Furniture manufacturer expands following demand for recyclable materials

A bespoke furniture-making company is demonstrating its commitment to sustainability with an investment in its own dedicated wood workshop with sufficient space and machinery for upcycling old materials.

Tynemouth Handmade Furniture - set up in 2015 by friends Chris Smith and Andy Johnson to provide all types of built in and stand-alone furniture - has opened the doors to a 700 sq ft workshop on the banks of the Tyne to support its business growth plans and its commitment to meet increasing demand for furniture from recycled material.

The duo, who left careers in accountancy and long haul travel to pursue their passion for creating furniture, have moved into the facility where they can take on larger commissions as well as pre-build much of their pieces in order to reduce the amount of time they need spend fitting in a customer’s home.

Chris said: “We make all kinds of bespoke furniture, but we take particular pleasure in tackling unusual commissions.

“For example, we’ve built bookcases from old tree trunks dredged from the River Tyne and large dinner tables from reclaimed scaffolding boards.

“However, to meet the demand for all our products we needed more space and specific machinery which is why we decided to invest in a modern new workshop.

“While we have no interest in creating mass-produced furniture, we have in addition to the new workshop invested in new machinery that will allow us to produce reclaimed furniture with the same quality of fit and finish as our modern bespoke designs.”

In just over two years, demand for Tynemouth Handmade Furniture products have soared but the company says it has experienced a significant increase in the amount of commissions received for one-off pieces made from upcycled and innovative materials.

Andy added: “Our products are one-off commissions, generally designed to fill particular spaces in the home and often represent a pretty significant investment.

“We believe that good furniture design is a collaborative process. We wanted to be able to invite our customers into our workshop to see the raw materials, choose finishes and touch some of our finished products so they can appreciate the quality of furniture.”

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