Reeve & Co Interiors

Category: Blogs

  • Wall panelling done well: getting proportion and detail right

    Wall panelling done well: getting proportion and detail right

    Done well, wall panelling settles a room. Done carelessly, it fights it. The difference is rarely the budget — it is proportion, the quality of the mouldings, and how the panelling meets doors, windows and skirtings. After many years making it, here is what we look at first.

    Start with proportion, not pattern

    The most common mistake is dropping a standard panel grid onto a wall regardless of its size. We set out panelling to the room: the dado height relates to window cills and chair backs, the panel widths are balanced so you never end up with an awkward sliver in a corner, and the rails align with door heads where possible. It is quiet work that nobody notices — which is exactly the point.

    Choose the right style for the house

    A Georgian drawing room asks for fielded panels and run mouldings; a contemporary apartment may suit flat, shadow-gapped panels with no moulding at all. Both are panelling; they simply speak different languages. We will always steer a scheme towards what the architecture is already telling us, rather than imposing a look.

    Material and finish

    Most painted panelling is built from a stable, paint-grade timber and MDF combination, chosen so it will not move and crack along the joints. Where the panelling is to be stained or left natural — oak, walnut or a fine veneer — the carcassing and the grain matching matter a great deal more. Finishing is done in controlled conditions so the surface is even and hard-wearing.

    Where panelling earns its keep

    Panelling is also the most elegant way to hide things: a jib door into a cloakroom, a concealed cupboard, integrated lighting or a media recess. Planned from the start, these disappear into the rhythm of the panels.

    You can see panelling, libraries and concealed joinery across our case studies. If you are planning a scheme, we are always glad to look at drawings early — get in touch.

    Related pages

  • Gun Room Security: What the Rules Actually Say

    Gun room security: what the rules actually say

    Most of what is written about firearms storage in this country is written by people selling steel boxes. This is our attempt to set out what the rules actually require, what they do not require, and where a joinery-built gun room fits.

    Glazed oak gun cabinet with dentil cornice holding shotguns and rifles

    It is not legal advice, and the last word always belongs to your local police firearms licensing department. But it is accurate to the published sources as at August 2026, and it is written by people who make this for a living rather than by people selling you a product.

    There is no law that says you must have a gun cabinet

    This surprises almost everyone. No statute requires a cabinet, a British Standard, a steel door, a particular lock or an alarm. What the law imposes is an outcome, not a product.

    The Firearms Rules 1998 set the condition that appears on every certificate: firearms must at all times be stored securely so as to prevent, so far as is reasonably practicable, access to the firearms by an unauthorised person. Breach is a summary offence under the Firearms Act 1968, and in practice the consequence that matters is not prosecution but revocation.

    Two details are worth knowing. For a firearm certificate the condition covers the firearms and the ammunition. For a shot gun certificate it covers the guns only — there is no statutory duty to lock away cartridges, though it is plainly sensible, particularly where there are children in the house.

    And the test is “reasonably practicable”, which means proportionate. What satisfies the condition for two shotguns in an occupied farmhouse is not what satisfies it for a twenty-gun collection in a house that stands empty half the year. There is no single right answer, which is precisely why there is no single prescribed product.

    So why does everybody have a cabinet?

    Because guidance, not law, points that way.

    The Home Office publishes the Firearms Security Handbook, currently the 2020 edition, produced with the police and the British Shooting Sports Council. It is explicitly not a statement of the law. It describes what is normally considered reasonable, and it is what your firearms enquiry officer will assess your arrangements against when they visit.

    The Handbook describes three broad levels of security.

    Level 1 is the ordinary domestic case — an occupied house, a modest number of guns, nothing unusual about the location. A cabinet is normally considered reasonable security.

    Level 2 is triggered by higher risk: a property that is regularly unoccupied, a higher-crime location, or a substantial number of guns. The Handbook indicates that this might begin somewhere between six and ten.

    Level 3 covers larger collections, indicatively more than twelve, and applies automatically where a section 5 firearm is held in a dwelling.

    Number is never the only factor, and this is the part most often misread. The Handbook is explicit that the type of firearm, its potential danger if misused, and how attractive it is to a criminal matter as much or more than the count. A single rifle can attract more attention than six ordinary shotguns. Sound moderators, spare barrels and component parts are not counted in the total.

    When is a gun room an alternative to a cabinet?

    The Handbook treats a purpose-built gun room as a legitimate alternative to a cabinet, not as a lesser option — and it sets out a construction specification for one at Annex A.

    That specification is worth understanding for what it is: a description of a room that holds together as a whole, rather than a list of approved products. It addresses the walls, and specifically what to do where a wall is not solid. It addresses the door, its frame, and how that frame is fixed to the structure — not the door in isolation. It addresses locking and hinging together, because a door is only as good as its weaker side. It addresses the ceiling where the room can be reached from a loft, any window at ground or basement level, and ventilation, because a sealed room is bad for guns and an unbaffled vent is simply a hole.

    Importantly, the specification expressly contemplates timber. A solid-core or laminated security door, or a timber door lined with sheet steel, sits alongside certified steel assemblies as an acceptable approach. A gun room does not have to look like a strongroom.

    The wall is where most rooms fail

    Timber studwork with plasterboard either side is not, on its own, adequate — and a great many of the rooms people want to use are exactly that. A decoratively panelled room built over an ordinary stud partition does not meet the specification, however good the panelling is.

    There are two ways to deal with it. One is construction: open the wall up and rebuild it. The other is to line the inside face of the room in steel and clad over the steel in timber, which achieves the same end without a builder, without altering the structure, and without the room losing its proportions. It is the approach we use, and it is why a gun room can go into a house that is already finished and decorated.

    Either way, the principle is the same and it is worth stating plainly: timber over an unlined stud wall is decoration. Whatever is doing the security work is behind the finish, and it is the part nobody ever photographs.

    Bigger collections: divide, don’t concentrate

    There is a natural assumption that a larger collection means one larger room. It is worth questioning early, because the guidance leans the other way.

    At the highest security level the Handbook’s instinct is to divide the risk — separate storage in different parts of the house — rather than to put everything behind a single door. A large gun room is not automatically what a firearms enquiry officer will prefer, and for some collections it is exactly what they will not.

    In practice that often produces a better result anyway. The guns in regular use live where they are cleaned and where the boots are. The pairs that come out twice a year, the inherited pieces, the ones that are really furniture, live somewhere else — often behind something that does not look like storage at all.

    What happened to BS 7558

    For more than thirty years the reference point for gun cabinets in this country was BS 7558:1992, Specification for gun cabinets. On 7 November 2025 BSI withdrew it. No replacement standard has been published.

    The position this leaves is untidy. The Firearms Security Handbook 2020 still names BS 7558. A number of manufacturers and retailers still advertise compliance with it. In Northern Ireland — which operates under entirely separate legislation — the PSNI still states that a cabinet to BS 7558 is required.

    What it means in practice is straightforward. BS 7558 was never a legal requirement; it was a benchmark referenced in guidance. Its withdrawal changes nothing about the legal duty, which is unchanged, and it does not make anybody’s existing cabinet unlawful.

    But it does mean that any claim made today that a product “complies with BS 7558” is a claim about a standard that no longer exists. We have removed every such reference from our own material, and we would treat a supplier still making it as one who has not been paying attention.

    What nobody can promise you

    There is no Home Office approval scheme for gun cabinets or gun rooms. The Handbook says so directly: references to commercial products do not imply any approval of that manufacturer. There is no police approval scheme either. Individual firearms enquiry officers accept individual installations at individual addresses. Nobody approves products.

    So when you see “police approved”, “Home Office approved”, “fully compliant” or “guaranteed to pass your inspection” — none of those things exist. They cannot exist, because compliance attaches to you as the certificate holder and to your premises, not to an object somebody sold you.

    Independent attack testing does exist and is worth having. Sold Secure rate cabinets; LPCB certify door assemblies. Both are real, both mean something. But they are commercial test results, not official approvals, and the two are routinely and conveniently confused in advertising.

    The honest version is this: a good cabinet, properly fixed, in a sensible location, presented to your FEO in advance, is what gets you a straightforward inspection. No badge does it for you.

    Questions worth asking any maker

    What thickness is the steel?

    A specific number, not “heavy gauge”. If they will not tell you, there is a reason.

    What are the locks, and to what standard?

    BS 3621 is the benchmark for mortice locks. Ask for the model.

    How is it fixed, and to what?

    A cabinet is only as secure as what it is bolted to. Fixings into plasterboard are worth very little. Ask what happens if the wall will not take a masonry anchor.

    If it is glazed, what is the glass?

    Laminated anti-bandit glass, and a thickness. Ordinary toughened glass in a gun cabinet door is not the same thing.

    Will you speak to my firearms enquiry officer before you build?

    The most useful question on this list. It costs the maker a phone call and it removes the only genuinely unpleasant surprise available in this process.

    What do I get on completion?

    A written specification of what has actually been built — steel, glass, locks, fixings and centres — is a document your FEO can verify and your insurer will ask for.

    How we work

    We sell joinery, not security ratings. Where a certified component is the right answer — a rated cabinet, a certified door, boltwork, an alarm — we buy it in, install it correctly, and pass the manufacturer’s certification through with their name on it rather than our own.

    We agree the specification with your firearms enquiry officer before manufacture, in writing. And we issue a signed specification sheet on completion — steel thickness, glass specification, lock models and their BS numbers, fixing type and centres — so the FEO can verify what has been built rather than take anyone’s word for it.

    If you are planning a cabinet or a room, send us the room and the gun list. We will tell you which parts of the standard apply to you, and which do not.

    Bespoke gun cabinets

    The specification in full. From £7,000 plus VAT, delivered and installed.

    Fitted gun rooms

    Steel lining, timber cladding and a clad firearms door. From £20,000.

    Concealed gun storage

    Joinery built around a cabinet you already own.

    This article is general information, not legal advice, and reflects the published position as at August 2026. Responsibility for the security condition on your certificate rests with you as the certificate holder, and the adequacy of any storage arrangement is a matter for your local police firearms licensing department.

  • Fitted libraries: turning a spare room into the heart of the home

    Fitted libraries: turning a spare room into the heart of the home

    A library is one of the most satisfying things we make. It’s also one of the most misunderstood — people imagine it needs a grand house and a thousand leather-bound volumes. In practice, a fitted library is simply a room given purpose by joinery, and it can transform an underused study, snug or spare bedroom into the room everyone gravitates to.

    Why a library earns its space

    Floor-to-ceiling joinery does something a few freestanding bookcases never will: it makes a room feel considered and complete, and it turns dead wall into generous, ordered storage. It doesn’t have to be only books, either — the best ones absorb everything from a drinks cabinet to a hidden desk to the family’s clutter, behind beautifully proportioned fronts.

    Design around more than books

    Before we draw a thing, we talk about what’s actually going on the shelves. Paperbacks, art books and box files want very different shelf heights, and a library designed for one looks wrong holding another. Adjustable shelving helps, but the proportions of the bays themselves — their width and rhythm across the wall — are what make a library feel architectural rather than like a storage unit.

    Proportion is everything

    The difference between a library that feels right and one that feels off is almost always proportion: the relationship between the bays, the depth of the shelves, the weight of the uprights, the detail of the cornice where it meets the ceiling. We set these out carefully against the room’s windows, doors and fireplace so the whole wall reads as one calm composition.

    Light it properly

    Lighting is what lifts a library from handsome to special in the evening. Discreet, warm-toned lighting built into the joinery — picking out the shelves rather than glaring out at the room — makes the timber glow and the books look their best. It’s a small thing that’s far easier to do at the making stage than to add later.

    Materials and making it yours

    Painted, stained or natural timber, a reading ladder, a concealed jib door, a window seat folded into the run — the details are where a library becomes personal. These are the things clients remember, and the things that make a room unmistakably theirs rather than something lifted from a showroom.

    A library is a long-term piece — made well, it’ll outlast the books that first fill it. If you’ve a room that could become one, our case studies show what’s possible, and you can talk to us whenever you’re ready.

    Related pages

  • What “furniture-quality” joinery really means

    What “furniture-quality” joinery really means

    “Furniture-quality” is one of those phrases that gets used a lot and explained rarely. It’s worth pinning down, because the difference between joinery that’s merely fitted and joinery made to the standard of fine furniture is mostly invisible on day one and very visible after ten years. Here’s what it actually comes down to.

    It starts with what you can’t see

    The carcass — the box behind the doors — is where quality is won or lost. Well-made joinery uses stable, properly jointed materials that won’t sag, twist or telegraph movement over time. Cheap cabinetry looks identical when it’s new; the difference shows up as drooping shelves and doors that stop closing flush a few years in. If you can only inspect one thing, open a drawer fully and feel how it’s built.

    Solid timber and veneer, used honestly

    There’s a myth that solid timber is always “better” than veneer. In truth, a good maker uses each where it belongs: solid sections where strength, edges and feel matter, and fine veneers over stable substrates for broad, calm surfaces that would crack or move if made from solid boards. What matters is that the timber is selected for grain and colour and used with intent, not whatever came off the rack.

    The finish is most of the work

    People underestimate how much of a fine piece is finishing. A properly hand-applied paint or polish — built up, cut back and re-coated — is what gives joinery its depth and durability. It’s slow, it’s done in controlled conditions, and it’s the first thing to suffer when a job is rushed. Run your hand across a painted door: a quality finish feels close to glass, not like a wall.

    Ironmongery and the small things

    Hinges, runners and handles are where daily life happens. Soft-close mechanisms, solid well-weighted ironmongery and doors that sit with consistent shadow gaps all the way round are quiet signals that someone cared. So is the way a piece deals with the building moving around it — good joinery is detailed to absorb seasonal movement rather than fight it.

    Why it costs what it costs

    All of the above takes time, skill and good material, which is why genuinely bespoke joinery isn’t cheap. But the right comparison isn’t with flat-pack — it’s with replacing something that was never built to last. Made well, fitted joinery becomes part of the house, mellows with age and is still serving its purpose decades later. That’s the whole point of it.

    If that’s the standard you’re after, our case studies show the kind of work we mean, and we’re always glad to discuss a project.

    Related pages

  • Designing a kitchen island that actually works

    Designing a kitchen island that actually works

    The island is the part of a kitchen everyone wants and the part most often got slightly wrong. Too big and it dominates; too small and it’s a glorified side table; badly placed and you spend your life walking around it. When we design one as part of a bespoke kitchen, we start not with how it looks but with how it’s used.

    Decide what it’s for first

    An island can be a preparation space, a place to sit and talk to whoever’s cooking, a home for the hob or sink, extra storage, or some combination. It rarely does all of them well at once. Be honest about which one or two matter most to you. A family that eats breakfast at the island has a different design from a couple who entertain and want a clean run of worktop to lay out food.

    Get the clearances right

    This is where most islands go wrong. You want roughly a metre of clear floor between the island and the runs around it — a little more on the main working side, a little less is just about liveable elsewhere. Less than that and two people can’t pass when a dishwasher or oven door is open. It’s worth taping it out on the floor before you commit; the footprint that looks generous on a plan can feel tight in the room.

    If people will sit, design for it properly

    Overhangs for seating need around 300mm of knee room and a comfortable stool height under the worktop. Squeeze it and no one uses the seats. We often set the seating section slightly apart from the working zone so crumbs and clutter don’t migrate into where someone’s eating.

    Make the storage earn its place

    An island is a wonderful storage opportunity — deep drawers for pans, a home for bins and recycling, sometimes a larder end. We plan the internals around what you actually own rather than filling it with standard units. Drawers nearly always beat cupboards here: you can see and reach everything without crouching.

    Worktops: where to spend

    The island worktop takes the most use and the most looking-at, so it’s the place to spend if you’re choosing where to. Stone is hard-wearing and handsome; timber is warm and forgiving but wants maintenance; the right choice depends on how you cook and how relaxed you are about a bit of patina. We’re happy to talk through the trade-offs honestly rather than steer you to whatever’s easiest to fit.

    Don’t forget the services

    If your island has a sink or hob, the plumbing, electrics or extraction have to come up through the floor — which means deciding its position early, while the floor is still accessible. Move an island after first-fix and you’re into real disruption. This is exactly why kitchens reward planning the boring bits first.

    Every kitchen we make is designed around the people using it, not pulled from a catalogue. If you’re planning one, take a look at our recent projects or come and talk to us.

    Related pages

  • Introducing AI Trade Estimates (beta): instant joinery budgets for the trade

    Introducing AI Trade Estimates (beta): instant joinery budgets for the trade

    Quick answer: We have built a tool that lets architects, designers and contractors upload a drawing and get an instant, indicative budget for a bespoke joinery package — built on the same costing engine behind our own tenders. Your first estimate on each project is free, it is in beta, and you can try it here.

    Why we built it

    Most weeks, architects and contractors ask us the same early question: “Roughly what should I allow for the joinery?” It is a fair one — you need a budget to have a sensible conversation with your client, often well before there is time for a full tender. Until now, getting that number meant waiting for us to find a slot to price it by hand.

    So we did something about it. Reeve & Co Trade Estimates puts an early-stage budget in your hands in minutes, at any hour — without you having to wait, and without us dropping tools to produce a rough figure. It is the same instinct that drives everything we do: understand the real problem, then solve it properly.

    How it works: AI measures, our engine prices, a person confirms

    The principle matters, so here it is plainly.

    • The AI measures. It reads your uploaded drawing and produces a take-off — item types, quantities, dimensions and finishes — and flags anything it cannot read clearly. It never invents a price.
    • Our engine prices it. That take-off is costed by Engine v21, the same engine behind our own quotations, using our real rates, hours and margins. You get an indicative range — tighter where the detail is clear, wider where it is not — plus two or three value-engineering options.
    • A person confirms. Nothing becomes a firm price until someone at Reeve & Co has reviewed it. The tool gives you a budget; a quotation still comes from a full tender.

    What is in it for you

    • Speak to budgets immediately. Get a credible range to share with your client straight away.
    • Value-engineering, built in. See how material, finish or specification choices move the number — invaluable when a scheme is over budget.
    • Your first estimate is free, on every project. Amendments and re-runs use low-cost credits, so you only pay when you are iterating on a live job.
    • Your drawings stay confidential. They are used only to prepare your estimate, kept secure, and never used to train third-party AI.

    It is in beta — and that is deliberate

    We are releasing this as a beta on purpose. We would rather get a genuinely useful tool into your hands now and keep sharpening it than wait for perfection. The AI is being trained on real drawings, so it improves the more it sees. You may occasionally find something that needs a second look — if you do, flag it and we will review it and put it right. That feedback is exactly how the tool gets better.

    One thing will not change: every figure is clearly an indicative estimate, never a quotation, and always subject to survey and final specification.

    How to get started

    1. Request access. Trade accounts only — tell us who you are on the Trade Estimates page and we will set you up.
    2. Upload and brief. Add your drawings and answer a few quick questions on finish, materials and timescale.
    3. Get your range. An indicative budget plus value-engineering options, ready to share with your client.
    4. When you are ready for a firm price, send us the full tender and we will return a properly costed, itemised quotation — reviewed by hand.

    Try Reeve & Co Trade Estimates (beta) →

  • How to brief a joiner for a high-end project

    How to brief a joiner for a high-end project

    Quick answer: The best joinery briefs share three things early — clear drawings or intent, the materials and finishes you have in mind, and the programme you need to hit. Involve your joiner as early as you can: bringing a maker in at concept or developed-design stage lets them advise on what is buildable and how it should detail, which removes the costly surprises that appear when joinery is left until late.

    Whether you are an architect coordinating a scheme, an interior designer shaping a room, or a private client commissioning your first piece, a good brief is what turns a design intent into a faultless installed reality. Here is how to get it right.

    1. Bring the joiner in earlier than you think

    The single most useful thing you can do is involve your joinery workshop early. Much of the cost and stress on a joinery package comes from problems discovered late — a services run that fouls a cabinet, a cornice that will not return, a tolerance that was never agreed. A maker brought in at concept or developed-design stage can advise on what is buildable, how elements should detail, and how to sequence the work, long before any of that becomes expensive.

    If layouts are already fixed, that is fine too — a good workshop will take the design intent and resolve it into production drawings. But earlier is almost always better.

    2. Share drawings, or a clear sense of intent

    You do not need finished technical drawings to start a useful conversation. Architects and designers will usually share plans, elevations and a specification; private clients might bring photographs, a moodboard and a description of how they want to live in the space. Both are valuable. What a joiner needs is enough to understand the intent — the look, the function and the standard you are aiming for.

    3. Be clear about materials and finishes

    Specification is where a project succeeds or disappoints, so think about it early. Which timbers and finishes do you have in mind — painted, stained, natural oak, walnut? What sheen? Where should stone, glass, mirror or metalwork feature? You do not need every answer at the outset, but flagging preferences and priorities helps your joiner guide you to the right materials for the room and the budget. Ask for samples and prototypes — any good workshop will prepare them for sign-off before manufacture.

    4. Set the programme out loud

    Tell your joiner the dates that matter: when you need drawings approved, when site will be ready, when handover is. A reputable workshop will give you a realistic lead time and work to your build sequence rather than promising a date it cannot protect. Bespoke work takes time — typically several months from order to installation for a kitchen — so the earlier the programme is shared, the better everyone can plan around it.

    5. Agree how the detail will be resolved

    The best joinery is resolved on paper before anything is made. Establish early how that will happen: who produces the production drawings, how they are approved, how the work is coordinated with the other trades, and how samples are signed off. At Reeve & Co we work in 2D and 3D CAD and issue full setting-out and production drawings for approval — so what is agreed on paper is what arrives on site, scribed to the building and installed clean.

    6. Know who is responsible for what

    On many projects, joinery is split across suppliers and coordinated on site — at someone’s cost and risk. A workshop that designs, draws, makes and installs under one roof removes that risk: one team, one set of drawings, one point of responsibility from survey to handover. It is worth establishing this early, because it shapes how smoothly the whole package will run.

    Working with Reeve & Co

    We work with architects and interior designers, with builders and main contractors, and directly with private clients — and we are comfortable joining a project at any stage. Everything is designed, drawn, made and installed by our own team from our Suffolk workshop, so you deal with one accountable partner throughout.

    Frequently asked questions

    At what stage should I involve a joiner?

    As early as you can. Bringing a maker in at concept or developed design lets them advise on buildability and detailing and avoids costly late surprises. We are equally happy to join once layouts are fixed.

    Do I need finished drawings before approaching a workshop?

    No. Plans and a specification are ideal, but a clear sense of intent — references, photographs, a description of how you want to use the space — is enough to start a useful conversation.

    Who produces the production drawings?

    At Reeve & Co we do. We work in 2D and 3D CAD and issue full setting-out and production drawings for your approval, coordinated with the other trades.

    How long does bespoke joinery take?

    It depends on size and complexity, but a bespoke kitchen is typically several months from order to installation. We give a clear programme up front and work to your build sequence.

    Do you install your own work?

    Always. Our own fitting team installs every commission, scribed to the building and snagged on handover — we never sub-let it.

    Planning a project?

    Share your drawings or your ideas and we’ll come back with a considered view and a clear next step. Call 01449 710500, email sales@reeveandco.com, or start a conversation.

    Briefing us on a live project? You can get an instant indicative joinery budget in minutes with our AI Trade Estimates (beta) — upload a drawing and you will have a cost range to share with your client, built on the same engine behind our tenders.

  • Hand and machine: how technology makes our joinery better, not less bespoke

    Hand and machine: how technology makes our joinery better, not less bespoke

    Quick answer: Precision machinery does not replace the cabinet maker — it frees them. At Reeve & Co, technology like CAD and CNC handles the exact, repetitive work to a tolerance the hand cannot match across volume, which lets our makers spend their time where it actually shows: on the joints, surfaces and fit you touch. The result is joinery that is both more accurate and more refined than the hand or the machine could achieve alone.

    There is a common worry among people commissioning bespoke work for the first time: if a machine is involved, is it really handmade? It is a fair question, and the honest answer is one we are happy to give — because the way we combine the two is precisely what makes our work better.

    The false choice between craft and technology

    The finest workshops in the country have never seen this as either/or. Machinery has been part of cabinet making for over a century; what has changed is its precision. Today a well-set-up workshop can cut, profile and repeat components to fractions of a millimetre — and that accuracy is a gift to craftsmanship, not a threat to it.

    Think of it this way. When a machine takes care of dimensioning a long run of cabinetry so every face frame is identical, the maker is freed from the slow, repetitive groundwork and can pour their hours into the parts that need a craftsman’s eye and hand: the fit of a drawer, the closing of a mitre, the way a panel sits flush in its frame, the final preparation before finishing. The machine raises the floor; the maker raises the ceiling.

    How it works in our Suffolk workshop

    Every Reeve & Co commission follows the same path, and technology and craft each have their place along it:

    • Design in CAD. We draw every project in 2D and 3D CAD, so the detail — junctions, reveals, mouldings — is resolved and approved on screen before anything is cut. What you sign off is what you receive.
    • Precision machining. From the approved drawings, components are machined to exact, repeatable tolerances, so a wall of panelling or a whole-house package reads as one considered piece.
    • In-house profiling. Our Felder spindle moulder lets us produce bespoke mouldings and match historic profiles in-house — invaluable in period and listed homes.
    • The bench. The piece is then assembled, fitted and finished by hand by makers who read the timber and adjust to it. This is the craftsmanship no machine can automate.
    • Finishing. Painted and lacquered work is hand-finished in our own spray booth, under controlled conditions, to a furniture-grade standard.

    Why this matters for you

    For a private client, it means a piece that is both exact and beautifully made — fitted properly, finished deeply, and built to last. For an architect or designer, it means the detail you drew is the detail that arrives on site, because it travelled from a single CAD model to the machine to the bench without being re-drawn or re-interpreted along the way. Precision and craft, pulling in the same direction.

    It is also, quietly, more sustainable. Work made accurately the first time wastes less material and lasts longer — and our workshop runs on solar generation with offcuts feeding our biomass heating, so waste from one job helps make the next.

    The point of the machine is more time for the hand

    The best bespoke joinery has never been about rejecting technology. It is about using it with judgement — letting precision tools do what they do best, so skilled people can do what only they can. That is how we hold a furniture-grade standard on projects far larger than a single piece of furniture, and it is why we think the future of fine joinery is not hand or machine, but both.

    Frequently asked questions

    Does using CNC machinery make a kitchen less bespoke?

    No. Every piece is still designed from scratch to your exact project. The machine simply executes the maker’s drawing more precisely than hand-cutting alone could, and frees the maker for the detailed work that needs a craftsman.

    Is the work still handmade?

    Yes. Assembly, fitting and finishing are all done by hand at the bench by our cabinet makers. Machining handles the precise groundwork; the craftsmanship is human.

    Can you match existing or period mouldings?

    Yes. With our spindle moulder we reproduce bespoke and historic profiles in-house, so new joinery matches original fabric in period and listed interiors.

    Where is the work made?

    Everything is designed, machined, assembled and finished in our Suffolk workshop at Mickfield, then installed by our own team.

    Want to see how your project would be made?

    We’re always glad to talk through it — and to show you the difference precision makes. Call 01449 710500, email sales@reeveandco.com, or start a conversation.

  • How much does a bespoke kitchen cost? A 2026 UK guide

    How much does a bespoke kitchen cost? A 2026 UK guide

    Quick answer: A genuinely bespoke, handmade kitchen in the UK typically costs from around £25,000 for a smaller kitchen, £40,000–£70,000 for a mid-sized family kitchen, and £100,000 or more for a large kitchen with an island, fine timbers, stone worktops and integrated appliances. The figure depends on size, materials, finish and complexity rather than on a price-per-unit — because nothing is off-the-shelf.

    That is the honest headline. The rest of this guide explains what sits behind it, so you can budget with confidence and understand exactly what you are paying for.

    What “bespoke” actually means — and why it changes the price

    There is a meaningful difference between a fitted kitchen and a bespoke one. Most kitchens, including many sold as “luxury”, are built from standard-sized carcasses and doors selected from a range. A bespoke kitchen, in the true sense, is designed from a blank sheet to your room and made to those exact dimensions — no fillers, no compromises around an awkward chimney breast, no cabinet forced to a standard width.

    At Reeve & Co, every kitchen is designed in-house, drawn in 2D and 3D CAD, and made by our own cabinet makers in our Suffolk workshop. That is where the cost — and the value — comes from: design time, solid timber and fine materials, hand-applied finishes, and the labour of people making something once, correctly, for one home.

    What drives the cost of a bespoke kitchen

    Six factors move the price more than anything else:

    1. Size and number of units — the simplest driver. More cabinetry, more cost.
    2. Materials — solid timber, veneers and the species you choose (oak, walnut, tulipwood) vary considerably in price.
    3. Finish — hand-painted and hand-lacquered finishes take skilled time in a spray booth; a more complex colour or sheen costs more than a simple one.
    4. Worktops — solid timber, stone and composite surfaces sit at very different price points, and stone in particular can be a significant line on its own.
    5. Complexity and detail — curved runs, glazed cabinets, intricate mouldings, a dresser or a statement island all add hand-work.
    6. Appliances and ironmongery — usually specified separately, and they can quietly become a large part of the total.

    A realistic way to budget

    As a rule of thumb for a high-end, handmade kitchen in 2026:

    • Smaller kitchen or kitchenette: from around £25,000.
    • Mid-sized family kitchen: roughly £40,000–£70,000.
    • Large kitchen with island and high specification: £100,000 and upwards.

    Remember that worktops and appliances are usually quoted separately, so set aside a realistic allowance for both. A good designer will help you balance the budget — putting the spend where it shows and where it works hardest, and being honest about where money can be saved without compromising the result.

    Why a bespoke kitchen is an investment, not an expense

    A well-made solid-timber kitchen is built to be maintained and adjusted over decades, not replaced in ten years. It is repainted rather than ripped out, serviced rather than skipped. As one of our clients put it, “it feels like a proper investment rather than a temporary makeover.” For a kitchen that is the most-used room in the house, that longevity is where the value lies.

    Frequently asked questions

    Is a bespoke kitchen worth the money?

    For a room used every day for twenty years or more, a handmade kitchen made from solid timber and maintained over its life is often better value than a cheaper kitchen replaced twice in the same period. It is a long-term investment in the house.

    What is the difference between a bespoke and a fitted kitchen?

    A fitted kitchen is assembled from standard-sized units chosen from a range. A bespoke kitchen is designed from scratch and made to your exact room, materials and brief — nothing is off-the-shelf.

    Do worktops and appliances come included in the price?

    Usually they are quoted separately, so budget for them in addition to the cabinetry. We will set them out clearly in an itemised proposal so there are no surprises.

    How do I get an accurate price for my kitchen?

    The only accurate figure is a quote against a design. Following an initial conversation, design and survey, we provide a detailed, itemised proposal so you know exactly what is and isn’t included before committing.

    Where does Reeve & Co make its kitchens?

    Every kitchen is designed and made in our Suffolk workshop at Mickfield, near Stowmarket, and installed by our own team across London, the Home Counties and East Anglia.

    Thinking about a bespoke kitchen?

    Tell us about your project and we’ll give you a clear, honest steer on budget and approach. Call 01449 710500, email sales@reeveandco.com, or start a conversation.

  • Commissioning bespoke joinery: a short guide for architects and designers

    Commissioning bespoke joinery: a short guide for architects and designers

    Most of the joinery we make starts on someone else’s drawing board. We work with architects and interior designers far more often than directly with homeowners, and over the years we’ve learned that the projects that run smoothly tend to share a few habits. None of them are complicated. So here, plainly, is how to get the best out of a maker like us.

    Bring your joiner in earlier than feels necessary

    The most common thing we hear is “I wish we’d had you in sooner.” By the time a scheme is fully detailed, a lot of decisions have quietly been made — wall build-ups, service runs, ceiling heights — that affect what’s actually buildable. Involving us at concept or early developed-design stage costs you nothing and usually saves a round of revisions. We can flag where a detail will be expensive, where a junction won’t resolve, and where a small change in setting-out makes the whole piece sit better.

    A good brief is about intent, not just dimensions

    We can read a drawing. What we can’t read is the bit in your head — how crisp you want a shadow gap, whether a run of cabinetry should read as furniture or as architecture, how the client actually lives. Tell us the intent and a reference image or two, and we’ll detail towards it. The more you tell us about tolerances that matter to you, the fewer surprises later.

    Survey before you finalise

    Buildings are rarely square, and period buildings never are. We take a measured survey and produce a full set of 3D CAD drawings before anything is cut, scribing every piece to the space. If we can survey once the structural and first-fix work is done — but before plaster — we can resolve service positions and fixings cleanly rather than chasing them on site.

    Lead times, honestly

    Quality joinery takes time, and it’s worth protecting that time in your programme. As a rough guide, a single statement piece might be six weeks from sign-off; a whole-house package can run to several months including survey, drawings, manufacture and installation. The making is only part of it — hand-finishing and a controlled paint or polish process can’t be rushed without it showing. Build that into the schedule early and the install becomes the easy part.

    Let us install our own work

    We install with our own team wherever possible. It’s not territorial — it’s that the person fitting a scribed panel to an out-of-true wall should be someone who understands how it was made. It protects the finish, keeps the programme tight, and means one point of responsibility from first drawing to final fit.

    On budget

    We’d always rather have an honest conversation about budget early than value-engineer the soul out of a piece late. Tell us the figure you’re working to and we’ll tell you, candidly, what’s achievable and where the money is best spent. Often it’s not where people expect — a restrained scheme made beautifully will always read better than an ambitious one made to a price.

    If you’ve a project in mind, we’re always happy to look at early drawings and talk it through. You can see recent work in our case studies, read more about how we work with design teams, or simply get in touch.

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