Our Handmade Furniture Story

Our story began several years ago when our founder Sarah Massouh was searching for a sofa and sofa bed for her own home. Sarah realised how few well-designed, handmade and comfortable pieces of furniture she had to choose from. This ignited her passion to create British designed-and-made living and bedroom furniture, which combined timeless style, craftsmanship and heritage, whilst welcoming modern aesthetics.

Our first designs were hand sketched at Sarah’s kitchen table and are still being made across our British workshops today. Although our collections and team have grown, everything else remains the same; our passion, care and hands-on approach in the design and making of our furniture collections. It is still Sarah and our team who personally sketch, design and work with our artisan suppliers and craftsman. Together they curate the look, feel, materials, detailing and traditional craft methods used to bring our furniture to life.

Sarah’s long-standing passion for quality design and craftsmanship is combined with her desire to put you at the heart of what we make. We believe you should have the option to personalise your living and bedroom furniture to make it truly unique and ideal for your home. From fabrics and seat cushion fillings to sofa bed mattresses – every personalised detail is handmade for you by our expert craftsmen.

We are delighted to share our passion and creations with you and hope to provide inspiration and enjoyment as you discover and explore our designs to personalise the ideal piece of furniture for you and your home.

OUR CRAFTSMANSHIP

We believe in the beauty of British design and craftsmanship, which is why we are proud to nurture close partnerships with established British fabric artisans as well as to make all our furniture in workshops with over 35 years’ experience.

The traditional British skills our craftsmen use have been handed down from generation to generation. We value this age-old knowledge and want to help protect it and keep it alive. It’s the relationship between an individual craftsman, a handmade piece of furniture and your personalisation choices that makes each piece truly unique and tells a story.

We consider a part of entrusting a craftsman to handmake your tailored furniture is understanding their story and the relationship they have with their craft. Discover below some of the inspiring craftspeople who we entrust to bring your furniture story to life:

David’s furniture story began 30 years ago when he handmade his first piece of furniture as an apprentice at his family’s workshop. This kindled his passion for creating beautiful furniture using his hands, so he worked tirelessly to master traditional carpentry skills passed down through the generations. Today David cuts and shapes every piece of timber to the required size and design and then builds the furniture frames from start to finish.

“I feel lucky that I get to do something every day that I love. I grew up watching my father and grandfather transform a pile of wood into furniture and I knew from a young age that I wanted to learn from them. Being a craftsman is not only something I enjoy, it also feels like part of our family legacy, which gives me immense pride every time I handmake a piece of furniture.” 

Thomas chalk marks the fabric to the defined pattern cut for each design and then cuts the fabric for upholstery onto the furniture. Seat springs, webbing, cushion interiors and padding are also all cared for by Thomas, leaving just the finishing touches to the seamstress.

“ I always enjoyed my day job as a product designer, but spending eight hours a day sitting at a computer drove me to look for an alternative creative outlet. I felt like something was missing and wanted to do something physical and hands-on. Seven years ago I made the transition from the product design team to the upholstery team, training and learning to put into practice the designs I had worked on over the years. Upholstery is still creative, but almost the exact opposite of what I used to do when sitting at a desk all day. It is three-dimensional, very real and tangible. From chalking the fabric to fixing the springs, it's a process which needs to be carefully followed to ensure the quality of the furniture matches the quality of the design.”

Grace has worked as a streamstress for over 40 years having started at the workshop after leaving school. Grace is responsible for putting all the finishing touches to the furniture from stitching the fabric, creating the piping and seams, to fitting the buttons and zips.

“I started making items of clothing when I was about 9 years old. I can remember the first thing I made. It was a navy-blue skirt with stars in the fabric and an elasticated waist. My Mum did dressmaking as a hobby, and I picked it up from her. Once I left school I knew I wanted to use my skills as a seamstress and started working at the workshop learning to apply my skills to furniture. I have, and continue to, take great enjoyment in using my seamstress skills to bring a design to life. I believe that the finishing touches I make are very important in bringing the furniture to life and take pride in every piece I work with.”

OUR VALUES

Our values embody our thinking and our actions at Willow and Hall, from the design and making of our furniture to our people and our practices.

Caring takes effort and it can’t be bought. Our care and our passion is how we deliver quality in everything we do. We care about our customers, our products, our service, our people, our communities and our environment. We believe the more we care, the more pride and satisfaction goes into every product we make and how we look after you, our customer.

We care greatly about our environment. To help us respect and protect it, as part of the Principles Of Fair Trade, we have put a set of measures in place:

  • We use sustainable timber in our furniture frames, using wood from European sustainably managed forests. Forest stewards manage the landscape to prevent damage to eco-systems, watersheds, wildlife and the trees themselves
  • We conscientiously source our fabrics, ensuring the mills we partner with use eco-friendly processes where possible. We have also partnered with FibreGuard and Staingard, which offer environmentally safe fabric protection with no harmful chemicals being released
  • We conscientiously source all fillings for our seats, backs and mattresses, ensuring these are made as naturally and eco-friendly as possible
  • We recycle our cardboard and plastic packaging once we’ve delivered your furniture. By 2030 we pledge to remove all plastic packaging, looking instead at alternatives such as potato starch packaging
  • We recycle our fabric off cuts by gifting them to local community arts and crafts initiatives
  • We recycle larger pieces of unused fabric by gifting them to local homeless shelters to make into blankets
  • We keep our carbon footprint as low as we can and by 2028 have pledged to go carbon neutral, ensuring our delivery vans are electric and all the electricity we use is 100% renewable

We strongly believe in being ethical in everything we do, so we closely follow the globally recognised Principles Of Fair Trade:

  • We seek to support smaller suppliers such as when sourcing our fabrics, whether these are independent family businesses or co-operatives, seeking to develop their skills and capabilities
  • We aim to ensure there is clear communication and transparency at all levels of our supply chain
  • We respect the environment, maximising the use of raw materials from sustainable managed sources; reducing energy consumption and using renewable energy when possible; and using organic production methods and recycled or easily biodegradable materials for packaging wherever possible
  • We trade with concern for social, economic and environmental well-being; protecting traditional skills
  • We ensure no child and forced labour, adhering to all national and local laws. In addition, we proactively seek and provide safe and healthy working conditions for all and look to support our local communities
  • We are committed to non-discrimination, gender equality and freedom of association

We believe that a business should be about much more than making money. It should be an instrument of positive change - creating and sharing prosperity for all:

  • Every year we donate eight pieces of furniture to independently owned hospices across the UK to help to allow families to spend their days and nights together as physically comfortably as possible
  • We run a “Nominate A Star” scheme and donate four pieces of furniture a year. This scheme allows our customers to nominate and share inspirational stories about someone they believe is extraordinary and deserves a Willow & Hall piece of personalised, handmade furniture.
  • We donate 5% of our profits annually to three charities, nominated and chosen by members of our team. Our three chosen charities we are proud to donate too are: Children with Cancer UK; Dementia UK; and Mind.