Laurent Peacock

Furniture maker

A solid fascination with materials and process

Laurent is a visionary bespoke furniture maker
He designs and handcrafts heirloom quality furniture pieces
His Sika console table was awarded a Bespoke Guild Mark in 2017

Furniture maker Laurent Peacock studied Industrial Design at university but felt uninspired by the prospect of designing plastic parts for mass production. Furniture making offered him a way to satisfy his need for personal creativity in both technical and manual realms. Today he observes that “Very few made objects in our world fulfill quite as many roles at a personal level as does a good piece of furniture.” Laurent retrained with influential designer and sculptor Marc Fish and now designs and handcrafts high quality furniture which fuses traditional and contemporary materials, techniques and processes, focusing on tactile form, texture and pattern. Laurent mainly works with wood and where possible uses local materials, which help ground his objects in their environment.

Interview

What do you enjoy about bespoke furniture making?: I love the fact that with bespoke furniture making I can be personally involved in every stage of the process, from the initial client brief through design and development, sampling, planning, making, finishing and having the joy of handing over the finished piece to an excited customer.
Do you master any specific techniques?: Much of my recent work has featured carved textures for the visual intrigue and the tactility they impart to a piece. I am experimenting with patterns at different scales and densities, and with using different tools to create them to varying degrees of uniformity or inconsistency.
What inspires your designs?: Many of my pieces are created to showcase materials, techniques, textures or finishes I have developed through play and experimentation. This creative process involves seeking out a harmonious balance between form and texture, simplifying outlines where surfaces are ‘busy’ or ‘loud’, or crafting more extravagant structures from materials that are inherently quieter or more humble.
How do you express tradition and innovation in your work?: I think of my way of working as a hybrid craft, interchangeably and seamlessly deploying hand tools, traditional craft processes and modern power tools to achieve the desired result. All true aspects of craft – human judgment, eye, feel, nuance, and modulation are what characterise the process and imbue the work with its distinctive personality, and these can all remain present whether reaching for old or new tools for the job at hand.

Laurent Peacock is a rising star: he began his career in 2018