Zespoke is a designer furniture company based in Northern Ireland that has its roots in traditional furniture making techniques but with a very retro twist on the design to create something truly unique.
Set up by friends Stephen and Paul, their aim is to provide their customers with beautiful, high-quality retro-styled furniture that they can customise themselves – all at an affordable price.
Stephen began making furniture with his father at the age of seven and still uses the traditional techniques his father taught him whilst growing up in order to craft the furniture he makes today — albeit with a more modern twist.
Stephen’s father began his furniture-making career working in the shipyards where the Titanic was built, fitting out luxury ships, before returning to set up his own furniture business. He would take on orders for local customers, restoring old and broken pieces and taking on one-off commissions.
Despite learning traditional skills from his father, Stephen’s dream was to create a modern twist on retro-designed furniture in his own workshop. One of his proudest moments was when his father, despite having a firmly traditional design background, couldn’t find a bad word to say about the first Zespoke table Stephen made — which, according to Stephen, was high praise indeed.
Paul and Stephen first met whilst working for their previous employers. There was an instant friendship formed and to this day is at the heart of everything they do. Even with such success, the pair remain very much hands on, with Stephen still taking pride in handcrafting all the furniture from scratch. To date, the lovingly-crafted furniture collections include retro coffee tables, console tables, side tables and unique TV stands, all of which can be customised with over 30 different colours and endless colour combinations.
A careful blend of traditional techniques, contemporary design and ingenious technology, all with a unique retro twist, has meant that Zespoke has gone from strength to strength in recent years, even catching the eye of a number of high profile TV Shows which have chosen the furniture to grace their sets.