Commissioning a table.
We make fifteen tables a year, one at a time, from a single piece of timber. Most are commissioned to order. Here's how it goes.
We start with a phone call.
Tell us about the room, the proportions you're working with, who'll sit around it. Most of our commissions get refined over two or three calls before any drawings are made. There's no charge for this part — it usually takes a fortnight.
We choose a tree.
Once the size and feel are agreed, we go and look at slabs in person — at one of a handful of saw-mills across France, Italy, Belgium and Germany that we know well. We send back photographs and weights, and you choose. Walnut, European oak, elm, sycamore. Occasionally something rarer.
The base.
The top is dictated by the slab. The base is up to you. We have three standard bases — a steel trestle, an oak pedestal, and a hand-forged pair of legs from a blacksmith in Norfolk — but most of our commissions are bespoke. We send drawings, you mark them up, we revise.
Twelve to sixteen weeks.
The slab goes to the kiln, then to the workshop. Three of us work it by hand. We send a photograph every Monday morning — the cut, the planing, the first oil, the underside. By the end you'll have seen the table forty times over before it arrives.
We bring it ourselves.
We don't use couriers. The two of us drive it to you, carry it in, level it, oil any travel marks, show you how to look after it, and have a cup of tea. UK deliveries are included; Europe is at cost.
What it costs.
Every commission is priced individually because every slab is different. As a rough guide:
- Standard commission
- From £12,000
- Typical commission
- £18,000–£35,000
- Larger or rarer
- £45,000+
Six- to eight-seater. Native UK timber. Standard base.
Eight- to twelve-seater. Bespoke base. Choice of timber.
Three-metre-plus slabs, rare species, or unusual bases.
A 30% deposit secures a slot in the workshop schedule. The balance is split — 40% on completion of the top, 30% on delivery. Prices include UK delivery, oil and care kit, and a lifetime guarantee on the joinery.
Send us a note.
If you've got a commission in mind, or if you just want to come and see the workshop, send us a note and we'll find a time.