Heartwood

Furniture Co. · Est. 2011

——— Bespoke Cabinet & Furniture Maker

Furniture that gets passed down,
not landfilled.

A small bench workshop in the Stroud Valleys, making sideboards, dining tables, bookcase walls and kitchens from English and European hardwoods. Drawn by hand, built by hand, finished by hand — and signed inside the back panel.

Call the workshop See recent commissions →

Guarantee

Fifty-year structural guarantee on every piece we make.

◆ Furniture Maker Co. member

◆ English & European hardwoods

◆ Hand-cut joinery, no screws

◆ 50-year guarantee

01 — The bench

A workshop built around one idea — build it once, properly.

Heartwood was set up by Tom and Reuben Walker in 2011, after a decade between them at the Edward Barnsley Workshop in Hampshire. The bench is small on purpose — six or seven commissions a year, every one drawn, built and finished by us.

We don't veneer, we don't flatpack, and we don't buy in carcasses. Every dovetail is cut by hand, every panel is solid timber, and every piece carries our name burned into the back. If it breaks in fifty years, we'll come and fix it.

Sideboards & Dressers

The piece you sit a kettle on for thirty years. Welsh dressers, low sideboards, hall consoles.

Dining Tables

Live-edge elm, refectory oak, traditional pedestal. Sized to the room, not to a catalogue.

Bookcase Walls

Floor-to-ceiling solid hardwood, fitted around chimneys, doors and quirks of an old house.

Bespoke Kitchens

Hand-built shaker, in-frame or contemporary. Solid carcasses, dovetailed drawers, painted or oiled.

Heritage Restoration

Repairs to inherited and antique furniture — sympathetic, reversible, properly documented.

Single-Maker Pieces

Stools, side tables, writing desks. One-off commissions for collectors and gift commissions.

02 — Wood we work with

Six timbers. Every plank traceable.

We only build in English and European hardwoods — almost all from named British estates and mills within a day's drive. No tropical timber, no veneered MDF, no offcuts hidden behind a panel.

English Oak

Forest of Dean

Open grain, ages to honey under wax. Our workhorse for sideboards & dressers.

European Walnut

Austria & Germany

Rich chocolate heartwood with figured grain — reserved for dining tables and statement pieces.

Fumed Ash

Welsh Borders

Clean, straight-grained and pale — fumed with ammonia for warmth without losing its lightness.

Wild Cherry

Cotswold Estates

Pink-blushed when fresh, deepens to russet over years. Beautiful for bookcase walls.

English Elm

Reclaimed barns

Interlocked grain, never plain. A rare timber we use sparingly for one-off live-edge tops.

Sweet Chestnut

Sussex Weald

Light, durable and quietly underrated — ideal for kitchen cabinets and heritage repairs.

03 — From sketch to handover

Five steps, no shortcuts.

Sketch

We come to the room, take measurements, listen to how you live, and draw three options by hand. Fixed quote within ten days.

Material

Boards are chosen at the mill or kiln. You see the actual timber before a single cut is made — grain, figure, origin, all logged.

III

Bench

Built in our Stroud workshop with mortise-and-tenon, dovetails and drawbore joinery. No screws holding structure, no flat-pack fittings.

Finish

Hand-planed, scraped and finished in hardwax oil or shellac. Twelve coats, hand-rubbed between each. The surface you touch is wood, not lacquer.

Delivery

Carried in by the maker who built it. Levelled, waxed and signed inside the back panel. We come back at six months to re-oil, free of charge.

04 — Past commissions

Pieces now in Gloucestershire homes.

A handful of recent builds. The full archive runs back to 2011 — happy to share by email on request.

Sideboard
Eight-foot walnut sideboard
Painswick · 2024

Dining
Live-edge elm refectory table
Tetbury · 2024

Bookcase wall
Floor-to-ceiling cherry library

Workshop note

“The mark inside the back panel isn't a logo. It's a promise that if it ever fails, we'll come and put it right.”

— Tom Walker, founder

——— From a recent client

“Tom and Reuben spent half a day in the kitchen before they put pencil to paper. The walnut sideboard they delivered six months later is the nicest thing in the house — our daughter has already laid claim to it.”

The Pemberton Family · Painswick · 2024

05 — The Stroud workshop

A stone mill, a bench each, and a kettle on.

The workshop sits in a converted woollen mill on the banks of the Frome at Brimscombe — a building that's been making things since 1820. Visitors are welcome by appointment. Bring boots, and don't mind the dust.

If you'd like to discuss a piece, the best thing is to come down. We'll walk through the timber rack, look at finishes in the daylight, and sketch a few options at the bench while the kettle's on.

Years on the bench

50yr

Structural guarantee

6–7

Pieces a year

06 — Commission a piece

Got a piece in mind?

Drop us a note with the rough scope — room, timber preference, deadline — and we'll come back within a week with a date for an initial visit. The first conversation costs nothing and we'll tell you straight if it's outside what we do.

Workshop

01453 405 600

workshop@heartwoodfurniture.example

Address

Heartwood Furniture Co.
The Old Wool Mill, Brimscombe Port
Stroud, Gloucestershire GL5 2QE

Workshop hours

Mon–Fri 8am–5pm · Saturdays by appointment

Furniture that gets passed down,not landfilled.