The conversation
You tell us what the room is, who lives in it, what is wrong with the chair you are replacing. We listen for an hour and then start drawing.
Bespoke workshop · est. 2013
Furniture built to fit your room, your hands, and the way you actually live.
Cleariqo Atelier is a small Kuala Lumpur workshop. We draw, joint and finish each piece in-house, working from kiln-dried tropical hardwoods and a short, honest list of finishes. Nothing in our workshop is held in stock — every commission begins with a conversation about how the room is used.
- Solid hardwood frames
- Hand-cut joinery
- Made-to-measure
- Six-week residency builds
11 yrs
cutting, gluing and finishing furniture out of one Damansara workshop — with a team you can name.
Why clients send us their drawings
Quiet rooms come from quiet work
We are deliberately small. Every piece is tracked from the rough boards on the rack to the day it leaves on our truck, by the same three or four people who started it.
i.
Drawings before cutting
You see a full set of shop drawings and a sample block of the chosen wood and finish before a single mortise is cut. Surprises in furniture are rarely the good kind.
ii.
Joined, not screwed
Frames are mortise-and-tenoned, dovetailed, and glue-blocked with the bench planes still warm. Hidden steel is used only where it actually belongs.
iii.
Tropical-honest finishes
We finish with hardwax oils and water-based sealers chosen for our climate — not the polish that looks lovely in a magazine and chalks the moment Kuala Lumpur is humid.
iv.
Sized to the room
We measure your living room, your stairwell, the lift, the door swing. The piece is built around what will actually fit through your day-to-day, not the showroom floor.
v.
One pair of hands per build
A single maker carries each piece from rough stock to final polish. Their initials go on the underside. You can email them directly if a leg ever needs attention.
vi.
A lifetime of small repairs
Hinges, joints, finish touch-ups and re-caning are looked after for as long as the workshop stands. Bring it back, and we will put it right.
From the bench
Eleven years in one room, building for clients who came back for the second piece.
Cleariqo Atelier opened in 2013 in a corner unit off Jalan Industri, with two cabinetmakers, a borrowed thicknesser and a long handshake from a client who needed a dining table for fourteen. We never moved. The rack on the back wall holds boards that have rested longer than some apprentices have worked here.
Today the workshop has eight people on the floor: cabinetmakers, an upholsterer, a finishing specialist who treats lacquer like she treats her tea, and a junior who has been with us four years. We still take the same number of commissions as we did in our first season, and we still answer our own email.
- Sofas, lounge chairs and ottomans — hardwood frames, hand-tied springs, eight-way coil where it earns its keep.
- Dining tables, benches, sideboards and credenzas in solid stock or seam-jointed boards.
- Bed frames, headboards and bedroom case goods designed around the rest of your bedroom, not a catalogue.
- Commercial fit-outs for cafés, boutique hotels and architects’ show units — on site, when it suits the build.
Collection · commissioned to order
Five rooms we build for, in five honest ways.
There is no off-the-shelf catalogue. The pieces below are examples of what tends to leave the workshop — each one is re-sized, re-stained and re-detailed for the brief it is built to.
Living room
Custom sofas
Hand-joined hardwood frames, kapok-and-coil cushions, fabric and leather from our short list of suppliers.
Explore custom sofas →
Dining
Dining suites
Tables that fit your room and the chairs that earn a seat around it — six, eight, ten or twelve, every one drawn in advance.
Explore dining suites →
Bedroom
Bed frames & headboards
Quiet, generous bed frames in our tropical hardwoods, with upholstered or panelled headboards detailed to the room.
Explore bed frames →
Living & entry
Consoles & occasional tables
Hallway consoles, coffee tables, side tables, nesting tables — the smaller pieces that quietly make a room behave.
Explore consoles and tables →
Hospitality & office
Commercial fit-outs
Café counters, banquettes, reception desks and boutique-hotel rooms — built off-site, installed on the quiet shift.
Explore commercial fit-outs →
How a commission goes
From a first sketch to the day the truck leaves the workshop.
Most commissions take six to fourteen weeks. The pace looks slow because two of those weeks belong to the wood, not the maker.
Drawings & samples
You receive shop drawings, a wood block in the chosen stain, and a fabric or leather swatch — in the post or by hand at the studio. Adjustments are part of the price.
The wood rests
Boards are pulled from the rack, dimensioned and stood up for at least three weeks. We would rather wait than build with timber that wants to move.
Bench work
Joinery is cut, dry-fitted, and signed off in person if you live near. Upholstery happens in our small back room, never sub-contracted out.
Finishing & cure
Two coats minimum, sanded between, with the piece sitting under our roof for a week so the finish settles. Nothing leaves while it is still wet to the eye.
Delivery & living-in
Our own crew brings it to your door, levels it on your floor, and shows you how to clean it. We are still on the phone six months later when you call to ask about a small mark.
Materials we keep on the rack
Tropical hardwoods, chosen for our weather, not the magazine.
Our default stock is Malaysian: kembang semangkok for sofa frames, kiln-dried seraya for chair shells, reclaimed merbau for table tops and bench seats, and chengal off-cuts for stretchers and drawer parts. They were grown in this climate; they are at peace in this climate.
For paler rooms we bring in American white oak and ash. For darker, denser pieces — walnut and a small reserve of teak. Every board is graded in the workshop and signed off before it earns a place on the rack.
What clients have said
A small but talkative roster.
“The seraya sideboard finally arrived after the longest, most patient eight weeks of my life, and the only word my husband had for it was ‘quiet.’ That is the best compliment a piece of furniture has ever earned in this house.”
Adelyn YapBukit Damansara · sideboard & reading chair
“We sent them a hand sketch from a holiday, a Pinterest board of three pins, and our nine-year-old’s opinion on chair backs. They returned drawings that took all of it seriously. The dining table seats twelve and is honestly the best piece of furniture I own.”
Mansoor & Lila IdrisPetaling Jaya · dining suite for twelve
“We were redoing the café in two phases between dinner services, and Cleariqo turned around the banquette, counter and shelving with the patience of a project that mattered to them. The joinery is calmer than anything we have bought from a catalogue.”
Wan Chee YenCo-founder, Pintu Coffee Bar · commercial fit-out
Common questions
Things people ask before commissioning a piece
How long does a bespoke piece take to build?
A single sofa or dining table is usually six to nine weeks from approved drawings. Full-room commissions and joined cabinetry sit at ten to fourteen weeks because the panels cure, get test-fitted, and are sanded back twice before finishing.
Do you ship outside the Klang Valley?
Yes. Our own crew delivers within Klang Valley and Selangor. For Penang, Johor, Sabah and Sarawak we use a furniture-specialist haulier who blanket-wraps each piece and signs off at the destination. International freight is handled as a separate quote.
Can you work from a designer’s drawings?
Often. We collaborate with interior firms and architects on residential and hospitality work, and we are comfortable building from rendered packs, hand sketches, or a Pinterest folder. We will return shop drawings for sign-off before any cut is made.
What woods do you keep in the workshop?
We hold kiln-dried seraya, kembang semangkok, chengal off-cuts and reclaimed merbau as our house woods. American white oak, walnut and ash come in for clients who want a paler grain or a darker eye. All boards are rested in our racks for a minimum of three weeks before they are touched.
Do you take on small repair or restoration jobs?
Yes, when there is room on the bench. Re-caning, joint repairs, re-upholstering an heirloom chair and refinishing a parental dining table are all part of our slow-month work. Send photographs by email and we will say honestly whether we are the right pair of hands for it.
What does a consultation cost?
The first conversation, whether in the workshop, at your home, or over a video call, is free. Once we agree to proceed we charge a fully refundable design fee that is credited back to the build price when the order is confirmed.
Begin a commission
Tell us about the room, and the piece that should sit in it.
Drop us a line with a photograph of the space, rough dimensions, and the feeling you are after. We will write back within two working days with a first set of questions and a sample of our drawings.