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Robin Furlong
A furniture designer of distinction • Interview by Caroline Fisher
Ever dreamt of owning a beautiful one-off piece of furniture,
specifically designed for you?
You may think it a sheer flight of fancy and head straight for a run-of-the-mill flatpack
next time you need that new wardrobe or bookcase – or you could consult inspiring
designer and craftsman Robin Furlong, who firmly believes that a tailor-made
individual item is a lasting treasure.
“Everyone should have a least one bespoke piece of furniture to enjoy and relish,”
he enthused at his Moreton-in-Marsh workshop and showroom. “It’s a real feature
in a room as w ell as a talking point. Our ethos is to design and make beautiful
furniture that is bo th functional and aesthetically pleasing. Pretty much everything
we make has a purpose – to store things in, place things on, eat at or sit on – that’s
the nub of it. Furnitur e and civilisation kind of go together. It reflects the evolution
of people and creates a lovely environment for us to live and work in.”
Can’t see the wood for the trees?
However, Robin does admit that commissioning a unique contemporary piece could
be bewildering, so for those who can’t see the wood for the trees he’s de-mystified it
in his new Handbook to Bespoke Furniture. In it, he outlines the whole process from
start to finish. “There’s a smorgasbord of wood and options available that might seem
daunting to people. There’s a lot involved in the process, and a great deal of skilled
craftsmanship – and I can guide people through that, dealing with any fears or
concerns.”
Our portfolio also acts as a springboard for ideas
It is very much about teamwork and interpreting people’s visions imaginatively but
realistically. Robin explained: “I love meeting clients and hearing what they’re looking
for. Some people know exactly what they want, others don’t have a clear idea, and
we’ll be working to different budgets, too. People can come into the workshop and
look at examples of furniture and wood samples, and we can explain the details and
different finishes. We rarely make the same thing twice and our portfolio acts as a
springboard for ideas. I keep discussions quite fluid and give some suggestions, and
fairly quickly we can start to sense the direction of the design.”
An exquisite display cabinet grew out of a collaboration with creative jeweller Michele
White, from the Birmingham jewellery quarter. She visited Robin with the plans for
her new gallery. The initial brief was quite loose – Michele had thought about two
cabinets in an L-shape for a corner, with different lit display areas, but had no idea in
what wood. “It was left to me to kind of decipher and develop, so I designed
something very nice, and fairly straightforward,” said Robin. “Michele wanted it to
be more visually exciting so I created something more avant-garde and came back
with three concept sketches. Michele went with a cabinet with convex and concave
curves, and I developed the idea with computer-aided design into a presentation
drawing. Then we chose the wood.” The result was an exceptional interplay of
shapes – the cabinet has convex-curved doors flanking two pairs of central concave
doors. It is framed in cherry wood with a maple interior and the door panels are
green ‘ripple’ sycamore.
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