Restoring chairs

Part of the work which we undertake is to restore antique furniture. This chair was one of a set of four which we restored. They were rescued from an old croft house in Shetland. The old finish had to be scraped and sanded away and then refinished, the back legs re glued and new shaped pieces glued on to the legs. The upholstery was also replaced using the traditional methods. It was a time consuming process but the end result was worth it with the chairs being transformed to look as good as new.

Shetland Nature festival

Paparwark Furniture is pleased to be displaying sculpural log seating at the woodland near the Loch of Voe for the Shetland Nature Festival. The festival runs from 3rd to 12th July at various locations throughout Shetland. On Saturday 11th July from 11am to 4pm there will be a "walk and talk" event at the woodland organised by the Shetland Amenity Trust Woodland Team. It's being advertised under the interesting slogan of "from seed to sawdust".


Log Seating

A selection of our sculptural log seating is displayed on my website, click here to view. Suitable for gardens, driveways and patios our log seating provides an attractive natural feature and somewhere to sit! All sculpted from Shetland grown timbers.

My interest in wood goes beyond making furniture to growing trees. I have a small plantation on my parent's land next to the Dunrossness Baptist Church which has a variety of trees planted in the last couple of years. We are pleased with how the trees are growing and look forward for a nice little woodland to develop in that area.

Shetland style diningroom table and benches

We have recently finished a dining room table and benches which were inspired from the traditional Shetland creepies. The size of the benches worked well for the creepie design and looked right visually. The table legs are designed to look traditional but incorporating the key hole shaped form from the end of the creepie into it, so that the table and creepies become a set in it's design. We are really please to have this beautiful dining set as part of our portfoilo.

Traditional Creepie

In many a Shetland croft house in days gone by you would have found a "creepie" or small wooden stool. Light and easily portable it would have been moved around to provide a seat when doing a variety of tasks, anything from milking the cow to making a kishie (straw basket). They would have been made from whatever wood was available at the time, often driftwood.

We have designed a creepie as shown in the picture which is now available for sale. It's design is in keeping with the traditional creepies both in shape and simplicity. This particular creepie was made from Yellow Pine and stained to give an antique effect.

Creepies are available in either Oak or Pine.

Shetland Timber

We started to use local Shetland timber in some of our pieces. Last month we bought some timber from the plantation at Kergord. The largest log has been planked and stacked to air dry before we can use it for furniture. This is our first experiment with planking and drying local timber for furniture making. The timber will have to air dry for up to 2 years before being kiln dried for several months. Anybody interested in furniture made from Shetland Timber?

Up to date!

For the first time since i started my business we have finished all the jobs before the holidays, the workshop is tidy and the tools are all sharp. We also have work to come back to in the new year. It's a strange feeling not being in a rush to get everything finished. Hopefully that means we will have a relaxing holiday. First job in the new year is to fix our leaking roof so we're praying for some calm dry weather!

Boardroom table installed at last!

Last year we were commissioned to made a boardroom table and 20 chairs for a client in Shetland. It was going in the office which were due to be finished last year. We were really excited about the design and couldn't wait to get some pictures of the project once it was finished. Because of a lots of different reasons the build was delayed, but this week we got "The phone call" to go and help move the furniture into the boardroom. More pictures will be up of the boardroom soon, but this one will have to do to wet you appetite.