Made in Britain: Sofa Workshop

Amira Hashish gives us the lowdown on the British handmade furniture makers
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Amira Hashish15 February 2016

Sofa Workshop first opened its doors at Maidstone, Kent in 1986 with the aim of giving home owners and renters ultimate design control whilst also producing custom-based options. This ethos is still true today.

All of the sofas are hand-crafted across multiple workshops in the UK, where skilled furniture makers use raw materials of beech wood and work with the same piece of furniture from start to finish, even signing their name on the frame once completed for a personal touch.

It takes four years to qualify as a British upholsterer and many have been 'on the bench' at Sofa Workshop since they left school, honing their skills. There is a good, old-fashioned hands-on approach so no hi-tech robots or production lines are seen on site. On request tours of the workshops can be arranged for visitors to really get a feel for the attention to detail that goes into making each piece of furniture.

In addition to a useful website there are now 20 stores across the country, from Bristol to Glasgow, where advisors are at hand to discuss requirements. With more than 1000 fabric options and over 56 designs that are customisable, there is plenty to chat about.

Whether the alterations are as simple as making a sofa a few centimetres wider than standard or changing the seat filling from feather to fibre, or going one-step further to changing leg colours, heights, depths and installing a bed in the frame the bespoke nature means all sofas can be adapted.

As Sofa Workshop has grown so has its reputation and it has an impressive list of fabric collaborations on its books including Sanderson and Christian Lacroix. This year projects with Liberty Fabrics and Moon have been lined up. Every fabric has a 'rub-test', which means it is rubbed by a little machine thousands of times to see how long it lasts, a practice developed in WWII to test parachute fabric. Unless it hits a certain number it is not deemed suitable for upholstery. Sofa fabrics should be as long-lasting and hard-wearing as possible so this is an important part of meeting UK standards.

Attention to detail: a Sofa Workshop maker at work

Investing in these customisable pieces won’t break the bank with many of the sofa prices at the more affordable end of the market. A great example of good value British design.

Follow Amira on Twitter @amiranews

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