Cory Mockridge – founder of Mockridge Bespoke Carpentry – has been creating bespoke furniture for homes in the Bristol and Bath area for the last five years. Here we take a closer look at his creative designs, innovative solutions and how his team are taking every project from concept to completion…
Tell us about your background in carpentry and how you came to found Mockridge Bespoke Carpentry…
I inherited my love of carpentry from my father. He taught me skills and techniques while I worked alongside him in his business, operating mainly in and around the Bristol and Bath area. He still supports what we do today and is one of our highly skilled tradespeople. I knew that I wanted to produce individualised, bespoke pieces – pieces that I would be proud to own myself. I felt that the best way to achieve that would be to offer my customers a personal service, which was when Mockridge Bespoke Carpentry was born. Our family of local customers have helped the business grow into what it is today.
Tell us about your design and build process, how you take each project from concept to completion and create exactly the right bespoke design and finish…
From our experiences of working with both professionally qualified and personally invested people over many years, we’ve developed a process that enables all parties to achieve the very best outcome. After receiving initial contact from our customers via our website, email or telephone, we book in a free consultation to discuss their project. This would start as a phone call where we would discuss the basics of their project and book a home survey at a convenient time. During this home visit, we would take them through some of our current samples and finishes, answer any questions they may have and create a design brief.
The next step would be to send the brief to our 3D designer, who would create drawings of the project. The drawings would include the customer’s desired materials and colours. The design can be revised as many times as necessary to ensure they’re 100% satisfied with the design concept.
The workshop team then starts crafting the bespoke piece, taking everything directly from the 3D model to ensure every detail is identical to the computer-aided design plan. We then finish every item by hand, whether it be a sprayed, oiled or lacquered finish. This is when we would confirm an installation date with the customer. It would generally be two weeks from the day we start the finishing process.
Due to the carefully planned design and manufacturing process, our installations for most projects typically take two to three days. At this point, our customers can sit back and enjoy their new piece of bespoke furniture.
What are some of your most favourite creations to date?
Perhaps the most satisfying achievements come when a customer’s expectations are exceeded. One that springs to mind was an understairs wine store where we had free rein to get creative. We came up with a design that would ultimately become one of the main selling points of the property years later. We were able to completely transform a large entrance hallway into a breathtaking entrance. Nothing compares to seeing our customers happy with their brand-new builds.
Equally, there have been projects where the customer has had a very strict brief, where they’ve sent us a design and asked to match the style to existing furniture. We were able to exactly match the stain and handle details to create a bespoke piece that couldn’t be told apart from the original. When we say bespoke, we really mean it!
Where do you source your materials?
We source our panel products from two suppliers local to the south west, and we’ve worked well with them over the last five years. This ensures we have the ability to hand-pick the boards we need for our customer’s product and can guarantee that they are of the highest quality. We support and utilise local trades, which means we give a personal service from our 3D designer through to our spray finishing.
Tell us about your sustainable practices…
Working predominantly with natural wood products is a joy and keeps us true to the world we live in. We recognise our responsibilities here and have started planting trees to replace those used in producing our pieces. By doing that, we hope that our customers will also feel that they are part of that process.
How can customers submit their commissions?
Initial contact is usually made either by email or telephone. We’ll marry up our brief with a choice of options that our customers can shape and adapt to work towards making their dreams come true. That might sound a bit grand but that’s exactly what we work towards.
For more information about Mockridge Bespoke Carpentry visit: mockridgebespokecarpentry.co.uk