Setting the benchmark

Craftsmanship, innovation and sustainability have always been part of furniture maker Gaze Burvill’s ethos. Since 1993, when the company was founded by Simon Burvill and designer Christian Gaze, it has used sustainable oak for its distinctive pieces, whether it’s a Court Seat, the pair’s very first design, or its new Amity Seat.

The company recently achieved B Corp Certification, having proved it meets high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability. Its consideration for the environment doesn’t stop at choosing oak over tropical hardwoods for its furniture: at its Hampshire workshop and base, waste sawdust is turned into pellets that fuel the biomass boiler, while solar panels power the entire site.

Above all though, Gaze Burvill is known for its elegant, covetable pieces of garden furniture, whether it’s the comfortably curved Broadwalk Bench or a May Throne featuring the company’s trademark steam-bent oak. It could even be the clean, more contemporary lines of a Levity dining table and chair set.

Craftsmanship and innovation

The Gaze Burvill workshop is the perfect meld of traditional craftsmanship, where highly skilled joiners and woodworkers use age-old techniques such as foxtail and dovetail jointing, with state-of-the-art digital technology. A team of designers and master craftspeople work to produce practical furniture with elegant design details from beautifully quarter sawn oak.

The newest addition to the range is made from British oak that’s harvested from sustainably managed forests. The Amity Seat was designed to celebrate Gaze Burvill’s 30th year and embraces the timber’s natural grain so the resulting bench is imbued with the essence of the tree from which it came. For each of the first 100 Amity Seats sold, Gaze Burvill will donate £100 to Action Oak, an initiative that funds scientific research into disease threats faced by oak trees.

Another recent addition to Gaze Burvill’s portfolio is a range of outdoor ki