Almost every older house in East Lothian has one room where the standard-size furniture does not fit, and it is usually the one with the chimney breast in it.
What This Article Covers
- Rooms in the county's Georgian, Victorian and interwar stock are rarely square, so joinery is measured on site before anything is drawn.
- Kitchens, wardrobes, media walls, storage, doors, windows and staircases are all built to the opening they go into.
- Design, manufacture and installation are handled in house by the same family run team, with core work never subcontracted out.
- Carcasses are built and finished in the workshop and brought in complete, rather than assembled from flat-pack on site.
- The survey comes first and the quote follows it, so what is included is settled before any work starts.
George Herkes & Son Joinery has worked across East Lothian since 1989 and holds East Lothian Trading Standards Trusted Trader accreditation, rated 5.0 from 62 reviews, and the same team that handles a fitted kitchen also handles the work of a garage conversion specialist in East Lothian when a project runs that way.
Send through the room and what you want built, and George will come out and measure it.
Bespoke Kitchens
A kitchen wall in a Prestonpans terrace is rarely straight and the floor under it rarely level. The units sold to go against that wall are made in 100mm steps, so the run ends short and the gap is closed with a filler panel cut on the day. Every filler is a piece of the room paid for and not used.
A made-to-measure carcass is built to the wall that is there. The larder recess becomes a full-height pull-out at whatever width the recess offers. The dead corner beside a chimney breast becomes drawers on soft-close runners rather than a cupboard nobody reaches into. Doors are sprayed in the workshop, not brushed in a room people are trying to live in.
Timber is chosen at the survey against what the room already carries. Oak and walnut are left clear where the grain is the point. Painted work is built in a stable softwood and sprayed, because a brushed finish in a kitchen shows every joint within a year. Handles, runners and hinges are specified then too, so the drawing that goes to the workshop is a complete instruction rather than a shape.
Design, manufacture and installation are all done in house. One survey, one drawing, one team, and the quote that follows the survey covers the piece, the finish and the fitting rather than the carcass alone. Nothing is subcontracted out. That is what the free quote settles.
Thinking about Bespoke Joinery in East Lothian? A free quote from George Herkes & Son Joinery costs you nothing but the phone call.
Design, Manufacture and Installation for East Lothian Homes
The county’s housing does not sit in one era, and joinery that suits one part of it fights another.
Georgian and burgh stock
Haddington and the older burgh centres carry Georgian town houses with tall rooms, deep reveals and mouldings no merchant stocks. Work here is scribed off what is already on the wall and cut to that profile in the workshop. Hardwood where it is to be left clear, softwood where it is to be painted.
Victorian and interwar terraces
Musselburgh, Prestonpans and Tranent run to nineteenth and early twentieth century terraces and villas. Rooms are smaller, chimney breasts stand proud into the run and ceiling heights change between front and back. Storage has to be built into the alcove rather than stood in front of it.
Rural and coastal property
Farmhouses, steading conversions and coastal cottages sit across the farming ground and the shore. Access is the constraint before design is: a carcass that will not turn a stair is a carcass rebuilt at the workshop’s cost. Access is measured at survey with everything else, the same as it is for house design renovation in East Lothian. Measure first, cut later.
Media Walls and Storage Units
A media wall is a heat and cable problem before it is a joinery one. A screen and an electric fire in one panel need a route for the cabling and a gap for the air, and a unit built tight to the plaster traps both. Ventilation is designed into the carcass, and the back panel is made removable so the socket behind it stays reachable in five years.
Storage is a measuring problem. An alcove beside a breast in a Tranent villa is seldom the same width at skirting and at cornice, and a unit made to the narrower of the two leaves a wedge of shadow down one side. Both are recorded and the carcass is tapered to suit. Veneer or lacquer, decided at the survey against what the rest of the room carries.
Loading is the part that gets missed. A run of shelving carrying books is a different structure from the same run carrying a screen, and the fixing has to reach something solid behind the plaster. In a Victorian villa that means finding the lath and the studs before the carcass is designed, not after it arrives. Where the wall will not take the load, the unit is built to stand and scribed to the wall instead of hung off it. A shelf that sags is a shelf that was guessed.
The same method sits behind the work of who does bespoke joinery in Elphinstone and every other town on the county list.
Doors, Windows and Staircases
Timber on the East Lothian coast has a harder life than timber four miles inland, and the specification follows the exposure rather than the catalogue.
Doors
A door is hung before its ironmongery goes on, so the hinge positions answer to the frame as built. In a stone opening the reveal is measured at head, middle and foot, because it is seldom the same width at all three.
Windows
The shoreline running past Bass Rock, Tantallon Castle and Yellowcraigs takes wind off the Forth and salt with it. End grain is sealed before the frame goes together. Cills are throated and drips are cut so water leaves the face instead of tracking back under it.
Staircases
Rise and going stay consistent over the flight or the stair fails. Headroom is measured at the tightest point, and the flight is set out from finished floor levels rather than bare joists.
Fitted Wardrobes and Dressing Rooms
A freestanding wardrobe in a room with a coombed ceiling wastes the triangle above it and the strip beside it.
Wardrobes in older rooms
A fitted carcass takes the coomb as a line to build to. Hanging goes where the height allows it, drawers go where it does not, and the piece finishes against the cornice instead of under it.
Dressing rooms
A small back bedroom in a commuter-town semi converts to a dressing room without moving a wall. Runs are set out to the room’s real dimensions, and internals are decided at the survey: hanging heights, drawer depths, shelf spacings.
Everything is built in the workshop and brought in finished, not assembled from flat-pack on site. The team that measured the room fits it, so a discrepancy is settled by the person who took the measurement. Nothing is priced before the room is seen.
Free quotes on Bespoke Joinery across East Lothian. Speak to George at George Herkes & Son Joinery.
Common Questions About Bespoke Joinery in East Lothian
How much does bespoke joinery cost in East Lothian?
It depends on the piece, the timber and what the room turns out to be, which is why it is quoted after a survey rather than off a list. The survey is what settles it: George measures the room, you agree the piece and the finish, and the quote covers the making and the fitting rather than the carcass on its own. There is no charge for the visit.
How long does a project take from survey to installation?
The making is the predictable part and the room is not. A survey establishes what has to be built and what has to be worked around, and the lead time is given from that rather than guessed at the enquiry. Work is built off site, so the disruption in the house is the fitting rather than the whole build.
Do you handle design, manufacture and installation yourselves?
Yes, all three. The survey, the drawing, the workshop build and the fit are done by the same family run team and core work is not subcontracted out. It matters most when a measurement and a room disagree, because the person who took the measurement is the person standing in the room.
Can you match existing timberwork in an older East Lothian property?
Yes. A moulding profile in a Georgian room in Haddington will not be in a merchant's range, so it is scribed off an existing length and cut to match in the workshop. On windows and doors in older fabric, matching the sightline and the glazing bar of what came out is what keeps the elevation right afterwards.
What is the difference between joinery, carpentry and cabinet making?
In Scottish usage the joiner makes timber components, the carpenter fixes structural timber on site and the cabinet maker builds furniture to a finer tolerance. In practice one firm covers all three on a house. What matters when you are hiring is which parts are made rather than bought, because a piece that is made can be cut to your opening.
