Kitchens – Go Bespoke!
Coming in 2012 will be a brand new section of the website entirely devoted to Kitchens. However this isn’t a new thing for us at the workshop, we’ve been quietly producing bespoke, hand-crafted Kitchens for quite some time.
Here’s a taster along with 12 reasons to ‘Go Bespoke’ with your Kitchen project: Continue reading
Country Cottage Kitchen
Here is a recently finished Bespoke Kitchen. Crafted in the workshop and a one day, two man install. Just needs some handles and appliances and it’s all good to go!
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DETAILS… Continue reading
Meter boxing to match
Here is an example of a meter cabinet that was completed today. It a common problem and not the first to be tackled. Quite often consumer units are installed right next to the front door, especially in a 1930′s semi. The original ones were too small to handle today’s needs (electric meters, earth bonding, RCD switched consumer units, gas meters etc.) and because of this they often got damaged or removed when updates were made.
So what do you do? Stick a console table over the top?
Well you could… or you could have a practical bespoke solution to compliment the period of the property and conceal the whole mess.
Lambs tongue skirting to match existing. This is set lower to allow for maximum access of the cabinet during electrical maintenance.
Keeping the skills alive
The World Skills competition is a bi-annual event where competitors aged between 16-21, from 58 countries compete at the highest level in their respective vocation. The 2011 event was held in London at the ExCel Centre (5-8 October). On show were skills to include: Hair Dressing, Stone Masonry, Floristry, Bricklaying, Aircraft Maintenance, Confectionary, Cabinet Making, Welding, Electronics…a list of 4o plus disciplines! The techniques and levels of accuracy demonstrated by these young people were astounding, especially considering the intense pressure that they are under. In most cases competitor abilities are more advanced than their more senior practitioners in the trade. Not forgetting they are already champions in their home countries!
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I’ve managed to grab a few shots from the event however it was hard to do justice to the huge exhibition space buzzing with activity. Competitors are generally performing the same tasks quite often using different practices and equipment to achieve the same results (which I found fascinating!). It’s great to see some of the more traditional practices such as Stone Masonry and Carpentry holding their own and demonstrating their relevance to more modern practices such as Mechatronics and IT Software Design. I can highly recommend this event, however it’ll be a few years before it returns to London. If you do ever find yourself in a host nation whilst it’s on be sure to drop in, it’s usually free and well worth the time to visit!
Alcove Furniture WIP (Install)
Cont’d as part of Week 3 … The cabinetry is transported and fitted over two days.
Day One (left alcove) 
The left alcove is prepared. Wall batterns are levelled and fixed to height to support the media cabinet top and upper book casing.
Alcove Furniture WIP (Week 3)
Cont’d from Week 1 and Week 2 …
The last part of the workshop process is the finishing. It is very important to put the preparation in before applying the finish. This involves scraping off excess glue, sanding out any saw marks, pencil lines, scratches and steaming out any knocks before keying or prepping the surfaces through the sand paper grits to a 180/240 grit finish.
Here we can be seen the MDF face frame components and the two beech frames (behind) being prepped. I like to apply two coats of WB (water based) acrylic primer one after the other and allow to dry overnight so the MDF edges go nice and hard. The primer is knocked back flat with 240 grit on the faces and 180 grit on the MDF cut edges. I am often asked how best to seal the MDF edges. The important thing is to harden them off so that when rubbed back you stop that perpetual fluffing or flowering of the surface. There are many ways to do this… wallpaper boarder adhesive, PVA, shellac sanding sealer, polyurethane varnish, acrylic varnish, wood stopping fillers… It’s all about binding those fibers so you can knock off the nibs (denib) to leave a smooth edge. Continue reading
Alcove Furniture WIP (Week 2)
Cont’d from Week 1…
Once cleaned up the Beech doors are hung and the rebates are measured for the toughened 4mm glass and ordered along with the 6mm toughened, polished edge shelves. These will take a few days to be manufactured and BS stamped at the glass factory.
With the doors in place the locks are marked out and fitted.
Alcove Furniture WIP (Week 1)
This post is going to follow the WIP (work in progress) of a built-in alcove project from the drawings to installation and completion.
Once reaching stage three of the Commissioning Process I can place an order for the timber, sheet stock, hardware and finishing materials. First to arrive is the sheet stock. 4 Oak veneered and 4 MDf standard. Continue reading
Plantation shutters
This was a venture into the unknown, a challenging but great learning experience. A client got in touch to ask about making some custom 2/3 height plantation shutters to fit a splayed bay.
We looked into various timber options and decided as the shutters were to be internal and paint finished that Poplar/Tulip wood could be an ideal candidate. It’s not necessary the most attractive timber as it has little figure and tends to vary from yellow-grey-green where heartwood meets sapwood. However its stability, price, machine ability and paint finish quality made it the perfect choice 
