The O’Grady family
Made by the O’Gradys,
in Poole.
MSO is Matthew Sean O’Grady — a family workshop of architectural joiners, drawing, making and fitting under one roof on the Dorset coast.
I — The name
M · S · O.
The initials are a name: Matthew Sean O’Grady. Matthew and his brother Tom run the business today; Tom came to it from the painting side. The O’Gradys are a west-coast Irish family: Matt’s grandfather came over from Ireland, and he and Matt’s father, Sean, were builders. Trained in decorating and finishing, they did general building, carpentry and fitting work themselves.
Father and son
In a finished booth at Chewton Glen.
Matt with his father Sean in one of the booths the workshop made for The Kitchen at Chewton Glen, photographed the week the restaurant was finished in 2017.
Matt and Sean O’Grady · The Kitchen at Chewton Glen, 2017
Vulneratus non victus“Wounded, not conquered” — the old O’Grady motto, and a fair description of how good joinery is made.
II — From one bench
It started on a single bench.
Today it is a Poole workshop and a team of joiners and cabinetmakers who design, make and fit under one roof — trusted with the joinery for Michelin-kitchen restaurants, five-star hotels and private houses along the Dorset coast. The people who survey your house are the people who set it out on the bench and hang the finished work, so nothing is lost in translation.
III — How we work
One family, one standard, one point of responsibility.
Every commission begins with a survey and a drawing. Nothing leaves the workshop as a stock part; each stair, panel and cabinet is set out for one house and finished to the standard of fine furniture.
IV — Matthew and the company
Matthew and the company.
Matthew O’Grady has 21 years in the trade: he started at 16. Today he is more often at the drawing board than on the tools, designing the work and standing behind it.
MSO Joinery is the trading name of M S O Joinery Limited, company number 11692079, incorporated on 22 November 2018. Its workshop and showroom are on Allens Lane in Poole.
By appointment
Arrange a consultation.
Tell us about your house and your project, with a few photos and rough sizes if you have them. We'll come back with a guide price, and once it works for you we'll arrange a visit — at your home, or at our workshop and showroom on Allens Lane. No obligation, and no fixed catalogue.
Where we work
Sandbanks · Canford Cliffs · Branksome Park · Poole · Bournemouth · Dorset · The New Forest · Hampshire · and selected projects in London