Concept For Living magazine » Rob Bennett

Rob Bennett – Designer Maker Profile

Monday, January 12th, 2009

rob-bennett Furniture Designer and owner of Brownlow Furniture Company Rob Bennett reveals the traditional inspirations behind his company’s success.

Tell us a bit about your background.

I studied at Manchester University, where I did a degree in Furniture Restoration. I did a lot of shop fitting work and also ran a workshop while I was there, to build up my experience. I first set up The Brownlow Furniture Company in my parents’ single garage. I was there for eight months, I then moved to Ellesmere Port as expansion meant I needed a larger space. I was there for a further eight months, but also outgrew this space and moved to Chester in June 2003.

The Chester workshop was discovered by my sister. It is a fantastic building, with wonderful long windows, allowing lots of natural light to flood in. The location is perfect as customers can walk in and look around. For the last two years we have attended the Concept For Living sponsored Home & Garden Show. In terms of getting our name out there, the shows have been the best thing that we have done for the company. The Chester Racecourse

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location is perfect and the shows attract the right quantity of people.

What does an average day entail for you?

There is never an average day here. I try and arrive at 7.15am so I can organise things for everyone else. The other employees tend to arrive around 8.15am. I am often involved in visiting clients and measuring up, but a lot of my work is very much office, rather than workshop, based. I love working on detailed drawings and new ideas. We often have work experience students on placements in the business, which is great.

Can you describe your work and the processes that you use?

Our work is truly bespoke. We take influences from everywhere. No two kitchens are the same design. We have a very traditional approach, and offer a free measuring-up service. We do hand drawn illustrations free of charge – just to make us that little bit different. Everyone who buys from us has to be a member of the showroom. We offer a free membership policy, and tend to find that once people sign up as members they return to make future purchases. Our prices are based simply upon the material that is used and the work that has taken place.

What inspires you?

I love early architecture and I am very traditional in my approach – which is why I choose to have people working rod-bennett-3 here who have a more modern eye. I have a great love of medieval furniture; very early oak is a great passion of mine. I can appreciate contemporary designs and to a certain extent modern too. Furniture is a very subjective topic, so I enjoy working on contemporary pieces but they’re not what I would choose to live with. We get a good balance of style and skills from the variety of people that work here.

Who are your design heroes?

People who have developed woodwork techniques. Those early cabinetmakers who are the reason why we have beautiful panel doors. I much prefer rural furniture. At Brownlow we work on our own ideas rather than looking at what other companies are doing; if someone else is doing it, we don’t want to be!

What projects are you working on at the moment?

A lot of kitchens! We are planning to build a new kitchen show room, which is going to have a more contemporary feel. We’re also doing an interesting staircase in Abersoch and some curved cabinets too.

To find out more contact Rob Bennett at: The Brownlow Furniture Company

Tel: 01829 741 574 / 07989 593 763

Email: enquiries@inhouse-furniture.com

www.brownlowfurniture.com

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