Step Inside the CROOKS Showroom, Designer Goods Studio at The Old Mushroom Farm

The Old Mushroom Farm
Sep 19
4 min read

CROOKS is a design studio and fabricator set on creating artefacts with meaning— we are here to share the story behind the CROOKS GOODS brand, and the family name. From encaustic tiles and steel cabinetry to fireplaces, braais, and concrete sinks, every piece is 100% South African, designed by Nick Crooks, and crafted on-site at The Old Mushroom Farm, Howick. Visit the CROOKS showroom in Tunnel 6.

Crooks, a design studio and a family name

The Crooks family, designers, artists, illustrators, makers. — A portion of the Crooks family, pictured from left to right: Morgan, Benjamin (holding BMO), Philippa, Nicholas, Grace, and Miranda.

A defiant curiosity resulting in a tendency to create is the Crooks inheritance, passed down through hands that have drawn, dug, stitched, built, and designed. CROOKS is not a singular story but a collective one, woven through generations. In this way, the CROOKS design studio is not new. It is a re-emergence of traits, a continuation of something long written into the Crooks family lineage.

Above left, Nick’s father Fred as a boy. Above right, Nick’s mother Linda as a young woman.

The name belongs to Nick Crooks, the driving force behind The Old Mushroom Farm. It also belongs to his father, Frederik, an architect and his mother, Linda, a clothing designer, and his maternal grandmother, Grace Huxtable, an illustrator. It extends to the family that surrounds him now, all with creative projects of their own.

The act of making runs across the palms of the Crooks’ like a lifeline, and CROOKS artisanal goods are a continuation of this legacy.

Honouring transparency and accountability

West Street Table CROOKS GOODS, designer furniture The Old Mushroom Farm, Howick — A CROOKS classic, fit for a feast. The West Street Table is a sleek eight-seater design with elegant Art Deco detailing: steel legs and frame with lipped wooden top.

So, when did artefacts become stuff?

Perhaps it happened when we lost sight of how things are made—when the hands behind our everyday objects were hidden behind production lines in faceless factories.

Made With intention at The Old Mushroom Farm

An Ode to the Artisan

It’s easy to forget, in the scale and pace of modern life, that everything we hold has a story— its origins in materials grown and harvested, shaped by hands and tools, through processes refined over generations. At The Old Mushroom Farm, we believe there is a potency in knowing who has produced your goods or prepared your food. A richness to appreciation there that goes beyond the quality of the item, extending to an acknowledgement of the personhood of the maker and the materials themselves.

Function + Form

Rooted in functionality and propelled by a drive to bring ideas into tangible form, CROOKS crafts objects that are both aesthetically pleasing and enduring.

Frustrated by the mass-produced, short-lived alternatives available, Nick set to work making things himself. First, for his buildings at The Old Mushroom Farm, with custom window frames, roof trusses, and structural elements that enhanced the spaces he is bringing back to life. Then, for their interiors, with encaustic tiles, fireplaces, furniture, and light fittings that integrate function and form. The result is the CROOKS design studio and manufacturing team, where every artefact is built to last, to perform with ease, and to elevate the space it inhabits.

Ideas Commons

Crooks credits no grand act of originality.

According to Nick, everything he designs has its reference in the world. Nick's talent lies in picking out the appropriate references for the context, in manifesting his ideas, and in creating the conditions for others to do the same.

The Old Mushroom Farm itself is a testament to this ethos— a collection of repurposed agricultural buildings, enhanced and reimagined to house industrious artisans. He has carved out a space where makers can run with their own good enterprise ideas, where work and craft are not solitary but part of a larger ecosystem. Where craftsmanship thrives in dialogue, shaped by the interplay of skill, inspiration, and shared space.

Valuing handmade artistry at The Old Mushroom Farm

CROOKS, feeding from and feeding into The Old Mushroom Farm’s ethos, is not a disembodied, anonymous machine of mass production. In the CROOKS workshop you’ll find practised hands- artisans work under Nick’s guidance, shape the objects that are part of a bigger vision.

Entering the CROOKS workshop on any given day, you'll come across steel cabinet frames being welded, the encaustic tile press slowly compressing one tile at a time, concrete sinks being cast, and freshly varnished table tops waiting to dry.

We invite you to bear witness to CROOKS products in the making at The Old Mushroom Farm

To visit the Fabriek, walk beyond the office buildings, turning left before you reach the Boutique Apartments. There you’ll find CROOKS in motion. Please approach sensibly, Fabriek is abustle with heavy tools, shaping honest material into functional forms.

Uninterested in consumer trends, Nick’s design sensibility comes across as intuitive, actualising in the timeless Crooks aesthetic that seems to have rubbed off on him

from his parents, grandparents and contemporaries. Influenced by lineage and by the world’s imprint, CROOKS exists within a much broader story, and continues to unfold in objects that will outlast the moment, finding their place in the homes, hands, and histories of those who carry them forward.