Hugh McCarthy custom designs and makes original furniture and built-in joinery. He can either work to your specific brief or can transform your concept into a carefully crafted project.

Hugh can guide you through sketches, prototypes and shop drawings, all the way to completing your project using appropriate materials, strong joints and durable finishes. His work can be seen in bars, cafés, restaurants, board rooms, office and retail spaces and has been commissioned by local and international architects, interior and industrial designers for private residences and commercial spaces.

Recent clients and collaborations have included:
Alexander and Co, Simone Haag, JCB Architects, Seven Seeds, Grey Goose Vodka, Bombay Sapphire, Foolscap Studio, Sean Connolly at Dubai Opera, The Prince Hotel Melbourne, Breathe Architects, Megan Hounslow, St Ali Coffee, Zen Architects, Studio Bright, The Paramount Coffee Project, ONA Coffee Canberra and Sydney, Techne Architects, Macquarie Bank Sydney, MODA, ANZ bank, Milieu Property, ARM Architects, Fonda Mexican, Shortstop Coffee & Donuts, ARM Architecture, YSG Studio,  HOTA Gallery, The Corner Hotel, Pop Plant, Smith Journal, Studio Isgro, Milly + Co, Camilla Molders Design, MALA Studio, Doughboys Doughnuts, Harrison Interiors, Wingnut & Co. 


JX8 

Photography: Shelley Horan


JX8 (pictured here), is a twenty-seater table commissioned by ANZ and designed and made for Foolscap Studio. The  overall dimension is 6.0 x 1.6 x 0.75m - The largest table Hugh McCarthy has ever made.

Hugh worked closely with Foolscap and their concept ‘Open House’ to create a furniture piece to compliment the style and sophistication of a meeting room adjacent to an open kitchen. Of all the options presented, the four curved tops and eight extruded J shapes shown here had the right balance of form and practicality and is closest to the earliest crude sketches in Hugh’s sketchbook. The overall form is both playful and fluid with the manipulation of convex and concave components.

There is a stack of woodworking techniques used in this table, the likes of which Hugh had not attempted on this scale before. It took up most of his workshop and was designed to be broken up, fit in a lift, and then reassembled on site. The brass elements came later in the design process – these are a solution to linking all the walnut components together whilst breaking up the mass of dark brown woodiness.

This project demonstrates how designers and craftspeople can collaborate and explore the possibilities of woodwork.