I first heard about Avery when visiting a friends house. While I was there I saw some beautifully fitted cupboards and storage spaces and shelves that just appeared to come out of the walls with no supports. All made from the most beautifully worked wood.
For me my challenge was to simply have some fitted wardrobes in my main bedroom. I wanted to keep in with the original style of my 1930s semi but to also have a light modern feel to give the room a lift.
I'd had several carpenters in and after discussions with them realised that I was going to have to take a different approach so I called Avery.
The first thing that impressed me was his immediate engagement with my requirements. There were a few things that were really important to me:
1. I needed a certain amount of advice and to understand what was possible within my budget.
2. I wanted something that I could be really proud of that would add value to my property.
3. I wanted to feel that every time I entered the bedroom I would be greeted with a thing of beauty as well as having practical storage.
4. Whatever timelines or dates were agreed to it was very important to me that these were honoured and that I was given updates as to the progress of the work.
5. That he would respect my property and clean up after himself. I had a newly decorated and carpeted house!!
Avery worked tirelessly in achieving all these goals. He was able to discuss with me my ideas with great clarity and input all his years of experience in ensuring that I got the result that I was after.
He produced simple drawings for me before we agreed on the direction we would go. These were very useful in visualising how the cupboards would look.
Avery has an amazing eye for detail. He was able to take the feel of the style of my house and reflect it in his work. What we came up with in the end (actually what he came up with) was a kind of Macintosh influenced arts and crafts design with solid ash doors and interior drawers.
He kept to all timelines as promised and was always totally upfront with any possible problems that might occur and was very clear about what I had to prepare for him to enable him to carry out the work.
Communicating with Avery was very easy. He had good strong ideas when I required them but was also very sensitive to my ideas and what I wanted and was able to get me to express them in a way that he could then translate in to his work.
In summary Avery was able to deliver on all my requirements and as far as the quality of Avery's work goes I can only say that it was excellent. I even learnt something about Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the Arts and Crafts movement.
***********************************************************************
"Avery is a true professional and perfectionist, thus his standards
are the very best. He works collaboratively with you when designing
the project, so it is important that you have your own ideas about
what you want, which you can share with him. He will then realise
this for you and the result, in our case, was stunning both in terms
of looks and utility" Mr Butlin. Hove.
Avery was very flexible throughout the job, he was considerate, trustworthy and very easy-going: he was a pleasure to have here. The thing that most impressed me about Avery was his love of wood and the abundant knowledge he has about it (not to mention his considerable talent working with it). Throughout the job his advice about how to tackle problems was absolutely correct. In the past I have often felt tradesmen were advising me to take options that were most convenient for them, and not those that would be best for the end result. Avery was completely different: there was never a problem that could not be overcome, and every recommendation Avery made was borne out with jaw-dropping results.
Dr. Andy P. Field
I always felt Avery was doing it not just to earn a living, but for the love of doing justice to the wood and creating an end result of which he could be proud. There are few people you can say that about: he is a true craftsman.
Leonora Wilkinson. Brighton.
Avery provides a very personal service, spends a lot of time of time with the client and spends even more time getting the result right.
Matthew Willets-Comicus Ltd
