Fine Pine was started by Nick Gildersleve in 1973; he made his base in Harbertonford after some world travel and then spent a short time running a restaurant! Having decided he didn’t enjoy the catering business any more he thought he would try and turn his antiques hobby into a business, initially buying and restoring pieces for specific customers.
Chris originally joined Fine Pine about 20 years ago, working on Saturdays, mostly making cups of tea and sweeping the floor! Over the following years he graduated to more interesting jobs and realised that although he tried a few other career paths the furniture restoration was the one he enjoyed most. Eventually he and his partner Jo were able to buy the business from Nick and Linda in December 2007.
In the late 60’s and early 70’s stripped pine furniture was extremely popular and many pieces were exported to the US and later Japan but Fine Pine also had a good following in the South Hams area, sometimes to local people and also to families buying second homes in the area. This is still the case and now furniture is being sold to the younger generation who have enjoyed growing up with lovely pieces of pine furniture. Finding the furniture then was very easy and many large and varied pieces were always in stock. Now it is a little harder to find but we try to maintain a good and interesting showroom full of as many different pieces as possible.