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How Good is Teak Furniture from Indonesia?
Good enough that teak furniture from Indonesia can last to your grandkids’ generation. It is not even an exaggeration.
Most Indonesian would take teak any day when it comes to choosing quality. Why? It is strong, it is durable, it is gorgeous and it ages beautifully, and it is resistant to almost anything that makes regular wood damaged or faded.
Is it too opinionated? Then read on to know more about teak furniture, especially the ones made in Indonesia.
Teak Wood
Before going further about furniture itself, of course teak wood should be introduced to you however briefly. What is the better way to start other than trying to describe how teak wood looks?
Raw teak wood has whitish sapwood (the outer layer of a wood after the skin) and dark yellowish to dark brown heartwood (some might say bronze). The grain is mostly straight with occasional waves here and there.
Unfinished teak wood usually has greasy structure due to its natural oil. This natural oil is the reason why teak wood is water, pest, and weather resistant. Most woods don’t have this natural oil that comes with their trees, thus need layers of additive to protect itself against pests or water.
Teak wood, however, is a fairly heavy wood. It is good for permanent setting in your space, but it probably doesn’t work well in an environment where chairs and furniture needs to be moved a lot.
Teak wood also has grades, ranging from class A to C. These classes are usually measured through their age. The highest quality of teak wood is grown for at least 30 years before it is cut down. Teak wood, which produces its own oil, increases their oil production up to 5% of its weight as they grow. Thus, the older they are, the more resistant they become against pests and the likes.
B and C are classes that basically less durable and have less resistant substances in their woods. Though so, they still have the good appearance of teak woods. Their grains might not have the almost full grain of the grade A, but little knots and waves of young trees could cover the loss.
Teak furniture from Indonesia uses all kinds of grades of teakwood, however it is more common for the wood-working companies to use grade A instead. This is due to the government cutting down trees that is generally among 40 years old of age.
Teak for Furniture
Teak furniture from Indonesia are so common that many woodworkers are using this material to make the furniture to sell. Be it classical or minimalistic, teak can be made into any furniture.
Teak with all of its substances has been widely used as furniture both for indoor and outdoor area. For indoor, the arch-enemy of any furniture is of course pests and water. As for outdoor, all furniture’s worst nightmare is the weather.
How Does Teak Wood Deal with Those as Furniture?
Indoor teak Furniture
Teak wood furniture, especially teak furniture from Indonesia, can withstand any elements that can damage the piece—be it termites, water, or the weather. This will make a good outdoor furniture piece, true, but whilst being so, it serves even longer and durable inside.
It serves well, for instance, to make bookshelves. With water resistant characteristics, as well as oil substance that prevent the wood’s natural water from leaking outside, books would be safer and avoid unnecessary damage.
Another example other than as a storage would be as a dining table. As mentioned before, teak wood is good in a permanent placement. In a dining room where you want to sit down for a while and enjoy quality time, teak wood would be the best piece.
It also considers how you could have it for a long time. Its strength would also be a beneficial factor in making dining table as it would hold servings on regular basis.
Teak furniture as a bed frame is also desirable. While there is an option of using steel as your bed frame, there is nothing wrong if one wants to have natural feel in their bedroom. For this, teak wood is the best choice as bed frame.
Teak wood as a bed frame will not creak so badly because of its strength. Durability is a good factor too seeing as no one wanted to buy such important furniture every 3 years or so.
All these are available in many places in Indonesia. Teak furniture from Indonesia, be it bookshelves, china storage, or bed frame, are all durable and made by the best wood workers that has gotten their skill not only in one lifetime, but also from generation before him.
Outdoor Teak Furniture
For hundreds of years teak has been known for its natural resistant substances. Even since the great adventure era, teak wood has been used to build ships. It is that good in resisting water and to withstand the weather.
Teak wood, while coming from tropical countries, could withstand almost any weather: the burning sun, the drenching rain, or the icy cold snow. These characteristics make very desirable outdoor furniture.
Centuries ago, patios, outdoor dining room, and other furniture that complement gardens are very popular. Nowadays, as the surge of pandemic began and people stayed at home a lot, people start to realize how important their environment is. That’s how garden is getting its popularity back, though not as much.
Still, if you are one of the people who like to sit in the garden and relax, it is necessary to get you the right furniture to put in it. You can put a patio with natural teak chairs or a teak bench for your children to sit together during some game of tag.
If that isn’t enough idea, you can build an outdoor dining area with a simple 4 to 5 people table near your home. If you don’t want that, you can always stick with putting a table just for the sake of relaxing.
Why Indonesia
Teak furniture from Indonesia has competitive price. Taking the raw woods from Indonesia’s very own plantation make wood-working have good price compared to countries that needs to import their woods.
With legal trees grown by the government themselves, added with the hands that make the wood-working of furniture, furniture from Indonesia has high quality. Instead of buying some cheap furniture that will be damaged in three years, why not try Indonesian’s teak furniture instead?
