Made For The Room

An individual piece should answer a practical need while belonging naturally within its setting.

We make period furniture to order in our Somerset workshop: refectory and dining tables, beds and bedroom furniture, court cupboards, chests and dressers, chairs and smaller pieces. Each begins with its purpose and position in the room, then develops through proportion, appropriate period references and the level of detail suited to the house.

Oak refectory table with a simple channel moulding, set with chairs in a panelled room

Tables

Refectory and Dining Tables

A dining table has to seat people comfortably before anything else, so its length, width and the position of the legs and stretchers are set around the number of chairs it needs to take. Refectory tables with stretcher bases suit long rooms and halls, and their tops can be left plain or given a simple channel moulding.

Smaller side and occasional tables follow the same approach, with turned legs and carved friezes used where the room calls for more detail.

Long oak refectory table with a stretcher base

Oak side table with turned legs and a carved frieze

Oak four-poster bed with a carved tester and inlaid headboard, made as a replica of the Corbet bed

Bedroom

Beds and Bedroom Furniture

A bed needs to sit convincingly within the room, whether it has a half-height panelled headboard or a fully carved one. Bedside cabinets, chests and wardrobes can be made alongside it, sharing the same mouldings, timber and finish.

Our oak replica of the Corbet bed, a late-Elizabethan bed of 1593 in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, has a carved tester and arcaded headboard panels inlaid with bog oak, sycamore and holly.

At Woodside House, we made a carved mahogany bed, bedside cabinets and a breakfront wardrobe for a Georgian bedroom, developed from references the client supplied.

Pair of oak bedside cabinets with carved panels

Carved oak court cupboard within a panelled room

Cupboards And Chests

Court Cupboards, Chests and Dressers

Court cupboards, chests and dressers often carry the most carved detail in a room: panelled doors, turned columns, carved friezes and linenfold panels. The carving is done by hand in our workshop and planned with the proportions of the piece, so that the decoration supports the form rather than covering it.

Plainer pieces, such as dressers and corner cupboards, rely instead on well-judged mouldings and the figure of the timber.

Oak cupboard with linenfold panelled doors

How Each Piece Is Made

Purpose, Proportion And Construction

Whether the commission is a lectern, a chair or a full set of bedroom furniture, three connected decisions shape it.

Purpose

The intended use establishes dimensions, access, storage and the practical requirements that the piece must answer.

Proportion & Detail

Scale and decorative treatment are judged in relation to the room and any historic or architectural references supplied with the brief.

Oak, Joints & Finish

Oak is our standard timber. Each piece is built with traditional joints such as mortice and tenon, then finished in our workshop using the same staining, patination and hand-polishing methods as our joinery.

Commissioning A Piece

The most useful starting point is a clear account of the room, the purpose of the piece and the references that matter to you.

Photographs and approximate room dimensions help establish scale, while examples of existing furniture or architectural details can clarify the intended character. From there, the brief can be developed through drawings, material choices and finish samples before making begins.

Period Furniture

Refectory and Dining Tables

Beds and Bedroom Furniture

Court Cupboards, Chests and Dressers