When furniture designer Ben Gabriel decided to create and build his own home in south county Galway, overlooking Slieve Aughty and the Burren, there was only ever going to be one material used – wood.
His timber framed house, which sits between Portumna, Loughrea and Gort, took seven years to build, but that’s only because he tackled it in the same way he does his furniture commissions, with a lot of thought and planning.
“The timber gives the house instant character that you wouldn’t get with a new concrete build; they take years to get that character,” he says.
Gabriel and his son Joshua, who joined his father in business in 2011 having completed a course in Letterfrack, the National Centre of Excellence for Furniture Design and Wood Technology, work seamlessly together in a workshop that’s located not 100 yards from the family home.
A Galway Hooker had been sitting in front of it, a restoration project Ben and Joshua worked on for over a year, but mainly they specialise in one-off furniture pieces and commissions for private clients. The interior of the property is also filled with many of their own, big, bold pieces, bearing the distinctive Gabriel design.
Born and raised in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Ben moved to Ireland in 1996, when he finally decided he wanted to “set down roots”.
“I moved a lot as a kid, more than six times. I didn’t want that for my children,” he says.
“I had an idea of staying here, so when I got a chance to buy this land, I decided it was a good opportunity to build a house. I wouldn’t have dreamed of doing it in Holland, it would be very expensive. I designed the house, brought it to an architect, he drew it up and put it in for planning. I was involved in every aspect of the process, we built it ourselves and did all of the furniture, so really it was about creating a home for the family,” he says.
Finding the land came easy, “It found us more than we found it,” he says.
“One day a neighbour I was friendly with said ‘I hear you’re looking for a site, I could sell you some land.’ We had to climb through the bushes to get in here, there was no road whatsoever into this land. We walked to the spot where the house sits now and had that view of Maghera, Clare and the Burren in front of us. I thought, this would be an amazing spot for a house. Not even the neighbours realised the view because it was inaccessible. They called it the ‘wasteland’.”
Now neighbours drop by and, in typical Irish deadpan, joke about “the great views we have of the rain”, Joshua laughs.
While Ben carried out the majority of the work on the house (the roof was cut out and constructed in Austria), the family lived on the land in a cabin with a mobile home attached.
“Even at that time, Joshua was helping out in the workshop, from age seven or eight. He helped me build bunk beds for the cabin at age nine. I’ve never pushed him into furniture; it’s come very naturally to him. He showed an interest, and I’m very happy that he did. I don’t have any experience with a family business,” he says.
In fact, Ben’s own father was a vicar but on close inspection of a family tree drawn up by a cousin, it shows a history of ship building, dating back to 1700.
“My dad said, ‘I now know why you went into woodwork,’ and it’s one of the reasons I took on the Galway Hooker restoration,” he says.
We work from home and often we spend way more hours working and creating than if we were employed
A primary reason for both going into furniture design is the sense of freedom it allows them.
“We work from home and often we spend way more hours working and creating than if we were employed. But we get to come up to the house for lunch and sit looking at that view,” Ben says.
When building the house, Ben says his perfectionism led him to being his own worst customer. “I knew that getting other people to build a house for me, I’d be a terrible customer, and I was. I changed my mind so many times.”
The fireplace was originally supposed to be placed where an expansive window now sits – opening out onto what must be one of the most breath-taking views in Galway.
“I came up with the idea of a square footprint – to give me the most diverse options of using the space – so one room that comprised the living room, kitchen and dining room. Everything happens in the big room and the fireplace in the middle of the house is a much better source of heat. So it was very organic, we went with the flow and changed things as we built. We both do that with our furniture too,” he admits.
More or less self-taught, Ben dropped out of an English degree in college and went into carpentry. But he also had vision and an artistic influence, liking to draw and paint.
“Suddenly it came to me – designing furniture is what I want. I trained myself and made lots of mistakes along the way.”
When designing for clients, Ben says they try to tune into their needs and tastes, which can be difficult sometimes, but is “always rewarding”. The client ends up with a piece that has a story; to which they’ve contributed.
He often becomes very attached to his pieces. “I deliver most of them and it has happened in the past that someone picks it up or it goes abroad and you never see it again. I feel like I wish I’d delivered it, as you’d like to see where it ends up. We do a lot of repeat business and when you see your pieces, years later, you feel nostalgic,” he says.
Living in close proximity to such other-worldy landscape offers inspiration, but only in an indirect sense, Ben says.
“It puts you in a frame of mind that allows you come up with the designs. You need to be comfortable and relaxed to allow the creative juices flow. You feel the freedom that we have here. But I don’t, for example, take inspiration from a mountain, I don’t design like that. Many would draw from architecture but to say it inspires me to do pieces, no.”
Joshua says geometry offers some direct inspiration for him, as there are lots of things in nature that are geometrical: fossils, snails, patterns overlaid. This can be seen on several key pieces in the home.
We needed a dining table to eat off, so I made that. It was always my ambition to make a chair that I could sit and read a book in
A lot of the furniture that Ben has designed over the years evolved from a personal need.
“When Josh was born, we needed a baby station, so I designed that for him. We needed a dining table to eat off, so I made that. It was always my ambition to make a chair that I could sit and read a book in. The first one I designed went to Cheltenham and was sold,” he says. He now sits in a similar chair today.
Joshua also had an organic route to woodwork, but his formal training was an excellent basis for the job, and gave him the confidence to push his own designs, but also to create furniture that is synonymous with the Gabriel name.
“I’ve been around it for most of my life. Every human likes to create, and it gives me a sense of pride, I’m happy creating,” he says.
Home gives them both a feeling of belonging. “When you travel, you get to see lots of different places but to know that there’s your version of home somewhere in the world, everyone needs to have that. It gives you security and grounding,” Joshua says.
Ben agrees that everyone is entitled to a home, “a roof over their heads”.
“Home gives comfort and gives me comfort, more than in just the physical sense,” he says. “The view now is nothing like it was. To watch it develop, and grow, locks it in even more. I have built up a history with the place, and being in Ireland for 23 years, it’s the longest I’ve been anywhere.”
Would he ever build again?
“I said never again, when I finished this house but now I’d like to do it again surprisingly. Maybe in a few years, on the same land, I wouldn’t mind a small cabin as I’m not going to need the big house. The children may need it more than me. We’ll see what the future brings.
“Home to me is a place that I built, created and I feel comfortable in and I want other people to feel comfortable and at ease in it too,” he concludes.
