Home · Materials & finishes
What sits on the rack — and why we put it there.
This is the working list we hand out at the bench. We do not stock the universe; we stock about twenty things, learned through eleven years of seeing what behaves in Kuala Lumpur’s weather. Anything outside the list is sourced to brief.
The Malaysian boards we keep racked at all times.
All boards are kiln-dried to between eight and ten percent moisture content and rested in the workshop for a minimum of three weeks before being touched.
Kembang semangkok
A locally grown hardwood with a medium-warm tone, even grain, and excellent stability for sofa and chair frames. Our default for upholstered work.
Kiln-dried seraya
Reddish-brown with subtle figure. Light enough for chair shells, strong enough for credenza and sideboard carcasses. Ages handsomely under hardwax oil.
Reclaimed merbau
Pulled from old verandahs and second-life joists. Hard, dense, deeply coloured — our pick for tabletops, bench seats and stair treads that have to stand up to a generation.
Chengal off-cuts
Reserved for stretchers, drawer parts and hidden structural work. We will not build a tabletop in chengal — the boards never finish moving — but we will let it earn its keep underneath.
For paler rooms, denser pieces, and the occasional designer brief.
Sometimes the brief asks for a quieter, paler grain — American white oak in rift cut, English ash in straight grain, or American black walnut for the darker eye. We bring these in on commission, by the cube, from suppliers we have worked with for a decade.
For very small heirloom pieces we keep a tiny reserve of plantation teak, which we use sparingly and price honestly.
Fabric, leather, and the things that go underneath.
All upholstery is hand-stitched and tied in the back room of the workshop. Cushions are kapok-and-coil for back-rests, cold-foam-and-feather for seats. Nothing is glued where stitching belongs.
Natural linen & cotton
Belgian and Italian woven linens for living-room sofas. Heavy cotton canvas for daybeds and bench seats. Treated with a quiet stain-shield on request.
Wool bouclé & wool blend
For armchairs and slipper chairs in air-conditioned rooms. Hand-stitched seams, double-stitched corners.
Full-grain leather
Italian vegetable-tanned hides in seven house colours, plus custom dye on order. We use it for armchair shells, banquettes and the occasional desk top.
Rattan, cane & rush
Hand-caned panels for bed heads, dining chair backs and cabinet doors. We weave in-house; the cane is bought directly from a Kelantan supplier.
The surface coats that earn the climate’s respect.
Tropical humidity is not gentle on furniture finishes that were not chosen for it.
Hardwax oil
Our default for tabletops, shelves and visible wood. Penetrates rather than coats, easy to touch up, looks better the more the room uses it.
Water-based sealer
For cabinet carcasses and the underside of joinery. Quick to cure, low odour, easier on the apprentice’s lungs than the old solvent products.
Matt polyurethane
Reserved for café tabletops, hotel desks and the occasional residential surface that needs to take a glass of cold water for ten years.
Brass & oxidised brass
Drawer pulls, hinges, sliding bolts — turned by a small bronzecaster in Klang and oxidised in-house to match the tone of the wood.
A few materials that have never made it to our rack.
No veneered chipboard
If a piece is meant to last thirty years, the substrate underneath cannot be sawdust held together with glue. We build in solid stock or solid stock with veneered plywood reserved for case backs.
No high-gloss polish
A high-gloss lacquer looks lovely on a showroom day and shows every fingerprint, dust mark and humidity bubble afterwards. We are happy to stay matt or satin.
No screwed-on legs
A leg under tension over thirty years will not stay tight if it is held in with a single metric bolt. Our legs are mortised, doweled, or wedged through the rail.
We will send a stained offcut, a swatch, and the price for the species — no charge.
Tell us the species you would like to see, and a sense of the tone. The block leaves the bench within five working days.