First apprenticed at fifteen, Barry Horton stepped into more than a trade, he embraced a lifelong passion rooted in tradition, hand tools, and a search for the craft’s older truths.
In the early 1980s, he ran a thriving company in central London, undertaking prestigious projects, including some under English Heritage. By 1990, he chose to focus on what he loves most, working intimately with wood, creating and restoring furniture by hand.
Since relocating to central France in 2000, Barry has continued to work on significant antique pieces and his own creations, which can be found across western Europe, Japan, and the United States. His work has been commissioned by institutions such as Leeds Museum and Hampton Court, and in 2005 he was awarded La Prix SEMA by the Société d’Encouragement aux Métiers d’Art.
As a traditional cabinetmaker, Barry’s approach values process as much as the final result. Working with locally-grown timber, he relies almost entirely on hand tools, (except for initial timber conversion), to bring out each piece’s character and achieve the luminous, warm finish that is his signature. He says each piece of timber has its own voice, the craft is as much about listening to the wood as shaping it. Now, specialising in marquetry, Barry works primarily with thick, sawn veneers and has crafted many of his own specialised tools to achieve precise and expressive results.
This site remains online to reassure long-standing clients that it is still Barry’s workshop and to guide visitors to his new site, where his work continues in French: Visit the new site.