BEAUTIFULLY BESPOKE
From kitchens to boot rooms, Matthew Marsden Furniture creates individual designs to suit your home and your lifestyle. Stephanie Sparrow reports
Craft heritage underpins every piece of cabinetry designed and fitted by Matthew Marsden Furniture. For not only has director Matthew Marsden more than 25 years in the business, but he upholds the family commitment to quality which began 90 years ago, when his builder grandfather opened a workshop where his prestigious Eccleston showroom now stands.
“Grandad started in 1929 in a little cabin here developing a house building business before he went to WW2, and again on his return,” explains Matthew.
Matthew’s father continued the family business, and by the late 1980s was training his son as a company joiner.
“Dad was a tough task master but that’s how I learnt my trade,” he smiles, reflecting on the experience that has helped him create a business with international commissions – Matthew Marsden Furniture can be found in homes across Europe as well as the UK.
The early years taught the young Matthew how good carpentry complements a home. While tasked to make essentials such as roofing and site joinery, he enjoyed crafting staircases and kitchens for new-builds. “I liked doing the finer things, the jobs you could look back at and admire,” he says.
Captivated with cabinetry, Matthew made pine bookcases as a hobby, selling them in his mother’s DIY shop on the Eccleston site. Encouraged by their popularity he yearned for bigger jobs, and by the mid-1990s had persuaded his parents to create a kitchen showroom within the Eccleston shop.
They gave him 12 months to prove himself. Matthew sold and installed other companies’ products and despite being restricted to work on the kitchens in his own time, the small-scale venture was a success.
Eventually, the DIY shop was phased out for the kitchen showroom, and Matthew secured the joinery workshops on the same site. Yet his dedication to detail, and understanding of how to make a house into a home, led to frustration with the inflexibility of other peoples’ products.
“A client would ask to change a kitchen drawer size, for example, but that would send the other company into turmoil because they had to work with fixed sizes,” he says.
Matthew came to believe that truly bespoke furniture, designed in Eccleston to the clients’ specifications was the best way to serve the market, and developed his own brand.
Matthew Marsden Furniture was launched in 2005 and now has a staff of 14, including wife Sue, designers and ‘home-grown’ joiners, recruited locally and trained by the long-serving workshop manager.
“We have become a recognised brand,” says Sue. “Estate agents refer to a Matthew Marsden kitchen on their details, for example.”
From kitchens to boot rooms, all furniture is accurately designed with an in-house computer package to enhance a client’s lifestyle. Most is hand-painted (making them easy to wipe clean) all drawers are dovetailed, and he chooses the best materials for the job. Mouldings or handles are chosen to complement the design era of the house.
“Whether you have bought a Victorian house, or a cottage with roses around the door, you like that style,” says Matthew. “So we make a unique kitchen, for example, to suit that house and your style.”
Treasured possessions can be accommodated more easily in custom-made furniture adds Sue.
“Clients bring things for us to include in the designs”, she says. “We have measured soup ladles, lipsticks for bedroom drawers and made deep wall units for antique dinner plates.”
This consultative approach inspires innovation – gun rooms can have their metal cabinets concealed in bespoke wooden furniture, while boot rooms, which are these days found outside country manors, can be installed in modern utility rooms to help contain mess.
“Boot rooms are so useful if children horse-ride or play rugby,” says Sue. “We can create easy places for them to hang coats, or named drawers for their boots.”
The emphasis on quality material and methods which Matthew learned as an apprentice, remain his ethos: “I shall always pass these into the company, as we continue to be inspired by our customers who are passionate about their homes, but trust our judgement too”, he says.
Matthew Marsden Furniture Ltd
5-7 Lawrence Lane
Eccleston, Chorley PR7 5SJ
www.mmfurniture.co.uk
