Chippendale School of Furniture

Overview

The Chippendale International School of Furniture is the UK’s leading furniture design college and offers unique career opportunities for future furniture designers, woodworkers or furniture making entrepreneurs.

With capacity for only 21 elite students a year, 40% of whom come from abroad, it offers an intensive course condensing 2-3 years learning into just 9 months. From lectures, visiting experts, field trips and tutors students will learn 80 woodworking techniques over 1,400 hours of practical bench work.

This school is business-focused, teaching its students how to market their products and establishes its graduates in adjoining workshops and among a rich network of contacts. Named after the famous 18th century designer Thomas Chippendale it is as good a place to study antique restoration as it is to learn the most dynamic developments in avant-garde design. Applicants who love to work with wood and are determined to forge a career in it need no woodworking experience.

Services for International Students

Chippendale caters for a variety of backgrounds, from school leavers to post graduates and from mid-career change to retirees. You will be provided with all the tools you need (planes, safety gear, routers, chisels, hammers) and wood sourced and dried from local hardwoods. With a skilful balance of theory and practical woodworking skills this course will teach you how to produce high-quality pieces from the design stage to final construction in just 9 months.

Students will develop their woodworking skills and make at least two original pieces on the course, alongside learning the history of furniture and developing creative design skill.

Through the study of antique restoration students will gain a wide range of techniques and receive at least three items of antique furniture to restore during the cabinet making courses.

Business and marketing are integral parts of the course and from the second term the Principal offers each student one-to-one mentoring on their future career in furniture. Field trips to top museums, workshops and private collections will show you great pieces of furniture in context.

Accommodation

Chippendale has a student welfare officer who will help you find local accommodation to rent.

Location

The school is in the heart of the East Lothian countryside at the base of the rolling Lammermuir Hills but only a few miles from the centre of Scotland's capital city Edinburgh. It is close to the long sandy beaches of the Firth of Forth and over 20 golf courses and facilities for tennis, bowls, football, rugby, swimming, hockey and sailing.