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Use Teak Furniture To Transform Your Home
It can be tough to pick furniture. Maybe you’re designing a new place, renovating an old one, or maybe you just want to liven up your current one – the options can be tricky. What can I do? What are the choices? How can I avoid wasting money? I’ll touch on all these topics to varying degrees in other posts, but there’s one thing I’ve realized:
The Wood You Choose Matters
There are various types: teakwood, mahogany, rosewood, suar, tamarind, particle board, and well as others. In this post I’m going to talk about what I’ve discovered while traveling, getting interested in different designs and eventually trying to design my own space.
Here are some reasons why teak is a great choice:
Durability
What’s worse than buying a new piece of furniture and within a month it’s lost that glow that it had when you bought it. Or even worse than that, it’s been partially destroyed by some mishap or even the weather? Teak furniture is well known for being exceptionally durable. It has a natural resistance to the effects of weather and is great for the table and chairs you want, indoors AND outdoors.
It’s because of the natural oils, they protect teakwood from decay, moisture, and pests. This means termites, rainstorms and the passage of time won’t ruin your favorite piece. The grain pattern is tight and straight, so you’ll get less warping, splitting, and cracking. Basically it’ll look better for longer.
The Look
What does anything matter if it looks bad, right? Well there’s a reason why teakwood is sought after by people in the know – it’s got that look! It starts off with a lovely golden-brown color that fits into many designs and spaces and then as it ages it develops a very unique patina (a thin, naturally-occurring layer) that is silverish-gray to the eye. When you ask people to describe the wood, it’s common to hear that teak furniture is reminiscent of nature and some sort of connection to natural beauty. This in turn makes it versatile, and when used tastefully, makes it fit in a variety of contexts from traditional to modern, indoor to outdoor, and most in between.
Ease Of Care
If you really like a piece, you’ll do what it takes to take care of it. But we can probably agree that things are better if you can keep maintenance to a minimum. Luckily, due to the previously mentioned durability, the natural resistances, the strength, and the density of the wood, you can rest assured that you will have to spend less time with upkeep besides the normal dusting and occasional gentle scrub. You don’t need to buy any expensive or specific cleaners, they’re actually harmful to the wood. If you spill, wipe it up but your piece is unlikely to be ruined.
If you want to apply oil to maintain the original color entirely, go for it, but it looks just as good aged so feel free to let the appearance tell a story. Similarly for the sun. Store it hidden from UV rays if you want, but again, since it ages well, you don’t have to if you don’t want to. Personally, I don’t want to worry about my furniture too much, so I’m happy that I chose teak.
Sustainability
If you want your home to be designed ethically, it’s best to source what’s in your home. Luckily, if you’re going with teak furniture then there’s a good chance already that your wood comes from a plantation that was grown specifically in order to be harvested, so it doesn’t contribute to deforestation in the same way that other hardwoods might.
You can kick it up a notch and make sure you buy the furniture from a producer that is reputable and engages in fair and responsible business practices. My recommendation will be at the end if you don’t feel like doing all that work yourself, but no matter what, if you source your furniture from an ethical place, you’re doing a small but important service to everyone, and starting with teakwood is a good beginning on that path.
Comfort
Teak furniture is smooth to the touch so you’re going to be more likely to enjoy sitting on a teak chair for extended peoples of time, resting your elbows on a teak dining room table, and sprawling on a teak lounger by the pool. The last furniture I had (before I started getting interested in wood) had a considerably rougher surface and when I switched I realized how big of a difference it makes.
High Resale Value
I feel like this an overlooked point for most people who aren’t accustomed to buying quality furniture. You may love the piece, but who knows what’s going to happen down the road? Tastes change, designs change, or maybe you’ve gotta get out of town and would rather sell everything than transport it all across the world. Because of these factors I’ve mentioned, the durability, the lifespan, the relatively pleasant natural aging process, you’re more likely to get a good price when it’s sales time. In other words, it’s an investment, but not one that you’re going to be locked into if the circumstances change.
Conclusion: Consider Teak
These are the main factors that you might want to consider in choosing the wood for your next furniture purchase, but in order to keep this post manageable, I didn’t include everything.
Teakwood is less likely to cause allergic reactions than some other popular wood types, it has a cultural significance that can be cool to integrate into your home (check out my other posts on balinese furniture and culture), it’s easy to work with, so it can be more customizable than other types of wood. I could go on for days! But I won’t, so just do yourself a favor and look into teak furniture! If you want to know more about the wood itself, take a look at the article I put together on exactly that topic.
My Recommendation
I’ve had the chance to travel all over and I really like the guys over at Woodhub.lt. They have Balinese furniture made out of teak and I was lucky enough to pop by their showroom to investigate. The pieces looked great in person and I was able to get enough information to feel confident that they do good work and care about the Balinese artisans that they are connected to. This is important to me and I hope it is to you too! If you want to breathe some new life into your home, take a look!