It has been made as a one off for a businessman in Gloucestershire. Mike Ruffles director at Kennedy, said how, “The stature of the room allowed us to be more extravagant than normal.” The bookcase, dwarfs Ruffles and with fellow director Russell Langham who designed the piece, which is due to be delivered next week!
Obviously cheap furniture is not normally 4m x4m and this piece costs £60,000. the bookcase took five to six weeks to make and a further five weeks of man hours to polish by hand.
Mike Ruffles explained how “The finishing is often under-rated but it’s as important as the structure,” The piece was then glazed, and silk-lining was added to the drawers. The many other finishing touches were all carried out at R E H Kennedy's the White House Road site in Ipswich.
“It was a very labour intensive job - the bookcase has 20 different parts - and we needed to choose the right place in the factory to ensure we had the height we needed,” added Mike.
The two directors took ownership of Kennedy, which employs 32 skilled workers, in a management buy-out two years ago having both worked at the company for several years. As a supplier to such retailers as Harrods, the Ipswich manufacturer has an enviable reputation in the high-end traditional cabinet furniture industry with a client base of retailers and interior designers worldwide.
Not only does Kennedy make "made to order" furniture items, it also as standard range of over one thousand products, which aren't 4m x 4m!
story from http://www.eadt.co.uk