Hey Mr Sandman

Hey Mr Sandman,

Gary Gisbourne has taken up temporary residence in a corner of the Sheratons building. His Pop – Up shop is a wonderful showcase for his handcrafted wood pieces.

“I can almost tell you the field where the trees were growing“ says local craftsman and designer Gary Gisborne pointing out timber around his pop-up showroom. Gary is using part of the Sheratons building next to Purple Hedgehog, Lower Road, as a temporary space to display his range of Sandman Home and Garden furniture. One dining table he says is created from an oak tree that stood in a field opposite the Bricklayers Arms in Flaunden for centuries before it came down in a storm.

But it’s not just the actual trees that are special, it’s Gary’s skill in selecting specific timber with characteristic grain and knots and knowing what to turn it into. Diseased or rotting timber can have burrs and gnarls making it look wonderful when crafted and finished and Gary particularly loves designing with spalted wood.

“When wood is decaying in damp conditions there is discoloration, dark lines and a change in texture and it looks really beautiful. It’s called spalting – I made a piece of spalted sycamore recently into a sideboard, it looked amazing, I don’t worry about cracks either, they add to the individuality”. I am always buying random pieces of wood at timber yards or rummaging at the bottom of log piles for gems. I can never get enough natural wood – each piece is unique!”

Gary has been making things from wood for as long as he can remember starting his company Sandman Beds twenty years ago later adding his impressive garden planters, obelisks and garden arbours to his design range and also his company, Sandman Planters which take a stand every year at Chelsea Flower Show. The furniture and soon to be accessories are a relatively new addition to the business and designs have been going down a storm at notonthehighstreet.com. All Sandman products are hand made, and many hand painted, in Gary’s Chipperfield Workshop. So what sells best?

“The solid oak blocks are favourites – people use them as coffee and lamp tables. I can’t make enough media centers for flat screen TVs with cupboards to hide away DVDs – and the ‘floating’ dining and coffee tables are really popular – the support is made from Perspex, it looks as if it is suspended in air, you can see through the base, it even works in a small kitchen – there are no chunky legs and it gives the feeling of space, I really want one in our kitchen at home.” But what will happen to the Gisborne’s current family dining table? “We’ll sell it, when friends come to dinner they often go away having bought the table they have eaten at”!