Contact
The fastest route to a real answer is a gun list and three photographs. Send those and we will come back with what we would build, roughly what it would cost, and what — if anything — we would need from your builder.
What to send
- Your gun list. Not serial numbers. Just what you own and want stored: shotguns, rifles, what stays cased, what has a scope left mounted, anything unusually long or heavy, and how much cartridge and ammunition storage you want. Tell us what you expect to buy in the next few years too — building the space in now is far cheaper than a second cabinet later.
- Photographs of the room. Wide shots rather than close-ups. We want the wall, what is either side of it, the ceiling height, the skirting and cornice, the floor, and the way in.
- Your certificate conditions, if you have anything unusual on yours. We would rather design to your actual wording than to an assumption.
- Which force licenses you. It tells us who we will be speaking to at the specification stage.
If you are an architect or a main contractor, a plan and an elevation at concept stage is enough to start. There is a page for you here.
How to reach us
| Telephone | 01449 710500 |
| 07539 100136 — message us a photograph of the room | |
| enquiries@sportingcabinetmakers.com | |
| Workshop | Stonham Road, Mickfield, Stowmarket, Suffolk IP14 5LS |
| Hours | Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm |
WhatsApp is often the quickest way
A photograph of the wall and a line about what you own tells us more in thirty seconds than a long email does. Send it whenever suits you — we answer during workshop hours.
The WhatsApp account is registered to Reeve & Co Interiors, so that is the name you will see when the chat opens. It is the same workshop and the same people — nothing has gone wrong.
Privacy and cookies. Sporting Cabinetmakers is a trading name of Reeve & Co Interiors Ltd, so you will reach the same workshop, the same telephone and the same people. If you are calling about a gun room or a cabinet, say so and you will be put straight through to the right bench.
The workshop is in mid-Suffolk, between Stowmarket and Debenham. Visits are by appointment — it is a working joinery shop with machinery running, so we would rather know you are coming than have you arrive to a locked door and a dust extractor.
What happens next
- A conversationTwenty minutes on the telephone is worth a fortnight of emails. We will tell you honestly whether you need a cabinet, a wall of cabinets or a room.
- An indicative figureBefore anybody commits to a survey, so you know whether we are in the right territory.
- A surveyWe measure ourselves, check the wall, the floor and the access.
- The specification, in writingWhich you or we put to your firearms enquiry officer, before anything is made.
- Drawings and a fixed price3D CAD, so you see the piece in your room before it exists.
There is no salesman in this process. The person who answers the telephone is the person who will draw it and the person who will be at the bench.
Where we work
Throughout the United Kingdom from the Suffolk workshop — London and the Home Counties, the West Country, the North, Wales and Scotland. We take commissions in Europe, and we ship internationally, including to the United States. Distance is a line on a quotation rather than an obstacle. More on that here.
Before you write
Two things we are asked constantly, answered here so you do not have to ask them:
Prices. Bespoke gun cabinets start at around £7,000 plus VAT, delivered and installed. Fitted gun rooms start at around £20,000 plus VAT. The full picture is here, including what moves those figures.
Will it satisfy my FEO? We agree the specification with your licensing department before we make anything, and hand over a signed specification sheet on completion. What we will never do is promise you approval, because the decision is theirs and nobody who makes cabinets can promise it. How the process works.
Contact us, or come and see the work
The workshop is at Stonham Road, Mickfield, Stowmarket, Suffolk, IP14 5LS — a run of black weatherboarded barns about six miles north of Stowmarket and twenty minutes from Ipswich. Visits are by appointment, because there is usually something on the bench worth seeing and we would rather you came on a day when there is.
If you are travelling: Stowmarket is roughly eighty minutes from London Liverpool Street by train and we will collect you from the station. By road it is fifteen minutes from the A14 at junction 50. There is parking in the yard.
What happens after you contact us
- Same or next working day — a reply from a person, not an autoresponder, usually with two or three questions.
- Within a week — an outline of what we would build and an honest price band, before anybody visits.
- By arrangement — a survey at your house, anywhere in the UK, at our cost if the project proceeds.
- Two to three weeks after survey — drawings and a fixed quotation.
Discretion
We do not publish client names, we do not tag locations in photographs, and we do not use images of finished work without asking first. Gun lists and address details are held only for as long as the commission needs them and are never shared outside the workshop. If you would rather not put a gun list in an email, say so and we will arrange another way.
The other side of the business
Sporting Cabinetmakers is the sporting work of Reeve & Co Interiors, the same workshop and the same people. If your project also involves a kitchen, a library, a staircase or panelling to the rest of the house, it is generally simpler to run the whole thing through one contract — ask and we will explain how that works.
Questions we are asked before people contact us
Do you charge for the survey?
Not if the project goes ahead — it is absorbed into the commission. If it does not, we ask for a contribution to travel on anything beyond East Anglia, agreed in advance and never a surprise. Most surveys within the region are free either way.
Can you give me a price before visiting?
Yes, a band rather than a figure. A gun list plus three photographs is normally enough to say “this is a £14,000–£18,000 job” with reasonable confidence. A fixed price needs a survey and drawings, because scribing to an old room is where the hours actually go.
How far ahead should I be talking to you?
Five to six months for a cabinet, six to nine for a lined room. If a builder is involved, earlier again — the structural opening and the first-fix routes need to be in their programme, and that conversation costs nothing in month one.
Will you work with my architect or interior designer?
Routinely, and we prefer it. We issue GA and setting-out drawings for coordination and we are used to sitting inside a main contract. There is a page written specifically for them: for architects and builders.
Do I need to have spoken to my firearms enquiry officer first?
No, and it does not delay anything. We agree the specification with them before manufacture as a matter of course, and we supply a signed specification sheet for that conversation. See the FEO process.
Do you do repairs, or work on cabinets somebody else made?
Occasionally, and only where we can see it first. Re-anchoring, re-racking to a changed collection and refinishing are all straightforward. Modifying another maker’s steelwork is not something we will do, because we cannot stand behind the result.
Can I see something you have made?
There is usually something on the bench at Mickfield, and from time to time a client is willing to have their room visited. Ask, and we will tell you honestly what is available — we will not invent an open house.
Send the gun list
It is the single most useful thing you can do, and it takes five minutes.
Please do not send certificate numbers, serial numbers or copies of your certificate by email. We do not need them, and we would rather you did not have them sitting in an inbox. A description of what you own is all we require.