Selbrae House: Our Philosophy

We’re committed to putting natural materials at the heart of Selbrae House products. Slate, oak, linen and olive wood all feature prominently in our collection, and we love what they bring to us as makers, and to our customers.

These materials bring the natural world indoors; each piece unique, wonderfully tactile, and connecting us with its origins.

Beautiful, durable and eco-friendly are three great attributes for any thoughtful purchase you make, whether selected for your own table and hosting family and friends – or as a meaningful gift for a loved one. And that’s what natural materials mean to us at Selbrae House.

Read more hereabout the materials we use.

The combination of traditional craftsmanship with fresh and innovative design has always been an important touchstone at Selbrae House. This creative blend produces pieces that are unique, distinctive, and timeless; pieces with character and aesthetic appeal, a meaningful alternative to mass produced generic items.

A typical Selbrae House product passes through several pairs of skilled hands within our own Fife workshop on its journey from raw material to finished item. And as well as maintaining in-house skills as diverse as slate and wood shaping and finishing, printing, and candle-making, we have developed a supply chain that supports an even wider range of traditional skills in areas like small scale woodland management, sawmilling and weaving.

And at the same time, we embrace innovation and the continuous development of our skills and processes. Modern production methodologies are essential to delivering cost efficiencies and quality consistency that benefit our customers, and we are active members of business networks local and international to ensure we never stand still!

Bringing together multiple aspects of both traditional and modern practices creates in Selbrae House a combination that is greater than the sum of its parts, and one that our customers value and trust.

At Selbrae House, we are working hard to reduce our impact on the environment in many ways.
We source our materials as responsibly as we can, with our Oak wood for example coming from a local social enterprise that works with owners of small scale woodland in Scotland to produce sustainable timber for makers like us.

We believe in buying better and less, both for today and for tomorrow. Our products are designed and made to be durable for a long, useful life, and  we encourage our customers to extend the life of their purchases by providing extensive information on their care. Read more here about how to preserve the life of our products in your home.

But we understand that offering sustainable products alone is not enough, and we have made a commitment to minimise our impact on the natural world across our whole operation. This has already resulted in a significant solar installation that allows us to be self-sufficient for electricity for some of the year and switching to LED bulbs across our workshop and offices. We now recycle and shred cardboard in-house for packaging and have removed as much plastic as possible for all packaging – for example by switching to product belly bands that are 100% paper without plastic coating. Despite these efforts, we know there is still more to be done.

When we cannot source materials locally, we try to actively reduce our carbon footprint. When we must source from overseas, we avoid air freight and use sea freight. We take care to consolidate all shipments of products and only ever ship full containers. Nevertheless, we are continually reviewing ways in which we can further reduce our transport carbon footprint.

As we pursue our vision, we remain committed to celebrating the beauty of our planet and treading as lightly as possible upon it. Our dedicated team continuously seeks innovative and sustainable practices to make a positive impact on the world around us. 

Selbrae House is a true family-run business, something of a rarity in today's business landscape.

Two generations of the Carstairs family - siblings Donny, Emma, and Colin, alongside their parents Louise and Ian, can all be found at our Fife headquarters throughout the week, along with the family dog, Ru. Each brings their own skills, passions, and personality to the business, united by a deep, family bond. 

This extends to the wider Selbrae ‘family’ where the freedom and space to grow is actively nurtured, and as a small, highly adaptable team, we thrive in an environment that fosters close collaboration. Life at Selbrae House is typically low stress but productive, fun-loving but respectful, with trust and support central to our work environment.

The value the Carstairs place on ‘family’ has guided how the business has developed. It’s the heart and soul of our work at Selbrae House, shaping our ethos and influencing our organisational culture, and helping us always remember that what we do is important to our customers’ families too.