Meet the Maker
This is me, Paul, the face behind Slow Furniture.
I wanted to introduce myself and give you a little background about me, my life, interests and how I got into making furniture.
I live in Braunton, North Devon, a stunning part of the UK, with beautiful countryside and beaches right on our doorstep. No guesses then that my passions revolve around nature and getting in the sea with my wetsuit on and my surfboard under my arm.
I've been out there surfing for the best part of my life,
it's always been there, sometimes less so, but always there in the background. At the moment I am having some sort of renaissance and am loving the regularity of getting in the sea for my salt water exercise.
Most importantly, I have my family. Home life is super important to me and my best times are always those when I'm chilling out with the family or going on some adventure. I've been married to my beautiful wife Zoe, for 17 years and have two amazing kids of 11 and 13 years old.
A major part of my life is that I practice mindfulness every day,
and have been doing so for several years. It's a continual work in progress, and I can't imagine not having it in my life.
I started working with my hands renovating property. Much of my family used their hands of some sort to make a living, and I think it was inevitable that I followed this path. I was a late starter and didn't have any formal training, so had to learn on the job and by watching others. My late Grandad who was a retired builder helped me out when I started and what I learned from him was invaluable.
Always in pursuit of doing a good job, it wasn't long before I picked up the skills and ended up working for other people in their own homes. I loved doing a good job and to see how stoked they were with my work.
Getting better and better at what I do has always driven me. It wasn't long before I started taking on more and more technically challenging jobs from bespoke outdoor kitchens to making doors and other joinery items.
At some point during all this, I picked up my grandads old hand plane and I thought to myself, I wonder if I can get this old thing working?
And that was it! I absolutely loved getting those old tools back to their working glory - from chisels to planes to old handsaws. I grabbed any I could and got most of them working like a dream! There's absolutely nothing better than getting a (scarily) sharp hand plane and taking fine shavings from a beautiful piece of wood. It's the sound of a sharp blade, the feel and the transformation of the wood before your eyes that catches me.
So I started making furniture pieces for family members and that was it. Hooked. This is what I wanted to do. There is also something so satisfying about working real wood and working it with hand tools. It's not always easy and its a constant challenge, but that's why I love it.
This is the focus of Slow Furniture - to work with hand tools as much as possible
(yes I do use power tools for some of the more time consuming and laborious tasks). To get that feeling when planing a beautiful piece of wood and to get a finish that is far far superior to that of sandpaper. To know when the material is fighting you and to know if I can really go for it here or that I need to slow down a bit there. To bring out the best of the wood and to produce a piece of furniture that is truly naturally beautiful.
Thanks for reading.
Take care
Paul x