Island Life Magazine Ltd October/November 2008 | Page 114

life

LOCAL BUSINESS

Bespoke worth
speaking of
“I often think ‘I can see why
we’ve got this job – everyone
else will have turned it down,’”
says John Strawson. For when
other kitchen or bathroom
companies might file a job in
the ‘too hard’ basket, John’s
expertise as a cabinet maker
means he has the required
skills.
“Nothing needs to be
standard,” he says, and recalls
the oak window he and
his small team made for St
Cecelia’s Abbey in Ryde. The
architects had been told the
restoration was impossible –
that the necessary skills had

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been lost. But John’s team had
the knowledge, and got the job.
John, 46, has come a long
way since studying fine
craftsmanship and design 28
years ago, at the prestigious
Rycotewood College near
Oxford. While most of the
world was moving towards
flat-pack DIY, John worked
with bespoke bathroom maker
Sitting Pretty and then the
Sloane Ranger’s favourite,
John Lewis of Hungerford.
He has worked for Osborne
House and for The Orangery in
Kensington Palace.
The secret, he says, is having

Bespoke by Strawson, The
Workshops, Chapel Lane,
Merstone 07919 412000

a workshop and a team small
enough to be flexible. “There
are lots of skilled people on
the island,” says John, “but
not many who can make a
piece, give it a high quality
finish and fit it.” His almost
symbiotic relationship with
project manager Mark Giddens
also helps. The pair managed
to design a kitchen over the
phone and all the pieces fitted
first time.
They have just finished fitting
out a house in Kensington,
London, with everything
from skirting and architraves
to wardrobes and kitchen,

which is on the market for
£12,500,000. Work on such
prestigious projects is always
appealing, but John and his
bespoke skills are firmly based
on the Island . His trips away
from his wife Sharon and two
children are the exception
rather than the norm.
Lovers of true craftsmanship
take note.

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