Guides
Joinery guides written from the workshop, not the marketing department
27 practical guides on costs, materials, planning and living with bespoke joinery - written for homeowners, architects and office occupiers in London.
Costs & planning
Kitchens & cabinetry
Kitchen renovation: the full sequence
The sequence a kitchen renovation should follow, who needs to be on site when, and the decisions that must be locked before joinery goes into the workshop.
Read guideBespoke cabinetry explained
A plain-English look inside a cabinet: what a good carcass, door, drawer and hinge actually look like, and the details that separate furniture-grade work from flat-pack.
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Wardrobes & storage
Designing a media wall
The technical decisions behind a media wall that looks calm and works properly: sightlines, ventilation, cabling, and how to hide equipment without cooking it.
Read guideBuilt-in storage for London homes
Room by room, where the usable storage volume hides in a typical London property, and how to build into it without making rooms feel smaller.
Read guideFitted wardrobe options compared
The choices that decide how a fitted wardrobe works day to day: door type, depth, internal layout, lighting and finish, with indicative costs for each route.
Read guidePlanning a walk-in wardrobe
How much space a walk-in genuinely needs, which layout suits which room shape, and the practical details - light, air, mirrors, seating - that make one work.
Read guideFloor-to-ceiling wardrobes
Why full-height wardrobes store far more than they look, and the technical detailing - scribes, shadow gaps, door sizes - that decides whether they look built-in.
Read guideDressing room design
How a dressing room differs from a walk-in wardrobe, how to zone one properly, and the fittings that make getting dressed genuinely easier.
Read guideBespoke bedroom furniture
Beyond wardrobes: the fitted pieces that make a bedroom work, from panelled headboard walls to bedside units built around the sockets you actually use.
Read guideAlcove and understairs storage
The two spaces almost every London home wastes, and how to build into them properly - including the access and safety points people miss.
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Problems & fixes
Wardrobe doors out of alignment
A direct explanation of misaligned wardrobe doors: what the shadow gap is telling you, which faults are adjustable, and which mean the carcass itself was never held true.
Read guideGaps between fitted furniture and walls
Why a fitted unit ends up with a visible wedge of daylight against a period wall, why filler and caulk are not the answer, and how the junction should be detailed.
Read guideHow scribing works
The craft technique behind seamless fitted furniture in period rooms: transferring a wall's real profile onto timber so the cabinetry can stay square.
Read guideMedia wall sagging or pulling away
Why media walls move: substrate that cannot carry load, unsupported spans, cantilevered shelving and heat. And what a structurally sound build looks like instead.
Read guideDamp or musty smell behind wardrobes
Why the wall behind a fitted wardrobe is often the coldest surface in the room, how that produces mould and musty clothing, and the detailing that prevents it.
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Heritage & restoration
Heritage joinery explained
What heritage joinery involves, why repair usually beats replacement, and how consents, materials and detailing work in conservation areas and listed buildings.
Read guidePeriod door restoration
A step-by-step approach to restoring original doors, from diagnosing why one sticks to stripping, repairing, re-hanging and draught-proofing it properly.
Read guideSash windows: repair or replace?
A straightforward test for whether original sashes are worth saving, what repair involves, and where replacement genuinely makes sense.
Read guideMatching period mouldings
The practical process behind making new skirting, architrave and panelling that is indistinguishable from the original woodwork in a period room.
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Materials & finishes
Timber types for joinery
What each common joinery timber is actually like to live with - stability, colour change, cost and the jobs it does best.
Read guideMDF vs solid wood
Neither material wins outright. A guide to where MDF outperforms solid timber, where it must not be used, and how good joinery combines both.
Read guideJoinery finishes explained
The finish decides how joinery ages. A guide to the main systems, how they are applied, how durable they are and how each is repaired.
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Working with a joiner
How to choose a joiner
A buyer's guide to appointing a bespoke joiner: how to compare quotes fairly, what a good contract contains, and the red flags that predict a bad project.
Read guideDesigning a home office
Ergonomics, storage and cable management for a built-in home office, plus how to fit a proper study into an alcove, a landing or a spare bedroom.
Read guideOffice fit-out joinery
What commercial joinery has to deliver beyond appearance: accessibility, fire performance, durability, out-of-hours installation and landlord requirements.
Read guideHow long a joinery project takes
The seven stages of a bespoke joinery project, how long each really takes, what you need to decide at each point, and the three things that cause most delays.
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