Rex Heathcote Furniture

* Rex Heathcote grew up in the city of Launceston, a beautiful inland city in Northern Tasmania separated by the river Tamar and scattered around three ridges and two valleys.  He was introduced to making furniture through the family upholstery business which, during the 1950's and 1960's was riding the wave of the post war boom.

Every day off and holidays was spent working in the factory with his father surrounded by the smells of wood, fabric and the old glue pot and subconsciously learning how the business was run.

After leaving school, rather than join the business, his father encouraged him to learn about the design process, as given the changing times within the industry, the future would need specialist skills to survive.  At the time there was no design training within Australia so to the London College of Furniture he went and had a ball.

Graduating there in 1980 he returned to Launceston to continue the family business.

With the early retirement of his father in 1986, Rex closed the family business and set out on his own to found Rex Heathcote Furniture, with the aim of using locally grown hardwood and veneer, as well as continuing with upholstered furniture.

Now, some 22 years on he is the head of a well established Australian design and manufacturing business employing a dedicated team of fine tradesmen with a factory and showroom opposite the site in Herbert Street of his father's first Launceston factory.  He even has the same P.O. Box number from 1958.

Rex's historical grounding in materials and manufacture, combined with his formal training in design, underpins his success at small to medium scale production of high quality furniture pieces, an understanding of traditional furniture making techniques and, an emphasis on using hand skills is a desired outcome of the training within the company.  Quality and detail are critical aspects of the making process as the company makes furniture in a way that other manufacturers wouldn't consider.

Rex Heathcote Furniture has become known for its imaginative use of wood in the design of furniture using a balance of traditional and modern techniques to achieve the best possible result whether for an individual piece or an entire room.

Rex Heathcote Furniture provides a comprehensive design service for both residential and commercial environments and works in partnership with architects, interior designers and other furniture designers.