter high ceilings. It has an area with three welding benches, so we have all the trappings of a sculptor studio.

Cox London workshop, photographed by Alun Callender.

This is the studio we dreamed of, but never had in 25 years in business. Generally, Nicola and I are left to our own devices from Tuesdays to Thursdays. We have built a leadership team over the last couple of years, which has freed us to concentrate on the creative side of the business. We are artists first and foremost.

I like to make us both lunch, usually from whatever's in the fridge. So if there's some avocado, cucumber, feta, roast chicken from the weekend, I'll knock up a salad. I always make a dressing too. But if Nikki works from home, I can go astray and have an omelette from a place round the corner. Or not stop at all for lunch and be ravenous at 5pm and then go to the kitchen looking for a biscuit.

Cooking in the evening has gone downhill. So, Nikki recently signed up to a food delivery service called Planthood which is all plant-based food. So for dinner we could have something like tofu with a salad sauce and some green beans.

When I change into my plaster-covered clothes to sculpt, I challenge anybody to stop me until 8pm. But it is the happiest place. Our studio is like an experimental playground. I usually work to music. I choose a track on Spotify that suits the moment, like a Lou Reed Lullaby. We have a 15-year-old daughter, Olivia, who is at boarding school during the week so I think that makes me work longer hours.

Still from 'The Alchemists', a short film by Cox London, shot by Edward Rollitt and directed by Matthieu Livingston. 

Nicola likes to be in bed by 10pm, but I’m likely to wind down until midnight. We both enjoy movies. Our favorite recently is a film, David Lynch: The Art Life. It's a biography that really conjured a lot of feelings of him being a fine artist and a filmmaker. Without being too grandiose, I felt a great synergy with the way his art form was.

Coincidentally, we have just made a short film, The Alchemists. It is a look into our creative world, and a collaboration with the artist Edward Rollitt, directed by Matthieu Livingston. Ed came from the Royal College of Art so he has a fine artist approach to photography, filmmaking, and his own installation work. We attended his first exhibition last summer where he had beautiful, photographic works that really spoke to me and Nikki. We met Matthieu there also. He and Ed had known each other for years and had synergy in their creative lives so we decided to make the film together.

We wanted an artist's take on what we do. We decided to give Ed the reins because his aesthetic is so aligned with ours. It's a beautiful, grainy 16mm film that has clarity, but also a gauze of time over it, which gives a great atmosphere. We are so pleased with it.