A small workshop in France.
We make wooden dining tables. Three of us, fifteen a year, one piece of timber per table. We work from a workshop on the continent and deliver across the UK. This page is a short note about who we are and why we ended up where we did.
The three of us.
We're a small team — three of us, working slowly. The atelier was set up after a decade of cabinetmaking in north London; we've since moved to a workshop in France, and have been making tables under the L'Atelier Mata name since the early 2010s. Between us, we've put hands on every table that has left the workshop.
We started Mata because we wanted to make a smaller number of better tables. Most furniture is made out of pieces of wood that have been chopped up and stuck back together. Ours aren't.
Where the wood is.
We're based in France, on the continent — close to Europe's finest sawmills. We choose every slab in person, by eye. Walnut, oak, elm, sycamore, the occasional rarer species. The workshop is quiet, well-lit, and full of clamps. Visitors welcome — if you're commissioning a piece, you're welcome to come and see your table being made before it leaves.
We deliver across the UK regularly, and answer in English by email or phone.
From Europe's finest sawmills.
We choose every slab in person, by eye — never from a catalogue. Most of our timber comes from within a day's drive of the workshop, and FSC- or PEFC-certified wherever possible.
Mortise, tenon, dovetail.
Cut by hand, glued with hide glue, oiled — never lacquered. Our joinery carries a lifetime guarantee.
We come back.
Every table we make gets a free re-oil, re-level and check-over after twelve months. Most don't need anything; we come anyway.
Visits, commissions, the rest.
We're always happy to hear from people. Send us a note and we'll write back, usually within a day.
Send a note