Banquette

Banquette

Emma-Jane and Graeme from Leeds contacted me to see if I would be interested in making a banquette for their kitchen. To be quite honest, I did not know what a banquette was. After an initial meeting I discovered it is seating that runs along a wall, similar to some restaurant and pub seating. I agreed to make the frame and appoint an upholsterer to take care of the upholstery.

 

Due to the Upholsterer taking on the refurbishment of a student university bar there was an initial delay of 4 weeks but eventually they did a really nice job. The banquette was upholstered in Camira’s Intervene fabric a hard wearing fabric and from what I could gather a difficult fabric to work.

On the day of installation I hired a friend for the morning and upon arrival we realised it was going to be a bit of an obstacle course. We negotiated the cars parked on the drive, the backyard gate, up the steps of the back door and then finally through the back door. We positioned the banquette in the kitchen and that’s when I felt my back go! I spent the next hour and a half flat on my back on the lawn. I had a conversation with E-J about the position of the banquette and several with Russell about how he was going to move the banquette on his own whilst I was still flat on my back on the lawn. Russell had to finish up and did a nice job. He also had to get me into the back of the van and to Teesside Hospital (another story).

 E-J and Graham where really pleased with their banquette and they use a round dining table and a couple of dining chairs to create a really comfortable and intimate dining space.

Hemlington Church Commission

A nice little commission from Reverend Rob of Saint Timothy’s in Hemlington . A font cover, a centre piece for an existing oak trestle table and a reproduction of an existing side table.

Saint Timothy’s is a modern church with a mixture of well-made oak furniture that Rob wanted to add to and compliment. Rob came up with a great design for the table centre piece consisting of mahogany, oak and maple.

The font cover was also Rob’s idea picking up on the detailing of the font itself. The cover has 4 coats of Danish oil to add a little protection to the oak as flowers will be displayed on the font.

I also signed up to Rob’s Christmas fair, my first craft fair! See you at Christmas Rob.

Glossy Black Multimedia Unit

This commission was going into a house that was being completely re-built from within and the customer wanted something long and slick to hide multimedia paraphernalia.  After our initial meeting at which we discussed storage options, colours etc.  I sent a couple of ideas via email to get the ball rolling and a rough estimate based upon these drawings.

I never heard anything for awhile due to the building works running over and then got a call asking if I could do the unit the following week.  I was a little busy but we agreed a date at the end of June to commence work.

The unit was to be sprayed black with glossy black laminate door and drawer fronts. The customer wanted to source and fit her own work top. The whole unit would be made up of 4 smaller units, 2 units would be pretty standard 2 doors and an adjustable oak shelf in each, 1 drawer pack with cd and DVD storage in a smaller upper drawer and a larger bottom drawer for whatever. The final unit was originally going to have pocket doors, but in the end we decided on a smaller top drawer and a Hettich vertical lift up flap mechanism. I also tried their soft close drawer runners and hinges. I normally use Blum, but as I was ordering the flap from Hettich the rest would come under the same postage cost so I gave them a whirl and I was impressed by the service, price and quality.

The price of the unit was £1500. I managed to fit it in a morning and for once the walls were fairly true making installation straight forward enough

Bespoke Storage Solution

At Parlour we offer a bespoke service, covering free standing furniture, product design and storage solutions. I have just completed an interesting pair of alcove solutions. The customer had a fairly good idea of what they wanted, but we still exchanged 30 emails prior to installation discussing plinth heights, top thicknesses, colours etc.  I enjoy the design process and its always really interesting working with customers and their evolving ideas.

After an initial site visit I produce a sketch and an estimate to make sure I am heading in the same direction as the customer. I use Sketch up as it is quick and intuitive software. I occasionally use Cad or 3d studio max renderings if the customer wants something more detailed and realistic, but this is more time consuming and needs factoring into the overall price.

The sketch was amended several times, raising the cupboard height, plinth height etc. and once we were all happy with the drawing, I made a second site visit to discuss the drawing and to make templates of the skirting and measure the alcoves for a second time particularly in the critical areas. The job was then pencilled into my diary and a 50% deposit is taken to cover materials etc.

We make a lot of alcoves and I can turn them around in 2-3 days enabling us to keep our prices really competitive.  There was quite a bit of electrical work to be done and I priced and managed this for the customer. I use a local firm who are friendly and reliable and they quoted me £165 for the work if the customer supplied the switch and socket facials.

The installation would have been completed in a day, but the 10mm toughened glass shelves supplied were 2mm oversize and one shelf 4mm over!  The glass merchant took them back and was able to polish 1 mm off each edge of 3 of the shelves, but remade the one 4mm over.

The overall cost for everything including all the electrical work was £1400.00. An amazing price for a bespoke storage solution that adds value to your home and to the way you use the room. If you would like more info on bespoke storage solutions go to the parlour website

Emerging Artists Exhibition

In 2010 when I was based in Leeds I won a competition - The Leeds Emerging Artist Award (Designer Category). The prize consisted of £100 cash, a screen-printed award by the Leeds based artist 'Supersaveloy' and a funded exhibition. The exhibition took place in an amazing building in the centre of Leeds - The Corn Exchange.

As a focus for the exhibition I decided to use any timbers left over from previous commissions and to launch as many products as I could in the two weeks I took out of work to prepare for the exhibition. I called my exhibition 'No Waste'.

At the end of the two weeks I was really pleased with the products I exhibited. I find it a lot easier to design and make in set parameters and the no waste theme was right up my street – Scottish mother and father from Yorkshire. I used offcuts from a table commission, a leftover turning from a kitchen commission, two boards of walnut I’ve had so long I no longer remember where they came from, scraps of laminate and a board of thermo birch leftover from a garden project.

Unfortunately the retail spaces available at The Corn Exchange are two thirds empty, plus a recent refurbishment and clear out of existing shops and stalls has left it seeking a new identity. This and a last minute withdrawal of funding for marketing of the exhibition by artsmix, the competition organisers, made the five days of the exhibition really hard work. On reflection the exhibition was worth all the effort, but I could have been more organised to make the most of the poor footfall. By the end of the exhibition I had an address book taking names and addresses for our mailing list, I was more proactive with passer-by’s, I had my price list mounted and displayed and actively gave out my flyers to anyone who cared to take one. Should I ever exhibit again, I need to ask myself - what do I want out of this exhibition and to be mega organised and prepared.

I would like to thank everyone I spoke to at the exhibition for their lovely comments and for the people who bought stuff – wow, thank you very much. I would also like to thank Emily Farncombe Upholstery the winner of the enterprise award 2010 and co-exhibitor for her hard work and encouragement. I would also like to thank Jonathan at Camira Fabirics who kindly sponsored me 7 metres of Craggen fabric made right here in Yorkshire.