Antique Furniture Designs Limited is an English manufacturer of antique style furniture with distressed antique finishes.

Incorporated from A W Murfin & Sons in 2002, the business has been involved with the antiques trade for more than 30 years.

 In its early years the company restored original antique furniture, before moving into manufacturing fine furniture, using designs of original antique dining tables, desks and other traditional furniture that the business had overtime restored to its former glory.

Their workshop in Lincolnshire, England is equipped to allow flexibility in design and dimension, enabling the company to undertake bespoke work, in addition to a standard range of antique reproduction boardroom and dining tables, desks, TV cabinets and occasional furniture.

By using the very finest materials and craftsmanship and paying meticulous attention to detail the company has established an enviable reputation as a maker of fine furniture.

Pieces include traditional antique reproduction boardroom, dining tables and desks of the Georgian, Chippendale, Sheraton and Hepplewhite periods.

Featured here is the Linen press / TV cabinet AWM48TV:

• An 18th century style linen press designed to house a television.
• Standing on splayed feet, the base has two wide over two narrow drawers.
• The oval panelled pocket fitting doors are cross-banded with a contrasting veneer.
• Inside the top is ample space for a wide screen television and ancillary equipment. Available in mahogany, burr walnut, yew and other exotic veneers. Priced from £4525.

Visit the Antique Furniture Designs website to view the gorgeous Antique style furniture collection and for further information.
Tel: (01526) 342821

Podesta specialists in handmade furniture, design and custom-make for every room of the home including kitchens, bedrooms, libraries, studies and home cinemas.

Freestanding furniture commissions are also undertaken so that Podesta can provide perfect home solutions for the discerning customer.

It was while working as a freelance furniture designer for companies such as Habitat, Tom Dixon, Smallbone and Mark Wilkinson that Matt Podesta realised his true potential.

Matt founded Podesta in 2002 with the aim to create the finest furniture that is “as individual as the client and their property. Each piece of furniture is created with thoughtful design and has a timeless quality that means it will last a lifetime… or more.”

His designs are functional yet creative, innovative yet timeless – qualities that are key to designing and producing commercially viable bespoke furniture.

Working directly with the client and their interior designer or architect, Podesta undertakes projects of all sizes and styles, ranging from entire houses through to dining tables or even bar stools.

The woods used are all purchased from major UK timber suppliers, to ensure that they have been carefully selected from trees that are responsibly harvested and, where possible, Podesta use acrylic paints instead of oil based.

Podesta has five UK workshops, working with some of the most skilled cabinet-makers in the country. They all invest personal attention and emotion into each project and will often be on site to install their creations.

Podesta also has a team of interior designers, architects, flooring and timber specialists, stonemasons and lighting engineers, enabling them to handle a project from start to finish.

Matt is a liveryman in the Worshipful Company of Furniture Makers. The tradition dates from the 12th century and membership of the Livery is recognition of Podesta’s quality design and craftsmanship.

For further information please visit the Podesta website.

Tel: (01628) 484600

More and more of us are now sitting at breakfast bars in the kitchen, as well as in bars, to enjoy not only breakfast but also lunch and it is a good place to sit when you want to keep the cook company.

It is important that the chairs we sit in are not just good-looking but also comfortable.

This is where Lloyd Loom of Spalding comes in. They have a number of handsome barstools, which will fit into any interior be it super modern, or more traditional.

Featured here is the Newmarket barstool 1930’s style, with padded seat:

• Width: 520; Height: 1140; Depth: 640; Seat Height: 81.

• This product also comes in a classic dining chair.
• Standard colours.

Lloyd Loom of Spalding is an innovative British manufacturer, making the genuine Lloyd Loom weave and furniture, using traditional techniques and materials.

Every piece is individually handmade using steam-bent beech wood and the unique twisted paper and wire Lloyd Loom weave and is coloured to the client’s specification.

The factory and showroom has been in the market town of Spalding since 1985 and it’s the only company in the UK making Lloyd Loom furniture.

The range contains more than 150 different products. Visit the Lloyd Loom website to view their unique furniture products.

Tel: (01775) 724 358

the-saleroom.com, the UK’s leading live online bidding site, recorded a 120 per cent year-on-year increase in bidder numbers in 2009, revealing growing buyer confidence in purchasing art and antiques online.

In a year when recession and credit issues dominated the headlines, the-saleroom.com bucked the trend with revenues generated by the site increasing by 55 per cent year-on-year.

With a growing International presence, the-saleroom.com appears to have a winning formula.

The value of lots sold on the site has also grown by 87 per cent with the highest price paid online for a single lot sold being £88,000 for a collection of war medals.

49 per cent more sales were connected up to ATG Media’s live bidding platform in 2009 and the percentage of lots sold over the Internet increased from 9 to 15 per cent.

the-saleroom.com has succeeded in building a world-class live antiques bidding platform and has attracted auctioneers all over the world, with sales in China, New York, Rome and Paris coming online through the platform in the last 12 months.

Anne Somers, Chief Executive of ATG Media, commented: “the-saleroom.com opens up the world of Antiques to a much larger population and is a fast, simple, reliable way of purchasing something timeless and valuable.”

Launched in 2006 by ATG the-saleroom.com, is an online service, where bidders can view hundreds of catalogues and participate in live auctions using live audio and video links.

The website provides a complete range of online services for buyers and sellers of art and antiques at auction, including a leading UK facility for live online bidding.

The site publishes a wide range of catalogues for upcoming sales, giving full details of the sale contents and highlighting star lots in each catalogue.

Visit www.the-saleroom.com to browse and bid.

The intriguing art of Windsor chair-making evolved over 300 years ago and from the shaping of the seat to the steam bending of the arms and backs, each stage required a great deal of skill.

Today, as well as a huge range of hand-made cabinetry and tables, Batheaston Furniture Makers is one of the foremost reproducers of these beautiful chairs, proudly recreating the very best furniture for generations to come.

Batheaston is a family business renowned for producing the very best Windsor chairs.

Their story started back in 1971 in a small workshop in a village on the outskirts of Bath, and today their range also includes cabinetry and tables in both traditional and contemporary styles.

Never forgetting their roots, the Windsor chair remains the backbone of this thoroughly British business today.

Experience the beauty of native hardwoods, Oak, Ash, Sycamore and Cherry from sustainable woodlands, transposed into the heirlooms of the future by Batheaston’s talented local craftsmen.

Within the realm of Windsor chairs there is enormous variety from the design of the splat to the turning of the legs and so whatever your requirements Batheaston can make the seat to suit your tastes.

Visit the Batheaston website to view their ranges of beautiful traditional and contemporary furniture.

Tel: (01225) 811295

Dining at home is staging a revival and Lavender & Sage aims to lure us back into the kitchen, for some good old fashioned home cooking with an award* winning furniture collection called Fermier.

Solidly made from Portugese pinewood with a natural hand waxed finish, Fermier is classic and versatile and oozes style and quality.

The range includes kitchen table and dining chairs, double unit cupboard, chest of drawers, butchers block and jam cupboard..
All pieces are made with intricate detail and excellent craftsmanship – designed to ‘age’ gracefully and last for many years to come.

Three pieces, including the kitchen table. dining chair and kitchen cupboard, come with a unique zinc top; zinc is a hardwearing surface and the more you use it the better it looks.

The kitchen table £599,with two handy drawers, provides a great worktop for food preparation and will fit perfectly into any kitchen setting, complimented by the beautifully crafted dining chairs. £179.

The kitchen cupboard £625, offers a brilliant storage solution and can store away anything from glasses to crockery and wine bottles; it also features a deep groove where you can store your knives easily.
Furthermore there is a pull out chopping board, as well as two drawers and plenty of shelving space., making it a functional all in one work station.

Meanwhile the chest of drawers £515, is a great alternative with eight numbered drawers enabling easy organisation and ample storage for tea towels, cutlery and kitchen utensils.

To complete the range there is a butcher’s block £665 and a jam cupboard £375, both fitted with drawers and shelves providing extra storage space for busy kitchens.

With such a wonderful range of furniture available from Lavender & Sage, there’s no excuse not to get into the kitchen and enjoy making some delicious home-made food.

Fermier won the Gold Award in The Best Furniture category of House Beautiful Awards 2009.

To view the whole range of French decorative home accessories and furniture please visit the Lavender & Sage website.
Tel: (0845) 6010522

For more than 100 years, Grange has been making houses into family homes with furniture that is beautiful and practical.

Drawing on history and the pared-down elegance of traditional, provincial French furniture - particularly pieces from Provence - Grange has brought together a collection that is at once timeless and yet entirely right for today.

From innovative modular furniture that adapts to suit both space and purpose, through to witty signature pieces, the Grange range is authentic, usable and an absolute pleasure to live with.

Using traditional joinery techniques, sustainable materials and timeless design, the Grange collections capture the warmth of the classic French family house and translate it into furniture that is exquisite and perfectly suited to contemporary British life.

The company has retained its manufacturing base in the Monts du Lyonnais, where craftsmen stain, lacquer, wax and polish pieces by hand, giving Grange furniture its distinctive translucency, silkiness and satin-touch finish.

Pieces from the Grange collections have their roots in history, but many have been subtly adapted, to ensure they fit perfectly in today’s relaxed family home.

Ideas are reworked, but the essence of warm, relaxed living are retained and the furniture Grange produces todaym is infused with the same passion and creativity as was the case more than a century ago; each furniture piece is unique, thanks to the wide range of stain, sheens and sizes.

There are a number of new additions to the Grange collection, particularly notable is the Table basse Jacob featured here:

• The mix of natural wood and painted finish, ensure this piece is both playful and modern, but with a definite nod towards history.

• A truly stunning piece, made of solid lime and cherry wood, with four useful small drawers and a unique take on painted wood, this table is set to become an antique of the future. Priced at £1440.
  Dimensions are: W= 150cm H= 40cm and D= 105cm.

Visit the GRANGE website to view their distinctive collections and find out where to buy in the UK.

Tel: (0870) 755 6486

Calligaris, the contemporary Italian furniture brand has released its new products for Autumn/Winter 2009.

The Calligaris Tokyo Table (pictured here.) Boasting sleek curves, this dining table comes with a smoked grey or frosted black glass top on a wengé, walnut or glossy mahogany frame. It measures w:180cm x d:90cm x h:75cm. £1049.

Calligaris Giga metal chair. Available with a chromed or satin finished frame, and a choice of seats in white, wengé, walnut, cement orwhite cord.
It measures w:470 d:525 h:825mm; seat height: 450mm. £160.

Calligaris Round Astro Table. This architectural looking round table is available with a transparent or smoked grey glass top and a wengé or walnut stained beech support. It measures 140cm diameter x 75cm height. £681.

Mac&Mac specialises in contemporary European furniture, lighting and accessories, which are available to buy online and at their new showroom in East St, Farnham, Surrey.

Mac&Mac is the official Calligaris store in the UK, offering the largest collection of their elegant Italian living, dining and bedroom furniture.

There is also a large range of contemporary sofas, including the Contempo collection, Italian hand-finished sofas with a metropolitan character and striking leather sofas and chairs from the German company Koinor.

To view the striking collections, please visit the Mac & Mac website.

Tel: (01252) 71 77 71

At their Norfolk workshops, drawing on designs mainly from the 17th & 18th centuries, Bylaw Furniture Makers construct solid oak and fruitwood furniture, traditional wall panelling and staircases, employing time-honoured methods and skills.

Everything from the solid timber -hand planed oak and fruitwood, the skilfully hand cut dovetails, painstaking finishing and waxing, right through to the fitting of locally cast period brassware, goes towards creating an uncompromising finished product.

The detail in their traditional handmade furniture and four-poster beds truly does make the difference!

Bylaw enjoys a well-deserved reputation as being amongst the finest of traditional handmade furniture makers in the UK. They are particularly famous for four-poster beds:

• Featured here is the stunning Millennium Bed. The Millennium bed incorporates the best of English Renaissance fashion; the enriched arch panels depicting a plant theme, the formal strap work arabesques carved onto the frieze and the carved male (atlantes) and female (caryatids) figures seeming to support the vast decorative tester. W: 60″ x L: 78″ the bed stands 86″ high. Ref.04MMbedcut.

• Priced at: £17,250.

To view the gorgeous furniture collection please visit the Bylaw website.

Finding a dining table that fits your space and requirements can often be difficult; smaller tables don’t provide enough space for dinner parties, while larger tables can be an impractical use of space the rest of the time.

The beautiful Lyon French style, solid oak table pictured here, from Oak Furniture Warehouse is the perfect solution for versatile dining.

Lyon tables are available with or without the extensions and either with four, six or no chairs, to accommodate extensions.

Oak Furniture Warehouse has a collection of contemporary French style furniture, inspired and named after places in France that are sure to be the perfect multi-purpose addition to any dining room.

When ordering your dining table, make sure that you know the dimensions of the room for which it is intended and ensure that it will pass through doorways and staircases as necessary.
Oak Furniture Warehouse has a flat rate delivery service for the whole of the UK, including mainland Scotland and free delivery for orders over £500.

Prices:
Lyon Dining Table without extending leaves £1356.00.
Lyon Dining Table with two central extending leaves £1596.00.
With 4 Dijon Chairs £500.00.
With 6 Dijon Chairs £690.00.

Dimensions:
Length 1000mm.
Width 2200mm.
Height 760mm.
Visit the Oak Furniture Warehouise website to view their full collections and tempting current promotions:

Web: http://www.oakfurniturewarehouse.co.uk
Tel: (0844) 3511072