Our Story
Starting in the 1980's, Wedgerwood was the brain child of a pipe smoking, bearded craftsman by the name of Ray Hastie. Initially starting in his shed just outside of Alexandra township, Ray hand built timber furniture that 'wedged' together - birthing the name Wedgerwood.
By the early 1990's Ray moved to the building Wedgerwood currently resides and employed several additional competent furniture makers, joiners and cabinet makers. With the addition of these talented staff members, Wedgerwood branched out into manufacturing kitchens, bathroom furnishings, solid timber doors and windows to mention just a few. If it could be made out of timber - Wedgerwood could make it!
This fabulous promotional poster still hangs in the Wedgerwood staff room as a testament of how things have changed over the last 30+ years. Trends, designs, requirements, workshop technology and materials have all altered but so has Wedgerwood to continue to lead the way with all the products it produces.
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The posters content is certainly questionable for publication in the current social environment - 'A housewife's dream.'!
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Completed and installed pink kitchen in the promotional poster once installed - This would have been any home chef's paradise!
Cromwell, Queenstown, Alexandra, Wanaka
When an opening came up to invest in the business in 1992, Blair Harris, one of Wedgerwood's talented craftsmen jumped at the chance. Partnering with Ray - the business grew from strength to strength. Wedgerwood secured a contract to do all the timber joinery works at Millbrook resort in Arrowtown. This led to truck loads of solid timber kitchens, bedroom furniture, doors and windows travelling from Alexandra to the building site daily. The team grew and when required, the workshop operated day and night to meet deadlines for the project.
Having installed some eye catching joinery at the Duty Free Store (DFS) on the Steamer Wharf in Queenstown - the Auckland branch of DFS engaged the team incorporating the romance of Ray Hastie with his pipe and long grey beard (supposedly how craftsmen joiners are meant to appear) to create and install ALL of the joinery for their Auckland Airport store. This was a specific Harrods theme and once again truck loads of Wedgerwood's craftsmanship travelled - this time Alexandra to Auckland. The final product was remarkable and to much disbelief, removed only years later to house another theme.
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After a couple of years as co-owner of Wedgerwood Ray decided to exit the business relocating to the Christchurch area - leaving Blair and his wife Dianne at the helm.
Over the decades, Wedgerwood has created plenty of timber features throughout Central Otago and Southern Lakes cafe's, restaurants and bars - from doors, to kitchens to custom/bespoke furniture.
Although design trends and clients' tastes change, some things have never varied throughout Wedgerwood's manufacturing history - the level of workmanship and integrity always shown for timber and products to bring out the best features of each piece.
While timber has always been a large part of what Wedgerwood is all about; Blair and Dianne really took the business to the next level of high-end bespoke joinery and kitchens with the incorporation of new technologies including design software, machinery and materials into the manufacturing and completion of products.
Now with a 17 strong team, Wedgerwood is sought after for all descriptions of well crafted premium joinery in the Central Otago, Queenstown and Wanaka areas. From small kitchen renovations all the way through to extensive house lots of joinery, including but not limited to - kitchens, laundries, wall paneling, libraries, cellars, wardrobes, windows and doors - you can trust Wedgerwood to do the lot!
