Our Story

Bespoke Design. Timeless Style. Beautiful Living.

Griggs & Mackay was founded over 30 years ago by John Mackay and his mother, Dorothy Griggs, as an interiors shop in Caversham. While John stripped pine furniture for the shop and honed his joinery skills (in the illustrious surroundings of an old chicken shed), Dorothy traded in antiques and homewares. Following requests from customers, John started to make bespoke, handmade kitchens, and the business steadily grew to what it is today.

Now based in our studio and workshop near Henley, we have a small team of expert designers and cabinet makers who create the beautifully made kitchens and fitted furniture that Griggs & Mackay is known for. The interiors shop in Caversham continues to offer show-stopping furniture and homewares, while functioning as a showroom for our kitchens too. If you are in the area, please visit to see our craftsmanship for yourself. You can also explore our homeware collections online.

The quality of our cabinetry speaks for itself, with many of our clients coming to us through word-of-mouth referrals. We are also fortunate to maintain strong, on-going relationships with numerous former customers, often being asked to create new kitchens when they move home, to redesign other rooms in the house, or to adapt kitchens that were originally installed by us decades ago. By choosing a bespoke Griggs & Mackay kitchen, you are choosing a kitchen built to last a life-time. Not just in terms of quality, but one that can change with you as your style and needs evolve.

  • Penny & Nick

    “Having moved house we didn’t hesitate to ask Griggs & Mackay to design our new kitchen – the one they installed 15 years ago in our previous home was much admired and a selling point of the house.  Ben and John tackled the very challenging layout of the new space with creativity, enthusiasm and patience.  The installation was extremely slick and professional and Michele’s  hand painting outstanding.  We’re delighted by the end result and wouldn’t hesitate to use Griggs & Mackay in a third kitchen!”

  • Laura & Bill

    “We wanted to say an enormous thank for our stunning kitchen. We knew it would be a total ‘dream-kitchen-make-over’, but the perfectly delivered outcome for this small space exceeded our already confident expectations. To finally have a rather special space has been worth the 10-year wait. We’ve really enjoyed working with such a unique and talented local team.”

  • H.W

    “Having spent all my professional life working in the food and wine industry and then finally having the opportunity to design my dream kitchen (albeit with a finite budget!),  it would be fair to say I was always likely to be ultra-picky about choosing someone to work with on the project.

    A personal recommendation first brought Griggs & Mackay to my notice and then later I discovered a good friend had used them to create her kitchen near Henley. A competitive price in conjunction with a flexibility of approach which was exceptional (allied to the fact that John, Ben and the rest of the team are great people to talk to) swung the decision for me to use Griggs & Mackay.

    It is a decision I do not regret. I feel that I now have the most perfect and beautiful kitchen I could have imagined. More importantly, it is heaven to cook in. I don’t think anyone has visited my house without saying “Wow!” about the beautiful design and units in my kitchen.”

  • Martina

    “The team at Griggs & Mackay helped us design our new kitchen, completely matching our requirements and working around specific space issues. We wanted a high gloss kitchen , a little different to the normal Griggs & Mackay style. John, Ben, Stephan and Michele were with us all along the way, available to make sure everything was as we wanted and fixing any small problems. We are delighted with our new look which gives the whole house a different feel! Thank you to everyone at Griggs & Mackay.”

  • Liz. H

    “Griggs & Mackay were involved right from the inception of our kitchen.   Our existing space was a bit awkward, but the Griggs & Mackay team were brilliant!  They gave great advice as to how we could best use the space and where we needed to compromise.

    We are so pleased with the result! We have light,  space and a beautifully crafted and finished kitchen.  Everything is  perfectly in proportion to the space, leaving room even for a little wood burning stove in the far corner!

    We could not be happier with the design, craftsmanship and execution of their work.  We would highly recommend Griggs & Mackay to anyone who would like to build a beautiful,  comfortable kitchen.”

  • Jim & Heather

    “We would like to thank John and his team at Griggs & Mackay for making the transition to our new lovely kitchen as painless as possible. The whole team were calm, efficient, reliable, professional and highly skilled and ensured they cleaned up at the end of each day. It was so easy having them in our home. The quality and finish is second to none.”

  • Helen

    “It’s been marvellous working with you and your fabulous team! Each and every one of them.  Michele has done a fabulous job with the finishing off and Sarah was fab – utterly lovely to be around. Everyone was great – all the boys too.

    Ben, you have been so patient, supportive and utterly charming throughout this whole process.  So a massive thank you from a very happy lady! I will recommend you to anyone wanting a new kitchen.”

  • Guy & Liz

    “From the moment we met John everything was just brilliantly organised. All the team who worked on the new kitchen were not only highly skilled but a pleasure to have in our home.

    Every day when we go into our kitchen in the mornings we have a smile on our faces – it has transformed our home and we just love it!”