Dean Close House – Field Housemasters Honours Board
Wooden
Dean Close in Cheltenham wanted a single honours board to record the Housemasters of Field, one of the boarding houses at the school. The brief was specific. A traditional gable-topped board, in keeping with the look of the school, sized to suit a fairly modest wall space inside the house. It needed to sit comfortably alongside existing displays, carry the school's identity at the top, and leave enough room to keep adding names as Housemasters come and go.
We designed and manufactured a bespoke school honours board at 600 × 800mm, finished in light oak with matt black lettering. Small in footprint, but built to the same standard as boards three times the size. The result is a board that records the Field Housemasters clearly, and gives the house a piece of furniture it can keep updating for the next several decades.
Honours Board Specification
SIZE:
material:
BACK colour:
TEXT COLOUR:
BOARD EDGES:
FIXINGS:
600 x 800mm
Wooden
Matt black cut vinyl with digitally printed logo
Gable top wooden honours board
Mirror brackets
Materials and Finish
The board was produced from light oak veneered MDF with a solid oak frame, gable topped to match the more traditional shape used across school honours boards. At 600 × 800mm, it suits a single-column layout, which works well for a list of Housemasters where each name sits with a year range against it.
The Dean Close crest was digitally printed, laminated and precision cut, then applied to the top section above the title. Underneath, the heading "Field Housemasters" runs across the board in matt black cut vinyl, with the names laid out below. We use vinyl on wooden honours boards like this because it gives a crisp edge against the oak, holds up well over time, and is straightforward to add to year on year. Matt rather than gloss, which sits more sympathetically with the veneer in daylight.
Fixings were kept simple. Mirror brackets on the reverse, ready for the school's maintenance team to mount on site. For a board of this size, mirror brackets are the most practical choice, secure, hidden, and easy to level on a plastered wall.
Built to Be Updated Each Year
A Housemasters board has a slow rhythm. New names go on every few years, not every term, so the layout has to look right both now, with only a handful of entries, and decades from now when the board is closer to full. We allowed for that in the spacing, with consistent line heights and reserved capacity below the existing names.
When the school is ready to add the next Housemaster, the process is straightforward. We cut the new lettering in the same matt black vinyl, in the same font and size, and supply it ready to apply. The school can install the lettering in house, or send the board back to us for the update. Either way the board stays visually consistent, which matters more than people realise. A patchwork of mismatched fonts is the usual giveaway that a board has been added to over the years without much thought.
For Field, the finished board gives the house a proper record of its Housemasters, in a style that fits the rest of Dean Close. Small board. Long working life.
Looking for a honours board for a boarding house, department or school hall? Get in touch and we'll help you work out the right size, layout and finish.
Our honours board prices start from £250, depending on size / material options.
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