Cabinet Making
Information and Resources
UK Furniture Exhibitions
The V&A in South Kensington, London, has a superb furniture collection with examples from all eras, including a particularly good contemporary furniture collection. If you are interested in furniture design or just want to get some ideas for a piece of bespoke furniture that you want to commission, then it's well worth a visit.
Staying in London, the Geffrye Museum, in Shoreditch, has an excellent collection of furniture from 1600 to 1950's, in a series of period rooms which carefully re-create the interiors of the times.
In the Cotswolds, the Arts and Crafts Museum of Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum has a fine collection relating to the arts and crafts movement, which includes furniture, pottery, silver, metalwork, jewellery, textiles and embroideries.
For those in the North, the Bowes Museum, in Barnard Castle, County Durham, has a comprehensive collection of European furniture between 100 and 400 years old, displayed in fine period rooms.
Cabinet Making Training Courses
If you are considering training as a cabinet maker or furniture designer here are a few sites that may be of interest.
Rycotewood College has trained many UK cabinet makers - including myself. This college has now merged with two others to become Oxford & Cherwell College - which continues to run cabinet making and furniture design courses, though these courses do not seem as prominent a focus in the merged College.
Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College runs a wide range of furniture and design related courses, including a Furniture Studies HND, various degree level courses in furniture design and craftsmanship, including postgraduate courses such as an MA in Furniture Design and Technology.
Lincoln University offers a BA course in Furniture Design & Practice, the aim of which is "to produce contemporary furniture designer-makers of a high calibre", focussing on "the production of individual or small batch pieces, pre-dominantly in timber, that are innovative, stylistically identifiable and have a realistic relationship with modern society and the needs of its people."
Bruce Luckhurst runs courses to a very high standard in both Cabinet Making and Furniture Design, along with courses in Wood Finishing. He has a wealth of experience, including more than 20 years teaching cabinet making and related crafts.
David Savage, one of the UK's most inspirational furniture designers, runs 'atelier style' cabinet maker courses in North Devon. There is an excellent on-line brochure for these courses, if you want more information.
Books on Cabinet Making and Furniture Design
If you are looking for books on Cabinet Making and Furniture design, whether you intend to persue it as a hobby or a career, here are some recommendations. The links will take you to the relevant page in Amazon UK for that book.
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, is a long established teacher of woodworking who writes from a wealth of practical experience.Finding a Local Cabinet Maker
If you are looking for a cabinet maker to make some bespoke furniture for you, then you may prefer to find someone local. We're not looking to turn away commissions from North of the border - but realistically, because producing bespoke furniture involves consultation between craftsman and customer, finding a cabinet maker not too far away may well be preferable, so here are some tips to help you do that:
If you want to search in Google for nearby services then try searching for the thing you are looking for, along with your postcode (or part of your postcode) - e.g. furniture SW6. Google will return pages containing 'furniture' that also contain the postcode SW6. That's why you see our address at the bottom of every page! If you want to combine a phrase with a location, then it is best to enclose that phrase in quotation marks - e.g. "cabinet maker" SW6.
Local Directories can also be helpful in locating services near to you. These may be directories local to the UK which target a particular market sector (e.g. Homesources), or local to a particular area. Here are some examples:
UK Shopping
A directory of UK retailers, including clothing shops, home improvements, holidays, cars & insurance.
Business Seek .biz Business Directory
A categorized UK business directory and search engine.
Homesources
A UK directory for all things to do with renovating, decorating, designing and furnishing your home.
You should be able to find a local directory for your area by doing a search for 'mytown directory' in Google or any of the search engines.
Dimension Furniture, 10 Church Lane, Oxted, Surrey, RH8 9LH
Cabinet makers, bespoke furniture makers
Quality handmade furniture designed and built to requirement in the UK