29.07.2022

Supplier profile – Charles Lowe & Sons

Bringing together old and new.

There’s a delicate mastery about the work of Charles Lowe & Sons.

From humble beginnings in 1825, this family-run business has been handcrafting oak flooring in its Loughborough workshop, passing a unique skill in vintage floor restoration through the generations.  It’s a unique offering which has never ceased to capture the imagination of period property owners and designers alike.

Famous for producing characterful products, the real talent of this business lies in its ability to make tradition feel modern and give modern products a touch of tradition in equal measure.

Dan Lowe is fifth generation in the Lowe family to be involved with the business and has been full-time since turning 16. Since he can remember, he has been involved making coffees for his grandpa and helping his Dad with projects from a young age.

He spoke to us about the workmanship behind the brand.

This is a really fascinating business. Tell us a little bit more the proposition on offer and the value in what you offer?

As a business, we have a deep understanding of period property, period furniture and period ambience and feel. We are deeply rooted in that.

Our understanding of antique restoration is up there with the very best. We like to create floors which satisfy the requirement of being new, yet looking aged and timeless to give the retro appeal the market seems to crave at the moment.

This is a real skill and it’s what our business is all about. We believe this is a unique offering in the market; especially in our approach. We are not a timber yard manufacturing flooring. We are antique restorers that are producing flooring and the end result is really quite different.

This feels like quite the blend and presumably given the company’s history is extremely popular?

Yes – and I think this is reflected in the fact that we do lots of work in both residential and commercial properties. People who live in older properties tend to want flooring that has a time-old feel but haven’t got the time, inclination or money to source reclaimed flooring. Our solution gives our customers a look which is natural and meets that need.

We’ve got great awareness of placement too. If we’re working in a property with beams or a specific size of parquet elsewhere in the house for example, we’ll be looking to match our flooring design in with this. We’re very flexible in how we can customise our work.

Is there such a thing as a typical project or are you seeing emerging trends in what you do?

As it happens, we’ve done quite a lot of London properties in more recent times – especially since opening our London showroom in MONTH YEAR. This has attracted business for us in quite a number of city townhouses. I think this demonstrates the versatility of the product and shows that it’s not all about countryside living and homes.

Our customers often think they don’t want distressed flooring in urban environments, but once they start to see what we can do and the kind of effect that can be achieved, they appreciate adding subtle quality to a period property.

A project we completed in Hampstead Heath last year was a prime example of this. We used a flooring design to tie together the old and new part of the house seamlessly. The project created a real sense of continuity throughout the house.

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