Bespoke Oak Wardrobe

What a statement this example makes. It’s hard not to slide into estate agent-speak when describing this piece of custom furniture….’This stunning example of an oak wardrobe must be viewed to be fully appreciated’ etc etc. It really is quite special, a very bold and ambitious piece of bespoke furniture which was commissioned to be one of the main design focal points in a master bedroom.

It has been created using the very best oak. It’s what Kenny describes as ‘green oak style’ – even though it’s been made from fully kiln dried furniture grade oak, the style of the dovetails and wooden nails is reminiscent of the way you would work with external green oak structures.

It has been crafted by the team so that all of it’s curves and lines fit together seamlessly without any obvious hinges or metalwork. You can see the traditional handmade wooden nails in the detail shot, and the care and attention that’s been taken over this piece in the timber selection and craftsmanship.

The oak has been worked to create arches, and the panel in the main door has been done by butterflying a piece of pippy oak so that symmetry is applied. This is one of our finest and a spectacular start to 2013 from both a design and manufacturing point of view.

Whisky Furniture – Cabinets

As with our other whisky furniture ( you can view the whisky boardroom table and chairs by clicking here ), these cabinets have been built together as a one-off commission and whisky casks have been used in their construction. One for real whisky lovers.

Very distinctive and unusual, the wood from the casks hasn’t just been used as some kind of decorative afterthought, it is integral to the structure of the furniture and quite unmissable.

Whisky furniture can be built to order and the genuine used casks can be provided by yourself ( if you are a whisky company ) or us if you are not. In addition, it’s sometimes possible to source casks used for a specific whisky if it’s your favourite or has a special meaning for you.

Get it touch for more information on whisky furniture.

Deluxe Whisky Presentation Box

This extra special elm whisky presentation box would make the perfect accompanying gift when giving someone a very exclusive bottle of whisky. If it’s an occasion like a retirement or special corporate gift then it always takes some of the shine away from a really top end bottle of whisky if the presentation box for it isn’t up to scratch.

That will never be the case with this box – in terms of quality and beauty it can live with the very best whiskies. The very best kiln dried elm, machined and hand crafted in Scotland, together with the highest quality brass fitting clasp. It is a gorgeous way to present a bottle of whisky, and the box can be kept and cherished when the whisky it was given with is, sadly, a dim and distant memory.

The Longhouse

The Longhouse is a bar / restaurant in Kilmarnock which is owned and operated by Prestwick based Buzzworks Group. Thanks to them for allowing us to use the photos of the venue here, great shots.

As with most commercial jobs we worked in collaboration with the interior designers, helping them with the specification of the timber aspect of the project. And then working to help deliver their vision for The Longhouse.

In this case it is a fantastic brown oak throughout. In the bar area the full bar and bar top was done in brown oak, as were all the table tops. The frontage on the bar was a patchwork of hardwood and glass. The restuarant featured waiter tables, restaurant reception desk and exclusive dining / VIP area, again all done in brown oak.

Thanks to the client for giving us a mention on the website for the venue -> The Longhouse Bar & Restaurant in Kilmarnock

Solid Oak Flooring

Ann Cromack at iKat photography (Product and Interior Photography takes all the photos for Fairlie Furniture. She sent us over these ones from her own house, as Kenny and the team were at her house laying solid oak flooring in the kitchen and hall. And a lovely job they made, as you’d expect.

You might think that laying a hardwood floor isn’t the type of thing you’d fine fine craftsmen and cabinet makers doing. You’d be right, we don’t do a huge amount of it. However, that said – whilst laying the middle of the floor is pretty much donkey work, there are plenty of wood related challenges going on to get the 5* finish around the tricky bits at the edge. The hearth, the door skirting (architrave), gates, steps etc etc. Every big house, or older house, will have some features that make the job a bit tricky, in this case there was a hatch in the floor that needed handling with care.

We sell hardwood flooring and there is a section of the showroom with a selection of samples of flooring with a huge variety of different woods and finishes. Solid hardwood as well as engineered boards. We’ll give you the benefit of our expertise and advise on the most appropriate products for you to use.

Custom Elm Bathroom Cabinet & Mirror

I’ve been meaning to take some photos of this for ages. Taken on my phone, so apologies they are not as crisp and clean as the studio shots. This is Auld Boy and Kate’s converted upstairs bathroom – Fairlie Furniture’s venerable patriarch and matriarch.

As you can see from the photos below, the cabinet has been built in a really rich coloured, characterful elm. The handle has been routered into the wood to create a smooth profiled indent. The plinth for the wash hand basin is an inch and a half thick jointed piece of character elm which has been curved to follow the lines of the bath. The waney natural edge with a nice knobbly burr has been left (not sure if you could hang your towel on it but that might be the idea).

The mirror takes up the whole of the adjoining wall. The fact it’s in the eaves of the house means that the mirror has been made to follow the same line, and it has an integrated shelf. All made from the same elm as the plinth on the cabinet. As you can see from the photos there is a toilet roll dispenser incorporated into it and a rail for hand towels.

Elm whisky box decanter set

A luxury elm box designed to hold a crystal whisky decanter plus two tasting glasses.

The idea behind this is that it has the function as well as the form. It’s important for a product such as this that you are able to see the crystal decanter and the glass, so you can leave the lid sitting open and the whisky is on display. However, it’s not really a great idea from a quality preservation perspective to have your expensive whisky sitting in the sunlight all the time – so if you are not in the process of actually enjoying the whisky, you can close the lid on the box.

The other functional aspect the design has it that it is transportable. Decanter boxes tend not to be easily picked up and moved, so there are often no obvious handles on them. We have incorporated handles into the design as a feature. If you want to bring it down from the study to the dining room for an after dinner snifter then you can. Or if you want to take it to a tasting, a burns supper, your weekly poker game – whatever – then you can do that too. You can close and lock the lid, pick it up and stick it safely in the car where it won’t fall over because it has a flat base and it’s sturdy.

So on to the form. It is a lovely piece of furniture – handmade in Scotand from the very best kiln dried elm, the fittings are the highest quality brass fittings. Hinges carefully recessed so they are flush. The panels have been routered so that the sections don’t sit flush with each other, there is definition to the construction.

As you can see from the photos, the finish on these products (as with all Fairlie Furniture products) is superb. We did a lot of research into this market and had a really good look at a lot of similar ideas and products which have been produced over the years as concepts, commissions or in small batches for whisky promotions. Let’s just say that you’re not likely to find too many close up photos of them, and we’ll leave it at that.

It’s the fine detail and finishing that matters, that’s what differentiates a truly superior high quality from the rest. And as you can see from the close-up images we’ve published here, we have applied the attention to the detailing that raises this product from ‘nice’ through ‘lovely’ and onto ‘wow’. It is just gorgeous, So well done Kenny and the team for a great design – and thanks to the bonfires of prototypes that cam before it too!

For the decanter we’d recommend Glencairn Crystal – they are the team that handle the high end glassware for much of the whisky industry, you can see some of the quality marques they work with on their website.

Custom Kitchen Worktop

We love it when our clients take a few photos of the work we’ve done for them and send them in. It’s always less staged, it’s not a set of professional photos in a clinical, studio setting – it’s the piece of furniture in it’s new family home, being used. No smiling models, no soft focus lightboxes … some dishes and an electric pink tupperware! Excellent.

These photos are a great example of what can be done by mixing it up a bit. You don’t need the whole kitchen made of elm, the natural hardwood character and colour perfectly complement whites or ivory colours. So in this case we were able to produce a waney / natural edge elm worktop and fit it on top of white gloss cabinets which have been produced elsewhere.

Our custom made elm worktop was produced to fit around the Belfast sink and the existing cooker hob. It looks amazing, thanks Laura.

High Elm Table

I assumed that in the same way that a High Priestess would be an exceptional or superior Priestess, High Elm must be some rare and exotic type of elm, difficult to acquire and exceptionally beautiful. Maybe only grown in the grounds of the Queen’s properties or something.

Nope. What they meant was a table made of normal elm, but higher than a normal dining table so you could sit at it on stools rather than on chairs.

Still, even if it’s not made of the legendary High Elm, it’s still a beautiful table. Produced for a customer in Kilmarnock, it is simple and minimal – as with most of our work it’s the beauty of the wood itself which makes the furniture so unique, and it’s the job of the craftsmen in the workshops to bring that out. So here we are – a lovely handmade circular elm dining table for four.