A toast!

Celebrating two of Cornwall’s most successful artisan businesses.

Top interior designers, architects, and hoteliers from across the West Country came together recently to toast two of Cornwall’s most successful artisan businesses.

The Cornish Bed Company, which hand casts a range of metal beds at its foundry in the heart of Cornwall, joined forces with award-winning lighting and furniture designer, Tom Raffield, at a special summer party to salute craftsmanship in the county.

“We’re confident that we produce some of the finest beds found anywhere in the world – and we’re proud that we do it all in Cornwall”

The bed company’s long-held ethos is to create beautiful bed frames built to last a lifetime, its small team of skilled artisans honing time-honoured techniques championed by their Victorian forefathers.

Each bed frame is hand-poured using traditional gravity casting and then individually numbered, creating a bespoke product for every customer. The iron beds are coated in a choice of colours and the brass frames skilfully lacquered by hand.

The company’s foundry, in Par’s historic railway roundhouse, is one of the last in the country to manufacture beds in this way, flying the flag for sustainability and creating sought after pieces of furniture which stand the test
of time.

The impressive loft space above the foundry, a masterclass in industrial chic, was an ideal canvas against which to showcase the beds, complemented by selected pieces from Tom Raffield’s extensive furniture and lighting collection. Guests were treated to a tour of the foundry, giving them the chance to see first hand the entire manufacturing process.

“We’re confident that we produce some of the finest beds found anywhere in the world – and we’re proud that we do it all in Cornwall,” says Director, Garry Smith. “We champion authenticity and craftsmanship; it really is as far from the production line as you could get, and that is evidenced by the quality of our beds”.

Based in a woodland workshop in the Trevarno Valley in west Cornwall, Tom Raffield designs and and crafts a range of contemporary furniture and lighting using the age old method of steam bending.

As well as boasting an impressive domestic order book, Tom Raffield now enjoys a global platform, taking on special commissions for restaurants, hotels and residential projects across the world.