A Look Back At 2024

We asked Bath Bespoke’s Director, Tom Jones-Marquez to look back on 2024. Here he talks through his highlights, the state of the industry and looking ahead to an exciting 2025.

The first half of 2024 were some of the hardest months that Tom can remember but the second half of the year has had several high points.

“Probably one of the best moments of the year was when we were commissioned to do all the external joinery for a large home in Batheaston, at a time when we noticed that people had not been spending or making big investments in their properties. We faced stiff competition from other local and national joinery companies but we were awarded the contract based on our attention to detail and our ability to exactly replicate a large variety of original windows and doors in the property. This has been a great job, and a fantastic opportunity for us to showcase our joinery skills.”

“We’ve worked alongside architects, Magri Williams on several properties this year, including some lovely London projects. We’re currently working with them again on an incredibly exciting new-build home in Liverpool. This is such a bold and ambitious project – discerning clients and an architect with many  forward-thinking ideas. It has involved a lot of research and development and lots of design work to create truly, truly bespoke joinery items, many of which may not have ever been seen before. We are currently making a beautiful Douglas Fir kitchen. In recent months we have installed lots of very, very large windows and doors – minimal in design but challenging to make.

This is actually our first time working in Liverpool, it has been great to get to know the city and its people. We have now worked in pretty much every city in the country! It’s nice for our reputation to travel far.”

Our Thursday morning Yoga sessions have continued to be a highlight. It’s great to see how many of the team are enjoying looking after their bodies through our weekly Yoga sessions with Holly.

“We found that after the mini-budget, in September 2022, enquiries halved overnight. For many months it felt as if people were very hesitant to invest in their homes. People were concerned about property values and everything getting more and more expensive. In the last six months we’ve seen a massive increase in enquiries. It’s a good time to invest in your home once more. We have found that people are keen to restore and enhance the space they have. A lot of people are still wanting external joinery, the demand for our doors and windows has continued to remain high. We’ve also received lots of calls about our fitted furniture – alcove cupboards, bookcases and wardrobes. We have noticed that there are not so many big- build projects though, we have seen fewer extensions, fewer orangeries and conservatories.

Looking ahead to 2025 we’ve got some fantastic projects lined up for next year. We’ve managed to ride-out the challenging times and have some exciting new additions to the team. Joel and Ben have recently joined us and are doing really well. We’re in a good position going forward. Let’s see what the next year holds!”