J Howlett Joinery

Oak just doing its thing

It’s always a pleasure using oil to finish furniture, especially when it’s oak. This was done using hard wax oil and boy does it look good!

Epic florist studio renovation!

The monster work bench finishing at a whopping 3m x 1.5m, boy does it make a statement. This is probably the biggest free standing piece of furniture I’ve ever made.

A run of fitted base units giving plenty of storage with 3 super long shelves above to display all the lovely vessels.

Store room/ kitchen/ bathroom update. We replaced the worktop, fitted a new sink and tiles. Also updated the doors to match the other furniture. (There’s still a piece of plinth to go on) The old toilet and floor tiles came out, new tiles down and new toilet installed.

Other things that we did were decorate the whole space, painted the storeroom floor, replaced the shelves on the storage racking, skirting and a spot of plastering.

The wall with the shelves on was only a stud, which made fitting such big shelves a bit of an issue. To over come this we cut out strips of the plaster board, inset ply, reinforced the stud frame and then plastered back over. This gave us something solid to fix all the brackets to and piece of mind that these huge shelves would stay on the wall.

All in all this was an awesome project to work on with lots of challenges but nothing we couldn’t over come. I have to say a special thank you to for trusting the process and having total faith that we could deliver exactly what she wanted. And finally a shoutout to Golledge Plumbing for all your help with the project!

Check out this absolute stunner. After quite a lot of discussion with the customer this was the design we settled on and I think it worked out really well!
The customer knew they wanted to have solid timber shelves and tops, mostly for practical reasons but also as an aesthetic choice, I had priced to use ash but it just didn’t quite fit with the budget so I suggested using some lovely clear redwood instead and I have to say I think it was a triumph!
Since the boom and decline of knotty pine furniture (which I have made a lot of in the past) I think people shudder when they hear the word pine as it conjures up thoughts of dark old waxed furniture that is outdated. But, hand picking some beautiful redwood boards and giving them a few coats of clear lacquer has really brought to life the natural beauty of this underrated timber. (Who knows maybe pine will have its day again)
Anyway the point is pine definitely still has it’s place in furniture making and is a great alternative to more expensive hardwoods. The cabinets were painted in French Grey - Dark (163) and the timber came from

Some beautiful yew I picked up from Really excited to see how this project turns out

Big panelled wardrobe I finished fairly recently. Lacquered oak internals with lots of storage and LED lights on sensors, the external were painted in Hague Blue. Love the contrast of the dark colour, brass handles and light natural oak. All soft close hardware

Went back to one of my most longstanding customers house fairly recently to measure up for more work. Once that job is fitted later this year I will have done work in almost every room in the house! This was the very first piece I ever made for them. Thanks for being such loyal customers

A little utility fitted recently, hiding the boiler and adding some cabinets to maximise storage space. The doors were made in the workshop as the boiler was an awkward size, the wall units came from

Something exciting happened today 🤫

Panelled wardrobe with a nice open shelf detail that I made and fitted over in Skipton. The shelves were made from ash (my fav) with a lacquered finish and the wardrobe was painted in soul surfer from Lust Home. I really enjoyed working on this project and made even better with the chance to catch up with an old pal Becki OHara

Here’s one from late summer last year. Built to match the kitchen with a traditional style cockbead frame. All the externals were made from tulipwood and hand painted with mushroom (142)

The doors were hung on butt hinges but finished with some soft close magnetic catches helping to bridge the gap between traditional and modern hardware

All the internals were veneered oak finished in a matt lacquer

The cabinets were fitted to sit on top of the original oak skirting, swipe for some before pics 👀

The mitre saw was working overtime last week getting this panelling job done. I can’t wait to go back to get some pics once it’s all been painted