How our Iconic Wooden Word Signs came to be
We live near a steam railway—in fact, the trains chug past the end of our garden. It's a famous railway because it featured in the classic film The Railway Children. We walk our dogs along the footpath next to it almost every day and just outside the station at Oxenhope stands a large wooden sign that reads WHISTLE, reminding drivers to sound their arrival. Its old and weather worn but always makes us smile with its bold instruction.
One day, we mused about how wonderful it would be to create something similar in size for our own home, so we set about exploring what we could do. This was back in 2018. We made a few letters to start with, and even on their own, they looked brilliant. Sometimes with new products, they don't immediately reveal their potential and require perseverance. Not with these - they looked amazing right from the start and when we shared them with our customers they were an instant hit.
Once we started adding paint and layering the letters to create 3D drop shadows they just got better and better. We use high pigment Farrow and Ball and Craig and Rose paints for their depth of colour and excellent coverage. We hand paint every letter ourselves, included the edges and corners for a really high end finish. They are big, bold and beautifully made entirely in our Yorkshire Mill Studio.
When lockdown happened we had to limit the daily orders just to keep up, we were turning orders down every day!! We were approached by large stores asking to stock them, we had channel 4 ordering for George Clarkes Amazing Spaces, they were popping up in interior magazines, we were asked to make one for Children In Needs DIY SOS Big Build, Giovanna Fletcher has one in her greenhouse to help her plants grow and we were even asked to send one saying UNITED to Rio Ferdinand!
They are one of our favourite products to make - although to this day Andrew has never completely handed over the process and still has the final say on every single one.
