"I am bemused when people ask me what my secret is,"
says Chris Sharp, cabinet maker and founder of Chris Sharp Cabinets. "It's the wood that makes the furniture striking: all we do is enhance its beauty."
Of course it isn't that simple. Chris and his wife Christine come from a long line of furniture makers, going back each generation to Christine's great grandfather
who was making furniture pre-war in the North East. Their passion for the raw material is apparent when you talk to them, and you will undoubtedly talk to Christine
if you call for advice on their many pieces of carefully crafted furniture. Her Geordie warmth and delight at ensuring the customer gets the very best is infectious.
Chris himself has been making furniture for 33 years and started Chris Sharp Cabinets 22 years ago. He has built the company up from a one man band to the
thriving East Midlands workshop it is today. His ethos is about using sustainable and quality hardwoods, using the very latest technology to create furniture
built for style, function and longevity. All Chris Sharp Cabinets products are made in his workshop outside historic Lincoln. Their White Glove delivery service uses '
leave no trace' packaging which is either bespoke made bearing the Chris Sharp Cabinets Broadleaf logo or totally recycled.
They don't employ any irritating marketing techniques, no junk mail or telemarketing. They do well keeping up with demand from word of mouth recommendations from their loyal customer base.
If you ask Chris where he gets his inspiration he becomes pensive with an eventual, "Everywhere really" as his first response.
He looks with affection at the table below his fingertips, "Really it is just a series of geometric shapes that work together to show the wood off at its best.
I do not focus on the latest style during the design process but prefer a sustainable style as the pieces are built to last.
I would like to think that each piece would not look out of place in 30 years time." But you don't see a series of geometrical lines in their furniture,
you see the grains and textures of the wood which are smooth to the touch and a pleasure to live with.
Chris Sharp Cabinets is an unashamedly modern British company. Local craftsmen are employed in the rural Lincolnshire workshop yet the very latest technology is used to do the repetitious tasks.
So, did Chris always want to make furniture? Well no, not really. His interest at 14 was fly fishing; this would become a lifelong passion.
At 16 he got accepted onto a course in Engineering in Nottingham however was simultaneously offered an apprenticeship in Northumberland with his father, a self employed furniture maker.
He accepted the apprenticeship, heavily influenced by the fact that his father had the River Tyne running at the back of his workshop which was an excellent spot for trout fishing!
Throughout his first year as an apprentice he earned £3 per week so through financial necessity he cycled everywhere, learnt to tie his own flies for fishing and went fly fishing on the river in his spare time. He also diligently learnt how to hand craft furniture, and how it shows in his furniture.
And his vision for the future? At present Chris buys direct from sawmills and sells direct to the customer thus cutting out any middlemen.
He would like to continue this practise which offers the very best quality and value for money for the customer, a good working knowledge of his suppliers and in turn maintains a small,
happy and well paid local team of craftsmen.
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