The Chair Competition

New Competitions Launched for 2011!

We have three brand new awards to make this year, all designed to encourage and promote excellence and good practice.
For more details about these exciting awards click here

Every year we invite our exhibitors to design and build a chair for The Chair Competition. We then ask visitors to try them out at Celebration of Craftsmanship & Design and vote for the one that they would most like to own.

In return, we enter their vote into a free prize draw to win the chair that they voted for, worth up to £2,500!

2011 Chair Competition

2011 saw another eclectic group of entries, all exquisitely constructed as you would expect, all with their own admirers proving that when it comes to design there really is no right answer! One of the aims of this competition however is to provide our exhibitors with some feedback on their designs from a wide ranging and more numerous source than they might otherwise be able to access from their small workshops.

It was great to see visitors chatting openly about the various chairs, discussing their merits and flaws with complete strangers and agonising over their votes, showing just why bespoke furniture is so desirable as no two people are the same.

This year's voting was well spread in all catagories - Most Attractive, Most Comfortable and Like to Own. However, winners did emerge over the ten days and we are delighted to anounce that the results were as follows:

Most Attractive Chair
1st (23%) Matthew Coutts - 'Reading Chair' (CCD Price List no. 8c)
2nd (20%) Robin Furlong - 'Crossbow' Side Chair (CCD Price List no. 16d)
3rd (19%) Erich Fichtner - 'Serindipity' Chair (CCD Price List no. 14a)

Most Comfortable Chair
1st (33%) John Luff - 'Low Rocker' (CCD Price List no. 38b)
2nd (17%) Matthew Coutts - 'Reading Chair' (CCD Price List no. 8c)
3rd (13%) Handwood Furniture - 'Straight Chair' (CCD Price List no. 21d)

Chair That Most Visitors Would Choose to Own
1st (27%) Matthew Coutts - 'Reading Chair' (CCD Price List no. 8c)
2nd (21%) John Luff - 'Low Rocker' (CCD Price List no. 38b)
3rd (15%) Erich Fichtner - 'Serindipity' Chair (CCD Price List no. 14a)

Matthew Coutts - 'Reading Chair' Erich Fichtner - 'Serindipity' Chair

2011 Prize Draw

This year's winner of our Prize Draw was amateur furniture maker Dave Dack from Somerset. He voted for Matthew Coutts 'Reading Chair' as the chair that he would most like to own and was amazed to discover that he did in fact now own that chair!

“I visit the Cheltenham show every year, so as an amateur furniture maker I should be in despair, because the standard of work is so much higher than I am achieving. Instead I leave exited that so much fantastic furniture is being made, and enthusiastic about improving my skills. I can now sit in a beautifully designed and made chair, and be continually inspired to make my next piece better than my last.” Dave Dack, and below at home with his new chair.