About Selwyn House
From their workshop in rural Northamptonshire, woodworkers Sean Best and Ellie Smalls create handmade wooden tableware for the modern home, using exclusively British-grown timbers.
With a shared love of great food and gathering together for simple feasts, we wish to set a table with high-quality pieces made to last, that don’t compromise on sustainability. Rather than the tropical timbers so often found in commercial woodenware, we choose to use the fantastic hardwoods available right here in this country - hoping to play a small part in highlighting the beauty of British timber and the need to invest in its future.
Selwyn House designs are modern yet warm; easy-to-live-with items intended to be used and enjoyed for a lifetime. Our workshop specialises in woodturning, with many items starting their life on the lathe. All our pieces are go through slow, considered processes by hand, and are always finished to be food-safe. Our aim is to create honest, functional everyday items which become much loved pieces at the table.
We work hard to seek out the very best timbers from up and down the country. We only work with timber suppliers as passionate as us - who often know the exact location the tree grew.
For us, choosing to buy only British-grown hardwood goes further than the quality it provides. We believe in shopping sustainably, buying less but better quality pieces that last. But it’s also about investing in a sustainable timber supply - by choosing British-grown products the money goes directly back to sawmills, tree surgeons, forestry teams and woodland management. It helps create a demand for trees, encouraging landowners to improve existing woodland and make make planting new woodland commercially viable. It gives higher prices to tree surgeons and forestry teams for perfectly useable, slow grown trees which would otherwise simply be taken down, chipped into firewood and burnt.
As woodworkers, we hope to play our small part in highlighting the beauty of British timber and the need to invest in its future.
Want to know more?
Shop with us
Each of our pieces is handmade, by us, in our rural Northamptonshire workshop. Though we’re not open to the public, our work is available directly from our online shop, or if you’d prefer to see pieces in the flesh, pay a visit to one of our stockists.
Work with us
We’re so proud to have Selwyn House products on the shelves of retailers large and small through our wholesale range. Our workshop has also created pieces for Michelin-starred restaurants - get in touch if you would like to commission something special.