From Timber to Your Home: What Happens After You Order a Handmade Table or Desk
The Question Every Customer Asks
"So what actually happens after I place my order?"
It's the most common question we get — and it's a fair one. Buying a handmade, made-to-order table or desk is a different experience from clicking "add to basket" on a mass-produced piece. There's no warehouse shelf. No next-day dispatch. What there is, instead, is a process that's genuinely worth understanding.
Here's exactly what happens from the moment you order to the day your piece arrives.
Step 1: Your Order Comes In
When you place an order — whether it's for a dining table set, a reclaimed wood desk, or a bespoke commission — it lands directly with me. Not a customer service team. Not an automated system. Me.
I'll review your order, check the specifications, and if there's anything I need to clarify — dimensions, finish preference, leg style — I'll be in touch within 24 hours. This is also the point where bespoke requests get discussed in detail.
Step 2: Timber Selection
This is where the work really begins. Every piece of reclaimed timber is different, and selecting the right boards for your specific piece takes time and judgement.
I'm looking for boards with the right grain, the right character, and the right structural integrity for your table or desk. I'll consider the width and length of your piece, the finish you've chosen, and the overall aesthetic — whether that's a clean, contemporary look or something with more raw, industrial character.
No two pieces of timber are the same. That's the point — and it's what makes every finished piece genuinely unique.
Step 3: Cutting, Jointing & Assembly
Once the timber is selected, the boards are cut to your exact dimensions, planed, and jointed. For dining tables, this typically means creating a solid, stable top from multiple boards — glued and clamped under pressure to form a single, unified surface.
Legs are fitted — whether that's our signature hairpin legs, chunky block legs, or a trestle base — and the whole piece is checked for level and stability before moving to finishing.
Step 4: Sanding & Finishing
The finishing process is where the character of the timber really comes alive. We sand through progressively finer grits to open the grain, then apply your chosen finish — typically a hardwax oil or wax that protects the surface while letting the natural beauty of the wood show through.
For desks, we pay particular attention to the surface finish — it needs to be smooth enough for daily use, durable enough for years of work, and beautiful enough to make you actually want to sit down at it.
Our Industrial Reclaimed Wood Desk with Hairpin Legs is a good example of this balance — raw character on the surface, refined enough for a professional home office.
Step 5: Quality Check
Before anything leaves the workshop, I check it. Every joint, every surface, every leg. I'm looking for anything that doesn't meet the standard I'd be happy with in my own home.
If something isn't right, it gets fixed. That's the advantage of working with a single maker — there's no quality control department to pass the buck to. The buck stops with me, and I take that seriously.
Step 6: Delivery
All orders include free UK delivery. Larger pieces — dining tables, full desk setups — are delivered by a specialist two-person courier service that handles furniture with care. You'll receive tracking information and a delivery window in advance.
Lead time is typically around 3 weeks from order to delivery. For bespoke commissions with unusual specifications, it may be slightly longer — but we'll always be upfront about timelines before you commit.
Why This Process Matters
We live in an era of instant gratification — next-day delivery, same-day dispatch, furniture that arrives in a flat-pack box and takes an afternoon to assemble. There's a place for that.
But there's also a place for furniture that takes three weeks to make because someone is building it properly, by hand, from materials that have their own history. Furniture that will still be in your family in 30 years.
That's what we make. And now you know exactly how we make it.