Tablemaker was founded in 2020 by traditionally trained carpenters who were inspired to create a range of custom tables after becoming interested in Scandinavian and mid-century modern designs.
Where we are based
We work from a shop in Hornsey High Street in N8, north London. If you are planning to visit please contact us to check opening times as we sometimes work off-site.
What we make
As our name suggests, we specialise in tables – mainly dining tables, desks, coffee tables and side tables. While they come in all shapes and sizes, our tables are mostly made out of solid oak. We also make table tops and a variety of pieces that complement tables, such as solid oak benches, shelves, monitor stands, foot stools and serving boards.
Other types of wood we use, especially for custom projects, are solid beech, pine, walnut and birch plywood. For table legs and shelf brackets, we sometimes use steel, for example where a more industrial look is called for.
Why we use solid wood
At the beginning we noticed that many, if not most, of the companies making really nice looking furniture were using veneered chipboard or MDF which keeps their production cost down but unfortunately is not built to last when it comes to tables.
A veneered sideboard or bookcase can be a beautiful thing, but a dining table probably won’t be after a couple of years. Well used surfaces such as tabletops get scratched, cleaned regularly and stained so the (usually less than) 1mm veneer simply isn’t up to the job and will be prone to peeling, chipping and so on.
We use solid wood – mostly oak – for tabletops because it lasts much longer in the first place and in the second it can easily be sanded and re-finished over the years, making it a great long-term investment. That means more value and less waste.
We also minimise waste by using our tabletop offcuts to make smaller furniture components and accessories.
The right size is the only size
When we opened our workshop on a high street in north London, we offered table designs in a few size options, but we soon discovered that a few wasn’t enough.
Customers loved our designs but they ideally needed it to be a certain size to make the best use of their space. They asked us if we could make it for them is X width and Y length, and because we could, we did.
See our range of ready to buy designs that are in available multiple sizes.
What about when sizes fall short?
Even though we make it possible to purchase in 1cm increments where practical, there are still limits to the lengths and widths we can offer on our ready-to-by products, due to material available, delivery constraints and practical joinery issues.
If you can’t find the size you want on our product page please do ask about placing a custom order as sometimes we can adjust the design or material used for one-off projects. As always, if we can we will.
Made to order, not made to wait
Something that always frustrated us as customers is being asked to wait many weeks or even months for an item of furniture. Life moves fast and we don’t want our customers waiting that long before they can enjoy their new table.
That is why we have created a table construction process that enables us to deliver around 90 per cent of our made to order tables within 3 weeks (many actually arrive within 2 weeks). We make our tables in the UK so we can respond quickly to orders and deliver them around the country without delay.
Why choose Tablemaker?
There is a lot of choice when it comes to furniture, including Scandinavian flat pack, one-off craft pieces, vintage design classics, long-established high street shops and online retail giants. There is a lot of furniture out there and we know you at some point you have probably considered it all.
What there isn’t so much of is great looking modern designs made from solid hardwood, in the size you need, with a reasonable delivery time, at competitive price. That is what we set out to offer and we hope you will choose Tablemaker.