Blog Archives - Marc's Wood Bespoke Joinery

New furniture designs and updates from Marc & Rachel, August 2020

9th September 2020 By Marc Wood

Hello from Somerset, We hope that you are getting safely back into your routine now that summer is at an end.

Our News from August: In-between creating some new designs and digitising our paperwork, we have been getting ready for our son’s return to year 6 in school and even finding a few days to celebrate our 9 year wedding anniversary in lovely Devon.

Our workshop team continue to settle into their new ‘socially distanced’ working space, which has inspired Rhian to set up a home workshop of her own!

10% discount off our Etsy shop prices

As seen on our website, this offer is available for all direct sales (not delivery costs) via PayPal or BACS, email us for more information.

Our Dovetail mirror in natural Oak.
Our local customer (and plant expert!) Clare asked us to create our classic ‘dovetail’ mirror frame in natural Oak to compliment the new doors and window-ledges of her characterful period cottage renovation.

We love the deep grain which has been really brought out by the application of a clear Osmo Oil finish (see our Facebook page for more of our handmade pieces in their new homes)

Enjoying the west-country
During the school holidays we met up with the old gang from Exeter for a family friendly camper van weekend in Porlock and the children wore off some of that lock-down energy playing until dusk.

Then we spent some time with Rachel’s family in Devon, walking Marv on the beach and enjoying big barbecue dinners.

We are making some more items for sale in our Somerset shop space at The Emporium in Ilminster and there are lots of local artisan traders joining us all the time.

If you are passing by, it is well worth a visit to our lovely little Somerset town.

New Furniture Designs
We created a bespoke chunky chest of drawers with matching rustic beside table for our lovely Etsy.com customer in London and they kindly got in touch to let us know how happy they are with our work.

A smaller version of these drawers is usually available on our website and in our Etsy shop, we have temporarily closed this listing and others for our larger pieces while we get ready for the full return of our team.

We hope to drop our extra long 8 week lead time very soon, once we have caught up and we really appreciate everyone’s patience and kindness during the long wait.

We also made a large picture frame to house an embroidery sampler and our creative customer has taken the time to send us a photo, we love the way our wooden frame compliments the farmhouse style mantelpiece.

We are now making a new style set of ‘architects drawers with a mix of ceramic and library handles, we will be sharing photos once completed, so check in with our Instagram.

August’s Bestseller
Our classic large bathroom cabinet with double dovetail mirror doors in the ‘antique’ Danish Oil finish became the month’s bestselling style, this cabinet features our ‘hidden’ handles on the lower front pieces of the doors. Marc wanted to maintain the sleek lines of the subtle curved edges and also to use as much of the wood ‘offcuts’ as possible in order to reduce waste.

5 star Reviews
We have a profile on Yell.com (or as we used to know it, the ‘Yellow Pages’!)

“ Marc made a superb bathroom cabinet for us. Excellent craftsmanship and a pleasure to deal with”

Mike gave us 5 stars on 7^th September and left a lovely comment about the large bespoke bathroom cabinet which we recently made for him.

Our Etsy shop continues to be busy since we re-opened back in May, here is our latest brilliant review from Sally on 8^th September:

“ We love this mirror. Its beautifully made and just the right size. We requested the item to be a bit smaller than advertised which Marc was extremely helpful in accommodating. It arrived superbly packed and is perfect for our requirements. Thank you so much”

We will be back with another update next month, if you have any questions or if there is anything which we can create for your home, just ask.

Best Wishes,
Marc & Rachel Wood

Latest designs, west-country life & 10% off new orders for July 2020

5th August 2020 By Marc Wood

Hello from our handmade furniture workshop in Somerset!
We hope that you are getting a chance to safely get out and about and enjoy some of this wonderful Summer sunshine.

Our brilliant workshop team are now back with us and settling into their new space and distanced working routine. We hope to drop our extra long 8 week lead time very soon, once we have caught up and we really appreciate everyone’s patience and kindness during the long wait.

10% discount off our Etsy shop handmade furniture prices.

This offer is available for all direct sales (not delivery costs) via PayPal or BACS, email us for more information.

Our picture frames on Instagram
Jess Purrr creates atmospheric woodland paintings, which are available to buy on Etsy.com and via her Instagram.

We recently collaborated by creating different sized wooden picture frames to house these original artworks for her social posts, in exchange she gave us several large prints for our home and we get to use her quirky posts on our channels too (see our Instagram for more)

Enjoying the west-country
This past month we have squeezed in a family camping weekend at Pleasant Streams in Cornwall, to thank our amazing 10 year old son for being so good while we have both been working long hours and spending warm evenings on our local beach at Lyme Regis, which is only 25 mins or so away, so perfect for an after work break.

New Handmade Furniture Designs
We created a new set of cast iron wall hooks which are great for hallway, bathroom and jewellery storage. You can also see a rustic ‘live edge’ version in the Ilminster Emporium.

July’s Bestseller
Our large dovetail mirror with shelf in the ‘medium-dark’ Danish Oil finish became the month’s bestselling style, this beautiful mirror is also available in a portrait orientation and in the lighter ‘antique’ finish.

5 star Reviews
Our Etsy.com shop has notched up 320 5 star reviews!

“ Absolutely love it! Very well made, goes perfect in my room. Very well packaged. Good communication. Would highly recommend.” Dawn 30^th July.

Dawn gave us 5 stars and left a lovely comment about our wall mirror with shelf & 5 iron hooks which she ordered from us online, thanks Dawn!

Tips & tricks
This month’s very simple woodworking tip is for the young at heart. Keep everyone entertained during these long summer weeks with this cute contraption.

See this inspirational family woodworking Blog for instructions on how to make a toy catapult, which will toss a light ball into the air using mainly household materials, including a wooden clothes peg.

Regardless of age, creating a toy that moves and may even cause minor destruction in your living room is a pure joy!

We will be back with another update next month, if you have any questions or if there is anything which we can create for your home, just ask.

Best Wishes,

Marc & Rachel Wood

News from June 2020

17th July 2020 By Marc Wood Leave a Comment

Hello from our furniture workshop in Somerset!
We hope that you are staying safe and well as we ease back in to life with the gradual lifting of the full C19 lock-down.
This past month we have been enjoying our birthdays, adding even more new furniture designs to our shop and extending our farmyard workshop to allow our amazing team to come back safely.

We are offering a 10% discount off Etsy shop prices (not on delivery) for all direct sales via PayPal or BACS, contact us via email for more info.

June’s Bestseller
Our large dovetail bathroom cabinet with a single mirror door became the month’s bestselling style, this is one of our earliest cabinet designs and we are very proud of how popular and enduring it has proved to be with our lovely customers.

New Furniture Designs
We created a new mirror with shelf, featuring 5 of the characterful ‘leaf head’ metal hooks nestled under the inset chunky shelf. You may remember these new hooks from our chalk and pin board which we covered last month.
Marc is continuing in our furniture workshop with our new ‘home working’ range with wall mounted desks and office storage for small spaces, although completion of this will have to wait until we have caught up with our waiting list (which is now at a lengthy 8 weeks for new orders!)

Our High Street Shop Space
The Ilminster Emporium in the characterful period building at 19 Silver Street TA19 0DH has been open for several weeks and our local newspaper helpfully ran a feature on our new arty traders.
Rachel has been volunteering once a week to help out and has really enjoyed meeting our local customers, chatting and finding out what type of furniture they want to see us create next (we are working on the home working desks, we promise!)

A month of Birthdays
June is usually a month for getting together with our friends and family to celebrate both of our birthdays.
For over 15 years, to mark our June birthdays, we have been meeting up with the same group of friends for a weekend of camping around Marc’s birthday on the Summer Solstice.

Unfortunately this year it wasn’t possible, but we had ‘distanced’ fun visiting the very atmospheric Corfe Castle in Dorset to celebrate Rachel’s birthday with a rather windy picnic and then enjoying another family trip to the beach in nearby Devon on the weekend of the 22^nd so that Marc could try out his new paddle board and get out of our furniture workshop for the day!
(see our Instagram for more pics)

Welcoming Our Team Back
We are very pleased to see our small team return to us at Flaxdrayton Farm and we have really missed them all. Even with all the noise and bustle of our furniture making, it has seemed very quiet around here over the past few months.

Now the break room biscuit barrel has been refilled with treats and last week we finished setting up our new additional work space in the outer barns.

This allows our team members Tave and Rhian to maintain 2 metres distance while they help us to catch up with the new orders generated when Marc was all on his own.

5 star Reviews on Etsy.
Our Etsy.com shop has now hit over 300 5 star reviews!
Juliet gave us 5 stars and left a lovely comment about our wall mirror with shelf, which she ordered from us online, thanks Juliet!

Tips & tricks
This month’s very simple woodworking tip is about accurately measuring your timber before cutting.
If you pencil in a little tick mark on the side to cut on, this will save time remeasuring and helps to account for ‘kerf’ or the thickness of the cutting blade.
Any cutting will result in some of the wood being turned into sawdust and cutting directly on the marked line will cause your cut to be inaccurate.

Measure and make a small tick to the side of the measured line you want to cut on and then line your saw blade up to the line with the blade on the ticked side.
The kerf will now be on the other side of the line and not into your measured area see more on this great wood working site instructables.com.

We will be back with another update next month and if you have any questions or if there is anything which we can create for your home, just ask.

Best Wishes,
Marc & Rachel Wood

New Furniture Designs
We created a new chalk and pin board with characterful ‘leaf head’ hooks, stylish and useful in a hallway or kitchen and Marc is focusing on a new ‘home working’ range with wall mounted desks and office storage for small spaces, more on this next month.

We are offering a 10% discount off Etsy shop prices (not on delivery) for all direct sales via PayPal or BACS, contact us via email for more info.

Online Shop Now Open
Our key suppliers re-opened mid month and we switched our Etsy shop back on.
We are not yet ready to welcome back the team and our reduced options and extended lead times allow Marc to complete all new orders by himself.

Our classic dovetail mirror with shelf quickly became the month’s bestselling style, the inbuilt shelf is just the right depth for holding a tea light holder or two. Perfect for a relaxing evening at home.

High Street Shop Reopening
After a successful opening night with a visit from the Mayor and a write up in Somerset Life Magazine, unfortunately we only had a few weeks of trade in March.

Along with most of the nation’s high street stores, we felt it best to close just a few days before the official ‘lock down’ and we were all sorry to say goodbye to our new shop space.

Now we can announce that the Ilminster Emporium at 19 Silver Street TA19 0DH, is planning to reopen in mid June, which is great news for us and all the other local traders involved.
We are now working on several new pieces to showcase in the characterful period building and will be operating under reduced hours and social distancing guidelines.

Making the most of our space during the C19 quiet time . . .

Now that his drum kit has been set up in the workshop (no one is about to complain!) Marc has been keeping up with his Drum practice at break-times.

We have also spruced up our home office space by repainting our lovely vintage style desk and our wonderful Jack Russell ‘Marv’ certainly approves of the comfy ‘swingy’ chair.

Family time has been spent up on the local allotment, teaching our son Arthur how to garden and growing our own fruit and veg, which we have all been getting to enjoy at meal times, yum!
(see our Instagram for more pics)

On Google Reviews
We are gaining more excellent reviews outside of our Etsy shop (which has nearly 300!)

Nick kindly added 5 stars and a lovely comment about the bespoke bathroom cabinet which we made for him a few weeks ago, thanks Nick!

Tips & tricks
This month’s very simple woodworking tip is how to use a household iron to remove small dents from wooden surfaces with a combination of heat and moisture, using a household clothes iron.

* Dab the dent with water, just enough to cover the dent and a small part of the surrounding wood. The dent should be completely wet and gathering inside the depression in the wood.

* Place a damp paper towel or piece of cloth over the dent, wring out any excess water first and then lay it directly on top of the dent. This extra moisture also creates a buffer to help protect the wood from being damaged by the heat of the iron

* Give the water time to soak into the wood for a few minutes and as the water seeps into the wood, it will cause it to soften so that when you apply heat to the dent, the wood will expand and the dent should lift out.

* Press the iron into the cloth above the dent and move it around using slow circular motions,gradually widening the area. Keep heating the wood until the cloth is dry, then lift a corner to check your progress.

* You can wet the wood again and repeat if required, while a single ironing might be all you need to deal with minor dents, for more severe depressions or areas with multiple marks you can continue to gently apply the iron and them once finished, allow to dry.

We will be back with another update next month and if you have any questions or if there is anything which we can create for your home, just ask.

Best Wishes,

Our latest handmade furniture &’Lock Down’ life in Somerset.

30th April 2020 By Marc Wood

We hope that you are staying safe and well during this health emergency, our online shop is closed and we have put the team on furlough, Marc is single manning the furniture workshop and we are taking on a low volume of orders (lead times have increased by 1 – 2 weeks)

Although we are very grateful for all of the support from the local council, NHS and essential workers helping us through, it has taken quite a bit of adjustment and stress here in the Wood household, as we know that it has for many of us.

We are enjoying spending family time on our daily walks through the Somerset countryside, which is on our doorstep (see our Instagram for more pics) and we can amuse ourselves with classic board-games from the loft, plus the boys got home haircuts last week!

We were very excited to launch our new shop space in the Ilminster Emporium at the end of March, we held a party in the shop with local small businesses and our friends and family, the Mayor even helped out by cutting the ribbon, marking the official opening!

After several great weeks in this very lovely iconic building in the old town centre we all made the decision to close up our shop just before the ‘lock-down’ went into effect across the UK.

Although it was sad to say goodbye to all the other lovely Emporium traders and our new friends on the committee, we all felt that it was irresponsible to encourage visitors into the town as the virus took hold across the country.

We will all be back with great new displays as soon as we can and we hope that you will be able to visit the Emporium on Silver Street on your next visit to South Somerset.

In the days before we made the decision to close the workshop we also completed our latest handmade pieces. A chunky modern rustic sideboard (seen here in it’s new home!) and our new design of ‘tall boy’ chest of drawers, which is pictured in our studio and is now in Scotland thanks to our dedicated specialist courier Barry Whitcher, who is still working hard ensuring that items get from A to B across the country.

Both of these pieces of furniture make use of our classic ‘cut out’ handle and we will be featuring the ‘tall boy’ and lots of other new handmade items in our online shop once we are open again.

This April we reached the milestone of 100 subscribers to our YouTube channel and we will be adding more videos in the coming weeks, find us under Marc Wood Joinery.

Woodworking tips & tricks:

This month we have an ingenious tip for smooth sanding around a curve.

It can be challenging to sand a curve and you often need your piece of sanding paper to be solid yet supple enough to carefully remove surface layers whilst fitting into the required shape.

Cover a flexible A5 notepad with sandpaper of the necessary grade for your needs and curve the notepad to fit into the curve of your wood then you have a very useful and study sanding pad.

If you place an edge of the sanding paper into the notebook, the pages will secure it as you apply pressure. Find out more about woodworking technique on this great easy to read blog.

Hello from Somerset, We hope that you are getting safely back into your routine now that summer is at an end.

Our News from August: In-between creating some new designs and digitising our paperwork, we have been getting ready for our son’s return to year 6 in school and even finding a few days to celebrate our 9 year wedding anniversary in lovely Devon.

Our workshop team continue to settle into their new ‘socially distanced’ working space, which has inspired Rhian to set up a home workshop of her own!

10% discount off our Etsy shop prices

As seen on our website, this offer is available for all direct sales (not delivery costs) via PayPal or BACS, email us for more information.

Our Dovetail mirror in natural Oak.Our local customer (and plant expert!) Clare asked us to create our classic ‘dovetail’ mirror frame in natural Oak to compliment the new doors and window-ledges of her characterful period cottage renovation.

We love the deep grain which has been really brought out by the application of a clear Osmo Oil finish (see our Facebook page for more of our handmade pieces in their new homes)

Enjoying the west-countryDuring the school holidays we met up with the old gang from Exeter for a family friendly camper van weekend in Porlock and the children wore off some of that lock-down energy playing until dusk.

Then we spent some time with Rachel’s family in Devon, walking Marv on the beach and enjoying big barbecue dinners.

We are making some more items for sale in our Somerset shop space at The Emporium in Ilminster and there are lots of local artisan traders joining us all the time.

If you are passing by, it is well worth a visit to our lovely little Somerset town.

New Furniture Designs We created a bespoke chunky chest of drawers with matching rustic beside table for our lovely Etsy.com customer in London and they kindly got in touch to let us know how happy they are with our work.

A smaller version of these drawers is usually available on our website and in our Etsy shop, we have temporarily closed this listing and others for our larger pieces while we get ready for the full return of our team.

We hope to drop our extra long 8 week lead time very soon, once we have caught up and we really appreciate everyone’s patience and kindness during the long wait.

We also made a large picture frame to house an embroidery sampler and our creative customer has taken the time to send us a photo, we love the way our wooden frame compliments the farmhouse style mantelpiece.

We are now making a new style set of ‘architects drawers with a mix of ceramic and library handles, we will be sharing photos once completed, so check in with our Instagram.

5 star ReviewsWe have a profile on Yell.com (or as we used to know it, the ‘Yellow Pages’!)

“ Marc made a superb bathroom cabinet for us. Excellent craftsmanship and a pleasure to deal with”

Mike gave us 5 stars on 7th September and left a lovely comment about the large bespoke bathroom cabinet which we recently made for him.

Our Etsy shop continues to be busy since we re-opened back in May, here is our latest brilliant review from Sally on 8th September:

“ We love this mirror. Its beautifully made and just the right size. We requested the item to be a bit smaller than advertised which Marc was extremely helpful in accommodating. It arrived superbly packed and is perfect for our requirements. Thank you so much”

We will be back with another update next month, if you have any questions or if there is anything which we can create for your home, just ask. Best Wishes,Marc & Rachel Wood

Hello from our handmade furniture workshop in Somerset!We hope that you are getting a chance to safely get out and about and enjoy some of this wonderful Summer sunshine.