Bespoke cabinetmaker, Oxfordshire
Kitchens, wardrobes and furniture, built by hand.
Fox Ears is a small cabinetmaking studio based in Oxfordshire. I make fitted rooms and bespoke furniture, crafted without compromise in my village workshop.
Book a consultationA single makerVillage workshopTraditional joineryNo subcontracting
About the maker
This isn’t a job. It’s a compulsion.
I’ve been making things since I was seven years old. First with offcuts in my dad’s workshop, then through a formal apprenticeship, then fifteen years of commercial cabinetmaking — increasingly frustrated by the shortcuts I was asked to take.
Fox Ears is what happens when you stop compromising. A one-man workshop where every joint is cut properly, every panel is finished by hand, and every kitchen, wardrobe or piece of furniture is built the way it should be: slowly, carefully, and without apology.
I use more hand tools than most modern cabinet shops. Not because I’m sentimental about it, but because hand-finished surfaces look and feel different. There’s a warmth to them that no machine can replicate.
Selected work
Commission a piece
Kitchen · Hackney, East London
Boot Room · Oxfordshire
Dressing Room · Islington, London
Wardrobes · Hackney, East London
Kitchen · Oxford
Dressing Room · Bethnal Green, London
Kitchens
Kitchens built around you.
Every kitchen I build starts with the way you actually cook and live. Not a showroom brochure. Not a factory catalogue with a markup. Just honest conversation about how the room needs to work — then designing and building every part of it by hand, in-house, from solid timber and traditional joinery. No flat-pack carcasses. No subcontracted installs.
Enquire about kitchens
Wardrobes & Dressing rooms
Fitted wardrobes and dressing rooms.
A fitted wardrobe from Fox Ears isn't an off-plan carcass with fancy doors. I start with the room — its angles, its light, its awkward corners — and build a piece of furniture that uses every inch intelligently. Soft-close drawers, cedar-lined shelves, hand-finished interiors. Everything made in my workshop and fitted on-site by the same hands that built it.
Enquire about wardrobes
Fitted rooms
Boot rooms and storage.
The undervalued room. A properly designed boot room — with the right hooks, the right shelving, the right bench height — changes the way a house works. Made to the same standard as the rooms people see.
Enquire about storage
Fine furniture
Not everything needs
to be fitted
Some of the pieces I'm proudest of are freestanding — tables, desks, shelving, boxes. Made from native English hardwoods, finished by hand, designed to be kept for generations.
I source from sustainable British suppliers and will always help you choose the right timber for your project.
Timbers I work with
How it works
Four stages.
One maker.
Conversation
It starts with a conversation — usually over coffee, at the kitchen table. I talk about what you want, how the space is used, what bothers you about it. No pressure. No sales pitch. Just a genuine chat about what might be possible.
Design
I measure and survey the space myself, then sketch ideas by hand before moving to detailed digital drawings. You’ll see every dimension, every material choice, every handle profile before anything is committed.
Build
Everything is built in my village workshop, using a mix of traditional hand tools and precision machinery. Every joint is cut by hand or on jigs I’ve made myself. No CNC. No factory panels. Just careful, deliberate work.
Install
I install what I build. There’s no handoff to a subcontractor who hasn’t seen the drawings. The same person who planed the wood, cut the joints and finished the panels is the same person screwing it to your wall.
“It keeps me up at night and gets me up in the morning. I love making things for the sake of making them well.”
Toby Morton, Fox Ears
Common questions
Frequently asked questions
The craft
The Fox Ear Tenon
Every workshop has a defining technique — a joint that tells you something about the maker's values. Mine is the fox ear tenon.
It's a wedged through-tenon — the kind of joint you can't hide and can't fake. When done right, the wedges flare out at the ends like the tips of a fox's ears, locking the joint permanently into place without glue, without screws, without anything except precision.
You'll find them in the oldest English furniture — oak refectory tables, workshop trestles, timber-framed buildings that have stood for five hundred years. The joint doesn't just hold. It declares itself. It says: this was made by hand, and it was made to last.
A way of working that demands precision, accepts no shortcuts, and results in something genuinely beautiful. That's how I approach every commission.
Start a project
Let's make something
Every project begins with a conversation. No sales pitch, no obligation — just a genuine chat about what might be possible.
Book a free consultationGet in touch
Start a conversation
Every bespoke piece starts with a conversation. Tell me about your vision and I'll arrange a complimentary consultation at your home.
Unit 1b, The Hollows
Little Horwood, Milton Keynes MK17 0PD
Oxford, Oxfordshire & surrounding areas
Including Summertown, Jericho, Headington, Woodstock, Witney, and Abingdon.