Handmade in the UK

Here at Willis & Stone, we pride ourselves in designing and manufacturing high quality, traditional furniture. All of our cabinetry is built in the UK by skilled cabinet makers, who have practiced their craft for generations. This artistry shows in our joinery, which is uncommonly neat, tight and precise.

Cabinetry Specification

Our cabinetry is made from a mixture of woods with beaded back panelling. We spray-paint our furniture for a perfect finish, and you can choose from a wide range of colours.

The construction of our solid doors and frames, is substantially stronger and thicker than the industry standard, resulting in highly durable cabinetry. All of our cabinetry doors are mounted on sturdy soft close hinges, again, showing a true attention to detail and demonstrates our skilled approach to carpentry and joinery. All drawer boxes are made from solid oak, clear lacquered dovetailed drawers on concealed soft close runners.

For our adjustable shelving, the painted solid wood shelves rest on metal pins that allow you to adjust their position up and down. Our designs are finished off with a skirting plinth and a decorative cornice along the top to create that classic furniture profile that we all know and love.

We aim to keep the use of MDF materials to a minimum, saying that, the backboards to all of our units and benches are a beaded MDF panel, but this is for a good reason. We love the look of traditional tongue-and-groove panelling, it just adds that extra bit of detail to our designs, however this traditional method of fitting together long panels of wood allows for movement between the individual panels, which, as tried and tested, causes cracks in our lovely paintwork. To avoid this, we use a beaded MDF instead which looks just as lovely and is much more reliable for large areas of panelling. It also keeps down the weight of your freestanding furniture so you can move it about with more ease.

Painting

All of our cabinetry has a spray-painted finish, we take plenty of care and time with this step to ensure that you have the perfect paint finish. All cabinetry and benches are painted inside and out, the only areas that aren’t painted is the very back of the units that go up against the wall, and where we have used oak as part of the design. We use a water-based, acrylic eggshell paint that’s tough and long-lasting for years to come. You can choose from any Farrow & Ball colour when ordering from our website but we are also more than happy to match any colour of you choice.

Solid Woods

With most of our designs, we include an element of unpainted oak, mostly being the surface top of any table, sideboard or dresser and the seats for all of our benches. Oak is a beautiful material with plenty of character, the colour and grain can vary from piece to piece which creates a lovely surprise every time. To keep it looking at it’s best, we finish the oak with a protective oil to help it withstand scuffs and scratches. We offer a range of oil colours to choose from, with each colour creating a different feel for your design but without compromising the natural look and feel of the wood, take a look at our Samples page to see what colours we have available.

Natural timber will expand and shrink slightly as it responds to the humidity and temperature in your room. As your furniture settles into its home with temperature changes throughout the year, it is natural for some movement to occur and small cracks may appear. This is completely normal and is not a fault in the product. However if you have underfloor heating then this may have a stronger effect. If you do experience small cracks then please do not worry, this just adds to the charm and character of your traditional handmade furniture. However, if you would like to try and avoid this, try initially to keep your furniture in a cool room and increase the temperature slowly over time to allow the timber to acclimatise.