Page 65 - Homes & Interiors Scotland

MEET THE MAKER

Photography Neale Smith Interview Catherine Coyle

Michael Hart

Cabinetmaker

set up on my own a long time ago. I’d done
an apprenticeship and then worked for Herald
IAntiques in Edinburgh before starting my
own company in 1984. I really wanted to make
much more and I believed that there was more of a
market for bespoke furniture. I had been doing a lot
of restoration work and making copies of antiques
but I wanted to make more and be my own boss. In
hindsight, setting up on my own at such a young
age was daunting, but it didn’t seem like that at
the time. It was exciting. Looking back, I think the
exuberance of youth took hold and allowed me to
overcome things. My workshop at Loanhead is a
purpose-built space. I built it there because 60 to
70% of my work is outside of Edinburgh. This way,
because I work all over Scotland and the UK, I am
connected in all directions. My role has changed as
the business has grown. I don’t really have a typical
day, as such. I can be called in to help wherever I’m
needed, depending on the jobs that we are working
on. I could be needed on the bench, in the cabinet
shop, the polishing shop – it just depends on
where I’m required. Mostly, now, I’m out meeting
clients, taking a brief from them, designing what
they ask for, drawing it up and then going through
the process in the workshop with the guys who
are making the piece. I oversee everything. Today,
I’m answering three phones at once! We tend to
have three or four projects going through the
workshop at once, all at various stages, with eight
members of staff. That’s cabinetmakers; there’s one
specialist polisher/painter and one specialist carver,
and my son is in the final year of his apprenticeship
here. Once he has finished, he’ll come on board
with me. It’s great; when I first started out, cabinet-
making was considered a dying art, but in the

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