Made to belong

Bespoke furniture and joinery in Oxfordshire, created for the Gresford family home and continued for its next owners.

Our relationship with The Old Orchard began when we were commissioned by Gresford Architects to create a large bespoke fitted dressing room for their own family home, as part of its extensive refurbishment and redesign.

Made in our Oxfordshire workshop, the cabinetry combines FENIX with Garnica maple plywood, finished with solid English oak trims and handles. The natural timber brings warmth and tactility to the clean architectural lines of the interior, while the materials were selected with durability and longevity in mind.

When the house was later sold, the new owners asked to be put in touch with us so that we could continue designing and making bespoke fitted furniture for their new home.

For the principal bedroom, we designed and made an extensive run of bespoke wardrobes and a fitted chest of drawers. The clients already owned walnut furniture that they wanted to keep, so we introduced solid English walnut trims and handles into the new cabinetry, creating a relationship between what was already there and what we were adding. FENIX and Garnica maple plywood provide a clean, durable backdrop to the warmth and natural variation of the walnut.

Downstairs, we created fitted bookcases in crown oak poplar plywood with solid English brown oak trims. Poplar is a fast-growing timber, providing a resource-efficient core, while the oak veneer and UK-sourced solid timber detailing bring the warmth, character and tactility of natural wood into the living space.

Provenance and legacy

For the dining room, we created a one-off bespoke dining table from London plane felled in Kensington Palace Gardens — timber with a known place, history and story.

For us, provenance matters. Knowing where a material has come from creates a connection between the finished piece and the place that provided it. Rather than the life of this tree ending when it was felled, its timber has become something that can be lived with, cared for and passed on.

We retained the distinctive grain, markings and natural variation of the London plane, allowing the character of the tree to remain visible in the finished table. Made to gather around every day and to last for generations, it carries the story of one place into the life of another.

Across The Old Orchard, our approach to sustainable furniture and joinery was to work thoughtfully with what was already there — the architecture, the clients’ existing furniture and materials with their own history and character — while choosing new materials for durability, performance and longevity.

Designed and made in Oxfordshire, the result is furniture created not simply to fill a space, but to belong to the house, support the lives lived within it and remain part of its story for years to come.

Photographer: Jonathan Bond

Architect: Gresfords