Tudor Manor House

Louise called into the workshop looking for a birthday present for her husband. As I was showing her around, she was amazed to see a pair of Tudor armchairs with a carved date in the panel work to the chair back of 1624. She thought it was amazing, as it was exactly the same date that her house was built and enquired whether they were for sale. They were. One was original which we had restored, the second was a replica that I had made to stand with it. They were exactly what she was looking for and she bought the pair.

They lived in a lovely old Tudor house in the midlands and I was invited up to see it. Whilst there we discussed removing the rather tired looking 1920s panelling in the dining room and re-panelling the room in Oak. Budgets were tight so as a stop gap I suggested we could renovate the existing panelling. The result was so successful that it has never been changed. Instead we made them an 8ft square table which split into two 4ft by 8ft tables. This meant they had flexibility of use. The tables could be used individually as a table and serving table for daily use, made into a square for large dinner parties and even placed end to end to create a 16ft long table for special events in the great hall. We also made fourteen Tudor style chairs to match the existing two arm chairs. As a surprise knowing that Casper was Scottish and Louise was English, I made some marquetry thistles and English roses to adorn the backs of the chairs.

We have since worked on many projects for them.