About

Hillside Furniture was established by Ben Johnstone in 2013 as an avenue to sell bespoke hand turned wooden items, with the company originally being called Hillside Woodturning. It has evolved into a small furniture company making bespoke items such as a custom shelving unit for a kitchen, under stairs storage, made to measure wardrobes, small decorative items such as a tea tray and so much more

One of the first hand turned bowls made by Ben

Ben started his career working with wood in 2008 when he started a traditional joinery apprenticeship working at a small joinery in Hanley Swan. In 2010 Ben started working as a Cabinet Maker for a company based near Colwall which specialised in making high end furniture for likes of Linley, Rupert Bevan, and Gosling Interiors. Over nearly ten years Ben worked on honing his skills and in 2020 during the Covid pandemic he decided that it was time to leave his job and focus full time on Hillside Furniture.

Ben attaching LEDs to the underside of a shelf by lying on a worksurface
Ben attaching LEDs to the underside of a shelf

Ben has taken his love of making items from wood, his traditional training as a joiner and his experience working as a cabinet maker and pulled it all together to make a company that makes bespoke furniture for local customers as well as selling a range of beautiful hand made items online on Etsy

Hillside Furniture started in an 8ft by 8ft shed on the side of the stunning Malvern Hills, the base of which had to be cut into the hillside by hand which inspired the name Hillside Furniture. In 2020 when looking for a suitable location to open a workshop Ben came across a small workshop available for rent in Staunton, Gloucestershire which was perfect.

The 8ft x 8ft shed where Hillside Furniture started
Unit 12 – December 2023

Since 2020 Unit 12 at Staunton Court Business park has evolved into the heart of Hillside Furniture and become a home from home for Ben who is often found sat by the lake opposite the workshop with a cup of tea.

Whilst Staunton and Malvern are the two home areas for Hillside Furniture we are happy to carry out work throughout southern Worcestershire, East Herefordshire and Gloucestershire. Please feel free to contact us using the contact page to book for Ben to carry out a site visit or consultation.

Testimonials

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Very pleasant to deal with. Excellent finish, I would thoroughly recommend.Only slight drawback, as Ben is a perfectionist (hence the Excellent finish) and therefore timings slipped slightly. 19th May, 2023

― Miles – MyBuilder

How refreshing to come across a trades person who turns up on time, speaks confidently about what needs to be done without any ifs and buts and sharp intakes of breath. The job was done exactly how he described he would do it and the result was as required. Utterly professional and highly recommended. 20th Aug,Continue reading “Colin – MyBuilder”

― Colin – MyBuilder

The work we gave Ben was difficult and challenging, he pulled it off, I can fully recommend his work, we are so pleased with the under stairs unit Ben made for us. Also he made a wonderful display unit out of solid oak, his attention to detail is first class. It is refreshing to meetContinue reading “Ruth – MyBuilder”

― Ruth – MyBuilder

Ben from Hillside did a wonderful job. He made and stained and put up wooden shelves. The colour of the shelves matches my other furniture perfectly. The job was done efficiently and to a very high standard. I would not hesitate to use Hillside again or to recommend them. 9th Jan, 2023

― Robert – MyBuilder

Let’s build something together.

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Recent Workshop updates

An awesome review from one of our Etsy customers Over the last year we have had quite a few customers ask us if we sell Oak shelf boards to go with our awesome Oak shelf brackets, and now the answer is "YES! We do!" Even in this world of Amazon Prime, good things take time to make. We do our best to get orders out as quickly as we can however our oak shelf brackets are made to order and if they don’t meet our high standards then they don’t leave the workshop. You don’t realise how happy I am that this saw just worked. It’s been out of action for nearly a week, which has caused me all sorts of issues with customer orders. And this is why you don’t stand directly in front or behind the thicknesser when machining thin strips of material. Popped over to Wales today to make a delivery. Stopped off at White Castle on the way and had a look around. Plenty of awesome views. Today I finished an order that I’ve been working on for 65 custom oak shelf brackets. It’s always interesting to think about how the pieces evolve from rough sawn planks of oak into accurately machined components and finally into fully finished recognisable items, in this case a load of shelf brackets. Sanding the bottom of a door while in situ. One of my customers had some new carpets fitted and this led to some of their doors catching on the carpet. I was able to remove and trim most of the doors but not this one due to both the door frame face trim and a diagonal brace on the door being installed onto of the hinges. So instead I used a thin MDF board with sandpaper attached with double sided tape to sand the bottom of the door. It’s a bit of a workout but is simple and effective as you position the board under the problem area and move the door back forth over the sandpaper. Removing the door is the best method but when that’s not possible without making a lot of mess this is pretty good. A couple of cupboard doors going through the workshop currently. These will be painted by the customer, however we always undercoat the MDF center panel before gluing them up so that when the timber moves with the seasons there won’t be any MDF visible. It’s the little things that make the difference.