Selwyn House

Based in Derbyshire, UK

Sean Best and Ellie Smalls met studying Fine Art at Leeds Arts University, and together are Selwyn House.

Always drawn to making things, Sean bought a second-hand lathe and began teaching himself woodturning. An all-consuming obsession for understanding and working with wood followed, and after making the move back to Ellie’s home county of Derbyshire in 2017, they formed Selwyn House, combining their creative talents to create small-batch handmade serveware & homeware from the best British-grown timbers they could get their hands on.

All pieces are designed to be functional as well as beautiful, and the most important element of a Selwyn House product is that each piece is made by hand - processed from rough-sawn timber or individually turned on the lathe.

All of the wood is sourced as locally as possible to the workshop and is from trees which have grown in Britain. Most wood is bought from small independent sawmills, who either manage woodland around them or buy directly from local tree surgeons. The wood is milled and air-dried at these sawmills for a minimum of 18 months before it even comes to the workshop. Working in small batches means they are able to source more unusual and characterful pieces of timber to work with and adapt designs to make the most of the wood.