What do you give someone who would happily disappear into a book for the whole afternoon? If you're Jens, you commission a bench shaped like her own little library.
This one was a fifth wedding anniversary gift for his wife, an avid reader, and the entire design grew out of that. We carved the backrest as a shelf of books in solid oak — a leaning stack, a rolled scroll, and an open book at the centre, mid-sentence, inviting you to read on.
The lovely part is the personalisation. Along the spines we lettered some of her best-loved authors, from Jane Austen and Gabriel García Márquez to J.K. Rowling and Richard Osman. A songbird perches on one post and a carved heart sits opposite, lettered with the couple's names and the years they've shared.
We kept it all in natural oak tones rather than paint, with softly rounded corners — partly for the look, and partly because there's a toddler in the house. It's a generous two-seater, varnished to live outdoors and be read on for years. We build to size, too: a roomy two-seater is around 140cm, a three-seater 160cm.
If you'd like a bench that tells your story — books, names, the details that make someone them — you can see the Book Lover's Bench here, or browse our garden bench collection. We'd love to design one with you.
