Scott Workshops 2.0

The day after Boxing Day, all the machines were lifted from our Dickensian Portslade brewery building and dropped onto our new factory floor in Newhaven.

The factory was built in the early 1950s on what has become the main industrial estate in Newhaven. The prefabricated concrete post and beam with saw tooth roof is elegant, light and airy. We simply can’t wait to get in there, where we'll have a fork lift truck and space to make bigger, more interesting structures.

Rob, Pete, and Ted have been on site for two months working tirelessly to get the enormous roof weather tight and the insides painted. We have installed a huge wood stove to burn our waste and keep us toasty, and much time has been spent working out if it's possible to cook in it.

The efficiency gains of having more space and a single expanse of flat floor will be huge, not to mention the benefits of safer working. It’s a bit nerdy to get excited by a factory, I know, but I can't help it, it’s a lovely thing!

Click through the above gallery to see more of Leigh Simpson's superb photographs of the move,

Hat Tree at HOUSE: 17 to 20 June, Olympia, London

We're happy to say our Hat Tree will be on show as part of the Design Guild Mark stand at HOUSE this coming weekend. HOUSE is a four-day celebration of interior design (17 to 20 June 2015). In association with House & Garden magazine and held at Olympia Grand, London, HOUSE offers visitors the chance to explore a huge range of established and emerging furniture and homewares brands. There'll also be the chance to hob nob with buyers, be inspired by expert presentations and have design conundrums cured with one-to-one consultations. A pop-up Mossiman's restaurant and Louis Roederer Champagne bar will keep it floaty.

HOUSE
17 to 20 June
Olympia, London
Adult ticket £16 / Child £8 / Under 12's free
10 till 6pm

Ben's Hat Tree wins Wood Award for Production Made Furniture

We're chuffed to say that Ben's Hat Tree has won the 2014 Wood Award for Production Made Furniture. The awards, held at Carpenters Hall in the City of London, recognise outstanding design and craftsmanship in contemporary timber furniture and architecture. It is an honour to receive this accolade, especially in a year of record entries, and we are particularly proud to be noted alongside our near neighbours, the 2014 winner-of-winners, Ditchling Museum of Art & Craft.

Ben, whose Hat Tree was also awarded a Design Guild Mark earlier this year, says: "There is an old joke about our industry which goes: how do you make a small fortune? Sink a large one into a furniture company.

"At the Wood Awards last week, held in the magnificent, richly carved, polished and paneled Carpenters Hall in the City of London, I was involved in something fantastic. The event, ostensibly a competition, was infinitely more than that. In essence, it was a coalition. In that lovely, over-the-top banqueting hall surrounded by London’s financial district, a coalition of wood workers, architects' engineers, museum curators, teachers and judges were gathered together. What was being judged was not simple. It was about quality, obviously, but it was also about design, beauty and functionality. Over all, the most important thing was that everyone in that big splendid room was interested in making and not merely consuming.

"The Carpenters Company and The Worshipful Company of Furniture Makers have traditions dating back to the fifteenth century. They champion the simple wonder of making things. The fine buildings they have do not represent monetary wealth because, as the joke shows, carpentry has never made anyone rich. We do it for more substantial reasons. So, thanks for the Wood Award, and the Guild Mark. I will continue in the long tradition of making things through which I hope to fulfill William Morris’ adage of being 'either useful or beautiful' - preferably both."

Ben's Hat Tree is available to buy through Design Masters at the Futon Company.

Read the Wallpaper* report about the 2014 Wood Awards.