A World of Furniture - Blog

Well on the fringes at least. Yesterday I visited one of our main suppliers of solid wood furniture, Devonshire Furniture. Over the past twenty years like us they have gone from strength to strength delivering quality solid wood furniture across the uk. Situated in Bideford, Devon, it’s perhaps not the best location for logistics but for quality of life and with views to inspire… what better place to run a business.

The reason for the visit was to preview some new ranges that are to be shown at the furniture show in Birmingham next week. Perhaps they thought the availability of free booze at the show would send us off course and we wouldn’t get to their stand to see their exciting new products… Peter, Andy & Tony… ye of little faith!!!

I almost didn’t make the preview though, I’m not going to name drop but German engineering could have done with some Japanese electronics!!! Approaching Barnstable on the duel carriageway the whole dash  lit up like a Christmas tree and the wipers were going berserk. I pulled in, turned off the engine, gave it a minute and started up again… all was fine. That’s mended then?! Great, on with the journey.

Devonshire Furniture’s ability to manufacture quality pine and painted furniture, along with their massive warehousing to stock imported oak ranges is a winning combination and allows us as a retailer to showcase a wide range of top quality products from a reliable source. We get our stock fast and because of the stock we turn over we get good discounts and pass these onto our customers. It’s this ethos that has kept our business thriving, even in these turbulent and challenging times. But, great prices and stock availability is not the key to successful long term business. You need to have products the public want and to bend and twist with fashions and trends.

So back to the new ranges I pre-viewed. There was a mix of solid oak and some painted ranges. The oak products will be available in various finishes, a real bonus. The painted ranges will have a vast pallet and options include oak trim.  Are they well priced, yes. Are they on trend, yes. Are they in stock…  well two out of three isn’t bad. From April the stock will start to roll and at that point we will champion the new ranges from Devonshire Furniture. They will be well priced, well stocked and on trend…

As Punch says… ‘That’s the way to do it!!!’

Bushcraft day arrived a little quicker than I had envisaged, it must be me but the days really are just whizzing by (someone told me that’s just me getting older – how very dare they!), it was a very early, chilly start but well worth rising from my pit for even if it was just to take in the breath taking vista of stars that welcomed me as I stumbled out of the front door!

Having successfully navigated my way to the darkest corner of  Somerset I awaited the arrival of the posse, Alan (Blandford), Simon (Poole), Lenn (Salisbury), John (of cabinet making fame), Mike (Harnham Press) and of course not forgetting Mark and Sam of Countrylore, the guys that were to share their knowledge of all things Bushcraft like.

On their arrival we were ushered to the main camp (well actually the posse walked – I cheated and caught a lift on the back of Marks quadbike ……ooh how daring!) where we found Sam diligently chopping up some timber next to the camp that he and Mark had erected the night before, fire blazing, kettle on, it all looked rather cosy and so with a coffee in hand thinking – how hard can this be – we all sat down for Mark to give us a brief insight into the world of Bushcraft.

So having covered the basics it was off to start making our shelter, no mean feat when it is for 6 guys all of whom are of a rather large persuasion…… but we fired off in all directions gathering the necessary building materials to construct what can only be described as a giant beaver lodge…. just without the water.

We were all slightly alarmed as to how this experience was going to unfold though when Mark, before departing to gather some equipment, told us the procedure for treating any accidental knife wounds, not this not so bad in itself, but then continued with what to do if you have any chest or high thigh wounds – I still wonder what on earth he thought we were going to get up too, has he had an event that has turned into The Lord of The Flies!!

The new crib

So the shelter was created, although Mark did point out there were a few holes in the construction, but looking back on it it any self respecting shelter should have windows…..

And so to the fire starting, this had taken the attention of a few of us well into the course of the build of the shelter and there was a dogged determination to firing it up, but it seemed that all of our attempts were in vain, the majority of us gave up the cause early on and carried on with the build, but John and Mike continued with the thankless task and at one point amongst much whooping and holleri….. oh it had gone out again!!

Now Mark had mentioned in the breifing something called Alfreds Cake (not that cake…) a small fungi that grows on the trunks of decaying trees and that is excellent for fire lighting and so I popped of to see if I could find any, half an hour later I was thinking, am I looking in the right place, is it seasonal and so I was forced to ask – where would I find such an elusive thing?

It turns out that the Ash tree’s that I should have been looking for do not grow in that particular wood ….. Doh!! But I think Mark took pity on us and donated some of his stash and within moments we had a roaring fire going – time for some lunch!!

Cooking is so easy at home pop to the shops, grab some essentials, pop it on the cooker when you get home, it is all so incidental, a bit of a nuisance, but preparing this was so much more satisfying, Trout and Partridge were on the menu and although we did not have to catch our lunch (I do hope that is part of the next outing…) we did have to prepare it for cooking and with a quick demo from Mark it was time to get our hands dirty.

After our superb lunch of ponassed Trout and Partridge curry (Lenn is a culinary genius on the quiet!) Mark gave us a quick tour of our surroundings and a brief insight into the world around us, although I go for walks all of the time and feel that I “see” everything around me in reality I miss everything, sure I can name a few common trees and recognise a few plants (and this is a hugely limited knowledge compared to some..) but it is also about the mechanics of the woodland and countryside around us that we pretty much ignore and it is a shame that we are all trapped in a modern world of convenience and do not get the time to really appreciate what is out there.

To end the day there was a spot of spoon making, now this may sound to you like a frivolous task but it is  it is a proud moment when you stand there with this hand carved item in front of you, freshly whittled from a lump of Birch, there were varying degrees of success with the spoons but this just capped off the enormous sense of achievement from all of the tasks that we had partaken in throughout the day.

This was the first moment that I really understood quite how passionate Mark is about Bushcraft, his passion is born of same drive and determination that has created A world of furniture, but this has a little something else entirely and once you have been through a day like this it is easy to see why you would get passionate about it, although we have merely scratched the surface of the immense subject of Bushcraft, once you have experienced a small amount, it is a hard thing to shake off and I for one certainly would like to learn more and by god there is a huge amount to learn!

I hope it is not too long before we can have our next expedition, although there is another couple of outings planned for some of the other store staff, (I hope to get something on here from those particular trips) but I know that there are a couple of people from this trip that are keenly keeping an eye out for the next excursion……

Yes it is true …. we have a budding Schumacher here at A world of furniture in Chandlers Ford …. well I say a Schumacher – more like half a dozen who think they are!

Yes this was our trip to the local go-karting circuit for our little 1st Birthday celebration (yes it’s been one whole year here at the new store in Chandlers Ford – time certainly flies!) and everyone was giving it large before the event, giving advice to all who would listen about the best way to take the hairpins, the fastest approach to the bridge or the quickest way to negotiate the S Bends.

But the night itself told us all we needed to know about the capabilities of our budding Schooeys and it was a revelation.

I went out like a man on a mission to show everyone at the start the way forward and obviously show the best way round the track – the pace setter if you will …. and I thought that I had posted a fairly respectable time that was until Mr Kiddle decided otherwise…

He slid out the back end of his kart with great aplomb and like a pro he soon smashed my lap, which at the end of his stint was only too pleased to tell me, (obviously what goes on on the track stays on the track with no consequences back at base ….. ) his gloating soon turned to dismay however when Katie took to the track.

With a racing style that is only just short of demented, every time someone dared over take her on the circuit they would soon have the taste of a woman scorned as Kate would proceed to ram them into the nearest tyre wall and somehow come out on top, but it was amongst much whooping and hollering that we informed Kate that she had in actual fact knocked Ben from his top spot and pinched the fastest lap, this was obviously not helped by us all mocking him!

Then it was the turn of Martin who started out the cautious type, carefully taking the corners and steady on the straight, but it did not take too long before there was the merest hint of contact with his kart and he then turned into a man possessed it was like seeing a bull on the charge, eyes fixed on the targets in front of him and a demonic grin plastered to his face he proceeded to chase down everything in his path, trying to get him back in to the pits for a change over proved difficult, only just falling short of throwing someone on the track in front of him and I am not sure that would have worked – I just hope to god he does not drive the van like that on Monday!

When we finally did manage to retrieve Martin from his possessed mission it was the turn of Charles, who it has to be said is a bit of a dark horse when it comes to karting, one can only take from his style that he was the one responsible for leaving tyre marks on the car parks of many a shopping centre across the south, (as the back end of his kart was usually overtaking him!) a bit of a boy racer in his time now doubt, however the penultimate lap saw near disaster, a clinical lead into the corner, a slight under take on the exit and blam! Charles is now buried into the tyre wall….. well … he had a sterling race for the most part!

There are already rumblings of revenge on the next outing, I see that Schumacher’s early karting videos have recently been played on Youtube and the circuit map is now pinned to the notice board for a constant reminder and review of those corners and how best to tackle them …. little do they know I have already booked another session to keep up the practice ….. …..