Made in Britain: Sofa Workshop

As part of our Made in Britain series, we chart the rise of Sofa Workshop – from its humble beginnings in Kent to its glamorous collaborations with Christian Lacroix

Lady Victoria 3 seater sofa in sumptuous old gold

Sofa Workshop first opened its doors in Maidstone, Kent, in 1986 with the aim of giving home owners and renters ultimate design control while producing custom-based options. This ethos is still true today. All sofas are handcrafted across multiple workshops in the UK, where skilled furniture makers use raw materials such as beech wood and work with the same piece of furniture from start to finish, even signing their name on the frame once completed for a personal touch.

It takes four years to qualify as a British upholsterer and many have been ''on the bench'' at Sofa Workshop since they left school, honing their skills. There is a good old-fashioned hands-on approach, so no hi-tech robots or production lines are seen on site. On-request tours of the workshops can be arranged for visitors to get a real feel for the attention to detail that goes into making each piece of furniture.

Attention to detail: a Sofa Workshop maker at work (Matt Livey)

In addition to a useful website there are now 20 stores across the UK, from Bristol to Glasgow, where advisers are on hand to discuss requirements. With more than 1,000 fabric options and more than 56 designs that are customisable, there is plenty to chat about. Whether the alterations are as simple as making a sofa a few centimetres wider than standard or changing the seat filling from feather to fibre, or going one step further to changing leg colours, heights, depths and installing a bed in the frame, the bespoke nature means all sofas can be adapted.

All hands on deck for the production of chairs in Maidstone (Matt Livey)

As Sofa Workshop has grown, so has its reputation and it has an impressive list of fabric collaborations on its books including Sanderson and Christian Lacroix. This year, projects with Liberty Fabrics and Moon have been lined up. Every fabric has a ''rub test'', which means it is rubbed by a little machine thousands of times to see how long it lasts, a practice developed in the Second World War to test parachute fabric. Unless it hits a certain number, it is not deemed suitable for upholstery. Sofa fabrics should be as long-lasting and hard-wearing as possible so this is an important part of meeting UK standards.

Investing in these customisable pieces won't break the bank, as many of the sofas on offer are at the more affordable end of the market. Truly, a great example of good-value British design.

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