Homebase sells over 35,000 different products to British homes and gardens.
Nordic sawn timber is a hot commodity in the UK’s Do It Yourself market. We backtracked timber’s journey all the way to a Finnish forest. TIMBER TO BRITISH HOMES AND GARDENS
SAMI ANTEROINEN, photos HOMEBASE, SAMI VALLIUS & LINA JELANSKI / DUOTONE
Eric , 32, is on the lookout for sawn timber for his deck project – a key part of the ‘Reboot the Garden’ initiative he and his wife Sharon , 30, started in spring 2020. Strolling around their local Homebase store, Eric notices fine sawn timber by Metsä Wood UK, a customer of Metsä Fibre. Eric grabs hold of the wood. The quality seems impres- sive enough. Eric is crunching some numbers inside his brain as Sharon appears, seemingly from out of nowhere: “Can you make me also a trellis out of that while you are at it, love?” We hate to leave Eric and Sharon right now – as ‘Reboot the Garden’ seems quite intriguing – but we must. Strictly speaking, Eric and Sharon do not even exist and were only invented for an introduction: to take you, the reader, into the thick of things immediately. But while this particular Eric and this particular Sharon are figments of imagination, Chris O’Boyle , Director of Trading for Every Day Repair and Maintenance at Home- base, assures us that there are, indeed, thousands of real- life Erics and Sharon’s out there rebooting their gardens. QUALITY MATTERS It is no surprise that over the past year, people have been spending more time in their homes and gardens than ever. “As people have spent more time at home, they have become more confident to have a go at all sorts of projects,
20
21
Powered by FlippingBook