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A study has to work hardest and look best. It holds the things you use every day, and it is often the room visitors are shown into.
The furniture has to earn both. A desk needs a top big enough to work on and drawers deep enough to file into. A bookcase needs shelves that will not sag under hardbacks. And all of it has to be in proportion to a room that is usually smaller than you would like.
We make study furniture to order, in solid timber, in Suffolk: freestanding pieces, fitted rooms, or the two together, which is how most studies end up.
Where to start
Bureaux — a sloping fall front over a bank of drawers, with a fitted interior of pigeonholes and small drawers behind it. The piece for a study that is also a spare bedroom, because it closes and the mess disappears. Bureau #902, and the bureau with a bookcase top.
Pedestal desks — the full-size working desk: a top carried on two banks of drawers with a kneehole between. Pedestal desk #901, partners’ desk #901C, the Victorian desk with a green leather top, and corner desks.
Bookcases — open and glazed, freestanding and fitted, from a small open bookcase to an architectural six-door glazed bookcase in mahogany or a very large fitted oak library.
We also make single and double filing cabinets in solid timber, sized to take suspension files properly, and settles with a door.
Fitted studies and libraries
In most study projects the question stops being which desk and becomes what to do with that wall.
A fitted study is the answer when the room is small, when the walls are irregular, or when you want floor-to-ceiling storage with nothing wasted above a cornice. It is also the answer when a run has to work around a chimney breast or a radiator that cannot be moved.
We make fitted bookcases, studies, libraries, panelling and whole rooms in the same workshop, through the same finishing shop as the freestanding pieces. A fitted library from us is furniture that happens to be scribed to the wall, not carcases with doors on. Typical work includes open shelving with a doorway framed into the middle, a library with a desk built into the run, and glazed sections over cupboard bases.
See fitted furniture for how that work is designed, drawn and installed. The most common arrangement is the hybrid: a fitted run down the long wall, and a freestanding pedestal desk in the middle of the room.
Leather tops, and the practical bits
A leather writing surface is a panel of hide set into a rebate in the desk top, usually with a tooled border. It is quieter to write on and easier on the eye under a lamp. The options are on the pedestal desks page.
Cable management is a decision, not an afterthought. Tell us what plugs in and where the socket is, and we will design a grommet, a trough or a concealed run into the piece.
Shelf spans matter. Beyond a certain length a shelf will bow under books however thick it is, so we set lengths, thicknesses and divisions to suit the load.
Timbers
Oak, cherry, mahogany and walnut are the standard four, and every piece here is made in all of them. Mahogany is traditional for a formal library; oak for a country study; cherry, as shown on the #901 desk and the #116A bookcases, sits between the two.
Specials, quoted on application: character oak; pippy oak in light, medium and heavy grades; oak selected for medullary ray, within or without the timber; and clean timber with no knots at all, the sensible choice on a long fitted run. Modern and sheet materials are used where they improve strength, and a bookcase back is the obvious example.
Finishes: polished, painted, limed, sand-blasted, rub-through paint, natural, or colour matched to a sample. We can match furniture that is 100 years old to new reproduction purchases made the year before, which is how a new bookcase joins an inherited desk.
Order free timber and finish samples. Studies are lit artificially more than any other room, so judge them under the lamp you will use.
Made to your size
Every dimension is open. Desk height and knee clearance set to the person and the chair; top depth set to the screen you use; drawer depth set to suspension files; bookcase height stopped under a picture rail or run to a cornice; shelf spacing set to the books.
If the piece does not exist yet, our designers draw it first. See bespoke and commissioning.
Prices
Guide price on request. Everything here is quoted individually by size, timber, finish and specification, because no two studies are the same shape. Special timbers, colour matching, natural finishes and leather tops are priced on application. Standard lead time is typically ten to twelve weeks.
Frequently asked questions
Should I have freestanding or fitted study furniture?
Fitted where you need every inch of an irregular wall, or storage to the ceiling. Freestanding where the room has architecture worth keeping, or where you may move. Most studies end up with both.
Can you make a desk to fit a particular corner or alcove?
Yes. Large corner desks are a regular commission, and the point of making to order is that the piece is drawn to the room. Send us a sketch with the window, door and socket positions.
Do you make matching pieces over time?
Yes. We hold the drawings, so a bookcase commissioned three years after the desk can be made to the same detail and colour. We can also match furniture that is 100 years old.
What is a partners’ desk?
A pedestal desk finished on both sides, with drawers or cupboards facing each way, so two people can work facing each other. It is explained in full on the pedestal desks page.
