Forrest Bespoke

Forrest Bespoke I design and make bespoke fine furniture,including marquetry and specialist veneer work

Question for fellow makers/cabinetmakers.After closing my LTD company last year, I’ve mainly been doing site work and th...
21/05/2026

Question for fellow makers/cabinetmakers.

After closing my LTD company last year, I’ve mainly been doing site work and the odd smaller furniture piece while reassessing the direction I want to take things.

Historically I never struggled for work and had a good network of clients and designers but most of it was fitted furniture and larger projects.

I’m now working as a sole trader in a more traditional way, with the aim of focusing more on fine furniture, veneering and marquetry work alongside smaller bespoke cabinetry.

What I’ve found though is that the market for one-off furniture pieces seems much slower, and a lot of my old leads have dried up. It almost feels like starting from scratch again after years of building contacts.

For those of you making a living from standalone furniture commissions, where are you finding the work these days? Designers? Instagram? Word of mouth? Galleries?

Would genuinely appreciate any advice from people already doing it successfully.

The beginnings of an English style workbench (Sometimes known as the Nicholson bench) from cost effective Redwood/Scandi...
16/05/2026

The beginnings of an English style workbench (Sometimes known as the Nicholson bench) from cost effective Redwood/Scandinavian Pine, which also means it will be soft and protect work pieces.

The main structure simple 2 sturdy trestles , joined via the front and back apron. The wide apron will also provide strength to the 50mm top, a far cry thinner than say a thick Roubo bench top.

The trestle joints are glued and nailed with oval nails.

Everything needs a good plane to flush off surfaces and then the aprons can be fitted.

The final image shows an English bench made by

Any long time followers of mine may have noticed a switch in my content over the last 6 months or so. Since closing my c...
09/05/2026

Any long time followers of mine may have noticed a switch in my content over the last 6 months or so.
Since closing my company last year and working now on smaller client pieces as a sole trader and for other joiners, it allows me the freedom to post about the things that I like, the areas of furniture and history that don’t necessarily earn me money but provide me a source of enjoyment vs MDF furniture and keeping up with the trends.

This post shows one of my favourite paintings.

‘Ebeniste’ /‘Ebenisterna’ (The Cabinetmakers) by the Swedish painter Elias Martin, c.1768–80.
It shows two men at work in a London workshop: one fret sawing marquetry pieces, the other using a small inlay knife and hammer to cutout the corresponding piece of ground veneer.

Elias Martin was born in Stockholm in 1739 was part of a circle of Swedish cabinet makers/Ebeniste’s working in Georgian London — including own brother Carl Gustav Martin, Christopher Fuhrlohg (later Ebeniste to the Prince of Wales), and Georg Haupt.

There seems to be various sources stating the identity of the two men, but it’s likely that one is Georg Haupt and the other probably Carl Gustav.

Either way, the painting although a little bland to some really resonates with me. Despite being 250 years ago, in many ways not much has changed.. simple hand tools, a messy workshop floor, less than ideal conditions. And yet these men were behind the golden age of furniture in Britain.
A subject and period I find fascinating and wish I had begun learning about years ago.

Slowly chipping away at this Demi lune table top. Some weeks I may only spend 10 minutes on it between other jobs. In th...
07/05/2026

Slowly chipping away at this Demi lune table top. Some weeks I may only spend 10 minutes on it between other jobs.
In the background you can see my hammer and inlay knife used to let in the marquetry pieces into the background veneer.
I decided to use individual leaves , which will be engraved and filled with a wax/pigment mastic after polishing.
I wanted to use figured satinwood but my pockets weren’t deep enough so I opted for figured Anigre to get a similar ish colour once polished.
Once I finish the laurel swags I will link these two elements with some kind of stem, and then look to work on the half round fan.
The marquetry has been cut on my handmade frame saw with a 2/0 blade.

Marquetry keepsake box designed for my son in burr walnut and sycamore.
04/05/2026

Marquetry keepsake box designed for my son in burr walnut and sycamore.

01/05/2026

Starting to use my treadle frame saw more recently. Being foot powered means you instinctively get a feel for the speed for the stroke, plus it’s cool that it just relies on human power over modern electrics saws!

I’m using a 2/0 Pebeco blade here, through maybe 6 layers of sliced veneer.

Thanks again to for the blade holders he made me!

Trying to channel my 18th century inlayer.Adding some marquetry motifs to this demi lune table.I think a 1mm veneer woul...
30/04/2026

Trying to channel my 18th century inlayer.
Adding some marquetry motifs to this demi lune table.

I think a 1mm veneer would be the sweet spot to work with but alas I make do with commerical thin veneers. Using either a scalpel or metal scribe/needle to scribe the outline and then a single bevel knife and hammer to tap my way around to line.

Heat the area with hot water and a small iron, and remove the piece from the ground veneer, a touch more hot glue and essentially hammer veneer in the piece, sometimes followed up by a Perspex block and clamp if it’s not playing ball.

Something about this style really appeals to me, maybe because it’s not seen very often anymore. Maybe because it means you can completely veneer a piece of furniture and then begin the marquetry, who knows!

I decided to take a few (ok all!) steps back on this table build, and removed the marquetry.Luckily hide glue is reversi...
26/04/2026

I decided to take a few (ok all!) steps back on this table build, and removed the marquetry.
Luckily hide glue is reversible so some heat and water and it all lifted, and my table top now allows me to start again or go in a different direction.

Overall I wasn’t happy with the lack of colour stability from the Padauk, despite trying a few methods to stop it bleeding into other veneers.

If nothing else it proved a good exercise and use of my new treadle frame same I made recently as well as my chevalet saw I made last year.

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