Handmade in England
Handmade Kitchens Near Horsham
Every Sylvan kitchen is made by our own cabinet makers in our workshop near Horsham, combining traditional techniques with modern precision, and every piece is finished there before it comes to your home.
- Our Own Workshop
- Made to Measure
- Fitted by Our Team
- Lifetime Guarantee
What Handmade Means to Us
Every handmade kitchen from Sylvan Design is built in the company’s workshop at Plummers Plain, near Horsham, West Sussex. Each kitchen is made by our cabinet makers for one particular house, to drawings agreed with you, and its sizes, storage, details and colours are decided for that kitchen alone.
Handmade, for us, means traditional craftsmanship and modern precision working together. The joinery and proportions follow the traditions of fine cabinet making, while every part is cut and assembled accurately to the drawings. What makes the kitchen handmade is that skilled cabinet makers build it, piece by piece, in our own workshop, and that the decisions about how it is made are taken for your kitchen in particular.
Because the workshop is ours, the whole service runs from it: design, making, finishing and installation, all managed by us. Our page on bespoke kitchens explains how a Sylvan kitchen is planned and fitted. This page looks at how it is made.
Made by Our Cabinet Makers Near Horsham
Our team brings together experienced fine cabinet makers and designers, people with a real eye for beautiful kitchens and furniture. Because design and making happen under one roof, questions are answered quickly, and each drawing is prepared by people who know how the piece will be built.
Sylvan Design is independently owned and based in Horsham, and our workshop is at Stonehouse Farm on Handcross Road, Plummers Plain. From there we make kitchens for homes between London and Brighton, and from the South Downs across to Kent.
Our unrelenting focus on quality and precision runs through everything the workshop produces. A kitchen is made from a great many parts, and the difference between a good kitchen and a fine one lies in how carefully each of them is made, fitted and finished.
Traditional Joinery and Cabinet Making
The strength of a kitchen depends on how it is joined. Cabinet makers have refined their joints over centuries, and each one is designed to resist a particular force: the weight of a loaded shelf, the twist of a heavy door on its hinges, or the pull on a drawer front every time it is opened.
Drawers show this most clearly. In a dovetail joint, angled tails on one piece interlock with pins on the other, so the front of a drawer cannot be pulled away from its sides. The oak knife drawer at Birds Hill is made with dovetail joints, and the drawing on this page shows how a drawer of that kind goes together, joint by joint.
The same thinking applies across the whole kitchen. Each frame, cabinet, shelf and door is made in the way that suits the work it has to do, and the same skills go into the bespoke joinery we make for other rooms of the house.
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How a Dovetailed Drawer Goes Together
Scroll to see a traditionally jointed drawer box come together, one part at a time. A drawer is pulled open many times a day, so its corners are where good joinery matters most.
Scroll to Assemble Each step adds the next part to the drawing.
The Parts
A drawer box begins as a set of parts cut accurately to size: a front, a back, two sides and a base.
Setting Out
The joints are set out on each part, so that every corner will close tightly and the box will finish square.
The Tails
Tails are cut on the ends of the sides. Their angled shape, like the spread of a dove’s tail, gives the joint its name.
The Pins
Matching pins are cut on the front and back to receive the tails. Once joined, the front cannot be pulled away from the sides.
The Base
The base slides into grooves on the inside of the box, where it carries the weight of whatever the drawer will hold.
Glued and Squared
The joints are glued and the box is checked for square while the glue sets.
Finished and Fitted
Once cleaned up and finished, the drawer is fitted into its cabinet so that it runs smoothly and lines up with the doors around it.
At Birds Hill Dovetail joints were used for the oak knife drawer in the Birds Hill kitchen.
Precision in Every Door and Drawer
In frame cabinetry asks a great deal of the maker. Each door and drawer sits inside its frame with a fine, even gap all the way round, and that gap is part of the look. Keeping it consistent from one end of a kitchen to the other depends on accurate making in the workshop and careful fitting in your home.
Our Lancaster range shows how much these details matter. Its clean lines, running across the doors and framework from a subtly profiled plinth up to the cornice, depend on every part being made and fitted accurately, because a simple, well proportioned design shows every line clearly.
Precision matters inside the cabinets as well as on their faces. Drawers must run smoothly and line up along the run, and doors must close with the same even gap every time. Those are the details you notice every day, long after the kitchen is new.
Finished in Our Workshop
Every Sylvan Design kitchen is finished in our Horsham workshop before it is installed. Doors, drawers, frames and panels are painted in the colours you have chosen and completed at the workshop, so the kitchen arrives at your home ready to fit.
Finishing in the workshop means each piece is completed and checked before it leaves us, and that your home is not given over to finishing work. Installation, which usually needs a three week window on site, can then be devoted to fitting and aligning the cabinetry, liaising with your other trades and organising any specialist contractors.
Colours are chosen with you during design. We have painted kitchens in colours by Farrow & Ball, Mylands, Dulux Heritage and Paint & Paper Library, and each one is finished in the workshop to the same standard.
Materials From Managed Sources
Like many businesses, we think carefully about the effect our work has on the environment, and we take seriously our responsibilities to the people we work with and to the planet. Our materials come from managed sources, bought as locally as we can, and we make a conscious effort to keep waste and emissions down.
Within each kitchen, materials are chosen for the job each part has to do and for how it will look and feel in daily use. The worktops, hardware and other finishes are agreed with you before anything is made, so the finished kitchen is built from exactly what you have chosen.
Making carefully is part of this. Accurate setting out and careful cutting make the most of each board and length of timber, which keeps waste down in the workshop as well as giving a better result in your kitchen.
Furniture and Joinery Too
The same workshop produces bespoke furniture, joinery, fitted furniture and made to measure wardrobes. That means the same quality of making, and the same painted finish, can carry on through the utility room, the boot room and the bedrooms.
At Old Hospital House the kitchen includes a glazed dresser and a long run of deep drawers, and at Birds Hill the walk in pantry has a glass display cabinet. Pieces like these are made in our workshop alongside the kitchen cabinetry, so they can share its finish and its detailing.
At a Glance
What to Expect
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Handmade in England
Built in our workshop at Plummers Plain, near Horsham, by our own cabinet makers.
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Traditional Joinery
Joints chosen for the work each piece does, including dovetailed drawers such as the oak knife drawer at Birds Hill.
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Modern Precision
Accurate making and careful fitting keep the gaps around every in frame door fine and even.
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Finished Before Fitting
All finishing is completed in the workshop, so your kitchen arrives ready to install.
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Managed Sources
Materials from managed sources, bought locally wherever possible, with waste kept to a minimum.
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Made to Last
Built with care to last, and backed by the lifetime guarantee that comes with every Sylvan kitchen.
The Sylvan team designed, hand crafted and fitted our kitchen. The finished product is exquisitely beautiful and exactly what we wanted. Superb throughout the whole process. I cannot recommend them highly enough!
Questions
Questions and Answers
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Sylvan Design, based in Horsham, makes handmade kitchens in its workshop at Stonehouse Farm, Plummers Plain, West Sussex. Our experienced fine cabinet makers make each kitchen to the drawings agreed with you, all of the finishing is completed in the workshop, and we install our kitchens across Surrey, Sussex, Kent and London.
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Each Sylvan kitchen is built piece by piece in our workshop, by our own cabinet makers, for a single house. We combine traditional techniques with modern precision, so skilled hands and precise tools work together. To us, handmade means a kitchen made by craftsmen in our workshop to your exact specification and finished there before it is installed.
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Completing the finishing at our workshop means that every door, drawer, frame and panel is finished and checked before it reaches you. Your kitchen is delivered ready to install, so our time in your home is given to fitting it properly and working alongside your other trades.
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A dovetail joint locks two pieces of timber together with angled tails cut on one piece and matching pins cut on the other. Once glued, it strongly resists being pulled apart, which is why it is the traditional joint for the corners of a drawer. The oak knife drawer we made for Birds Hill has dovetail joints.
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We source our materials from managed sources and as close to home as we can, and we work to keep waste and emissions low. For each kitchen, the paint colours, worktops and hardware are chosen with you during design, so your kitchen is made from the materials and finishes agreed in the drawings.
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Yes. Our workshop makes much more than kitchens, from made to measure wardrobes and fitted furniture to joinery and bespoke furniture, along with larders, boot rooms, utility rooms, dressers and wine rooms. The same standards of making and the same painted finishes can carry a consistent look from the kitchen into the rest of your home.
Related
Continue Exploring
See Our Handmade Kitchens
The best way to judge a handmade kitchen is to look closely at one, and our photo gallery shows kitchens, larders and dressers made in our workshop. When you would like to talk about your own, you can reach us on 01403 892554 or at [email protected] to arrange a consultation.
We work most often in Horsham· Dorking· Cranleigh· Guildford· Oxted· Reigate