I like to use recycled wood and metal as much as possible. You’ll find a lot of Rimu and Kauri in our furniture, which mostly comes off villas and other old buildings. It gives you a really good look, especially on headboards for beds.
We also hunt through scrapyards for pieces of metal. I’ll dig around to find the best bit for whatever it is that I’m working on at the moment.
What other materials do you like to work with?
We use a lot of black steel, and most of this is clear coated. Our pieces also have the heat marks through them, adding to that ‘Raw’ look. If you look at the furniture you can often see where we’ve made the welds. We’re really careful when handling our black steel, and we work especially hard to ensure it doesn’t rust.
I like to use Corten or weathering steel as well. I’ll add the weathered look in a couple of ways; either by coating it in a chemical base treatment to speed the weathering along or I’ll actually take the steel outside and leave it under the drip line from the factory. It’s hard to beat that look.
How much of your business is focused on furniture for homes?
Right now it’s about 70% commercial, 30% residential. We produce a lot of boardroom tables, reception desks and hall tables for our commercial customers. For residential it’s products like beds, custom dinning room tables, shelves, credenzas – things like that.
Can you explain your approach to custom furniture?