Bench work 2023–2026
The portfolio opens the conversation
Six commissions from around Fenwick Cross, photographed at walkthrough — nothing staged, nothing graded, no borrowed furniture.
Services
The scope of the bench
01
Libraries & paneled rooms
Floor-to-ceiling cases with ladder rails, raised and flat panel walls scribed to plaster that stopped being flat in 1931. Drawn full-scale on butcher paper before one board is cut.
02
Stair halls
Treads, risers, scribed skirts and rail — rebuilt or new, with newels bolted through the frame. The one part of a house people trust with their whole weight, built like it.
03
Doors & passage, scheduled
Hung to a nickel-slide with a written hardware schedule: hinge count and finish, backset, knob or lever, per door — approved by you, then ordered once.
04
Window seats & conservatory pieces
Seats with drawers below, shutters and interior sashes built to the opening the house actually made — storage where the room needs it, none where it does not.
05
The annual commission
One piece of free-standing furniture a year — a table, a chest, a chair — when the bench calendar allows. Never rushed, never repeated, always numbered.
The schedule is the contract
Hardware, profile, finish and fit are written down before the first order is placed — and what is written is what is built. Where the drawing and the room disagree, the room wins and the drawing is corrected in ink, in your copy too.
How a commission runs
From conversation to walkthrough
Four movements, one bench, no handoffs — the hands that draw it are the hands that cut it.
The conversation & the measure
Ninety minutes at the house: the room lasered, the ideas sketched, the hardware discussed over tea. You leave with the sketches, whoever you hire.
The drawing & the schedule
Full-scale on butcher paper, with the hardware schedule beside it — hinge for hinge, knob for knob. Both are yours to mark up; both are signed before cutting.
Bench weeks
Quartersawn stock stickered and rested, then milled, coped and pre-finished flat in three coats. Crated in install order, numbered by room.
The install & the walk
Two to four quiet days on site, one room at a time. The walkthrough ends with the level, the lamp and a commission number stamped under the bottom shelf.
The bench ledger
The hardware schedule arrived before the quote did — every hinge and knob for fourteen doors on one page. My architect asked to keep it as an example.
They scribed our stair skirts to walls that have been leaning since the canal was cut, and the joint lines are straight anyway. I do not understand it and I do not need to.
Commission number 409 is a window seat my daughters fight over every morning. Worth the wait, and the wait was worth it — the bench told us the calendar honestly from day one.
The bench door
Asked before a commission opens
How far out is the bench?
Conmissions usually begin four to eight weeks after the measure — stairs and libraries are seasonal, doors and seats squeeze in sooner. The visit ends with real dates on paper, and we hold them; a bench that overbooks is a bench that starts lying about mornings.
Why a hardware schedule for a whole room?
Because hardware is where millwork projects quietly go wrong — mixed finishes, wrong backsets, hinges that arrive for a door that was hung for others. One page, approved by you, ordered once. It costs twenty minutes at the measure and saves the worst kind of Tuesday.
Which woods do you build in?
Quartersawn oak and walnut for most commissions, cherry and reclaimed fir where the room asks for them; paint-grade poplar and MDF only where paint will seal them honestly. Boards are stickered and rested at the bench before they are cut.
Can we live at home through the install?
Yes — one room at a time, plastic at the doorways, extraction on every tool, runners on every floor. Most installs run two to four days; the longest we ask anybody to live beside is a stair hall at one week.
Do you take repairs and small work?
Between commissions, yes — a sticking door, a cracked rail, a mantel that needs re-scribing. Small work is where the next library always comes from, and the bench treats it that way.
Open a commission
Bring the room, the measurement or just the idea — the sketches and the schedule are yours whoever builds.
commissions@wrensbank.example · 1 Bench Court, Fenwick Cross · Lic. FC-59214