Materials
Custom made timber furniture in Adelaide
Timber species is the single biggest lever on what a custom piece costs in Adelaide. The same table in American oak is 15% to 25% dearer than in Tasmanian oak, and in river red gum it is 60% to 120% dearer. The second lever is construction: solid where the piece is touched, veneer over a stable core where a panel is wide, because Adelaide is the driest mainland capital and a wide solid panel here does not stay flat.
This page is the materials reference for every piece on this site: what each species costs, how hard it is, how it moves and what it is genuinely best used for. The full species write-up sits in the timber guide, the mechanism behind the movement is explained in why solid timber splits in Adelaide homes, and if you already know the piece you want, the numbers for a custom dining table are the best place to start.
Species
The 8 timbers Adelaide furniture is actually built from
Cost is expressed against Tasmanian oak on an identical piece. Janka is the force needed to push a steel ball halfway into the timber: under 4 kN it dents from a dropped plate, over 8 kN it blunts tooling and adds labour hours to the build.
| Species | Cost vs Tas oak | Janka | Colour | Movement | Best used for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tasmanian oak / Victorian ash | Baseline | 5.5 kN | Pale straw to light honey | Moderate and predictable | Dining tables, beds, general casework |
| American oak | +15% to 25% | 6.0 kN | Warm mid-brown, very even board to board | Low. The most stable of the group | Matching existing joinery, wide veneered doors |
| Blackwood | +35% to 55% | 5.5 kN | Golden brown with figure, darkens in year 1 | Moderate. Cups if back-sawn | Feature pieces, buffets, bedheads |
| Jarrah | +40% to 70% | 8.5 kN | Deep red-brown, ages to burgundy | Low once seasoned | Outdoor settings, hard-wearing tops, bench seats |
| Marri | +35% to 60% | 8.5 kN | Pale cream-pink with dark gum vein | Moderate. Gum veins need filling | Feature tops, resin-filled slabs |
| River red gum | +60% to 120% | 9.0 kN | Deep red with heavy figure | High. Slow to settle, full of internal stress | Live-edge slab tops, coffee tables |
| Messmate | +15% to 35% | 7.1 kN | Light brown, strong colour variation and gum vein | Moderate to high | Character tables, open shelving |
| Recycled Baltic pine | +20% to 60% | 2.5 kN | Honey to orange, with nail holes and saw marks | Low. It finished moving 100 years ago | Character tops, shelving, bedheads |
There are 2 things in that table that catch people out. Tasmanian oak is not oak: it is a trade name for 3 eucalypts, mountain ash, alpine ash and messmate, and it takes a dark stain unevenly because of it. And recycled Baltic pine at 2.5 kN is softer than every other option by a factor of 2, so it dents under a dinner plate dropped from 100mm. That is either the character you are buying or a decision you will regret, and it is worth being honest with yourself about which before you order.
Hardness is also not durability. Jarrah at 8.5 kN resists dents, but it is the machining time that pushes its price up, not the board cost alone. Blackwood at 5.5 kN is no harder than Tasmanian oak, and people pay the 35% to 55% premium purely for figure and colour. Both are legitimate reasons to spend the money. Neither has anything to do with how long the piece lasts, which is decided by the joinery and the finish. See blackwood versus Tasmanian oak for the head-to-head.
Construction
Solid, veneer or engineered: each is correct somewhere
All-solid is not the premium option. It is the wrong option in specific places, and a good Adelaide maker will tell you so before you ask.
- 1.
Solid
Correct for
Tabletops, every visible edge, legs, rails, drawer fronts, door frames
Solid timber can be re-sanded and re-finished repeatedly, it takes a knock without exposing a different material underneath, and the edge profile is cut into real grain. A 38mm solid top has 30 years of refinishing in it. A veneered top has 1 careful cut back, if that.
- 2.
Veneer over a stable core
Correct for
Door panels over 500mm wide, tall carcase sides, wardrobe and kitchen doors, wide flat backs
This is engineering, not cost cutting. A 600mm wide solid panel changes 4mm to 6mm across its width between a humid July and a dry February in Adelaide. That is enough to bind a door in its opening or open a visible gap. The same panel in 0.6mm veneer over MDF or plywood moves under 0.5mm and stays flat.
- 3.
Engineered and laminated
Correct for
Spans over 2,400mm, curved rails, thick-looking tops that must not weigh 90kg, structural legs
A laminated component is built from thin layers glued with the grain running in opposing or staggered directions, so the internal stresses cancel out. It is how a 3,000mm table stays straight, and how a curved bedhead rail holds its shape instead of springing back.
The question worth asking a maker is not whether the piece is solid. It is which parts are solid and why. An honest answer sounds like "solid top and edges, veneered gable ends so they stay flat, solid frames on the doors with a veneered centre panel". An answer of "all solid timber throughout" on a piece with 700mm doors is either untrue or a callback waiting to happen.
Why Adelaide changes the answer
Specify the moisture content, not just the species
Adelaide is the driest of the mainland capitals, and the indoor figure is harsher than the outdoor one. A house running ducted refrigerated or evaporative cooling through February sits under 30% relative humidity indoors for weeks at a time. Timber in that room settles towards 7% to 8% moisture content. Timber milled and dried for a Sydney or Brisbane market is supplied nearer 12% to 14%.
Bring a board in at 14% and let it drop to 8% and it shrinks. Across a 1,000mm wide back-sawn panel that is 6mm to 10mm of movement, which is the difference between a tight glue line and an open one. So the specification that matters is not just "Tasmanian oak", it is Tasmanian oak at 10% to 12% moisture content, and a maker with a moisture meter can prove it in 5 seconds.
The 3 construction choices this drives
Quarter-sawn over back-sawn on wide panels. A quarter-sawn board moves roughly half as much across its width as a back-sawn one from the same log, because the growth rings run through the thickness rather than across the face. It costs more per cubic metre because it yields less from a log. On a wide tabletop it is worth the difference.
Narrower boards, alternated. A top glued up from 5 boards at 200mm distributes the same total movement across 5 glue lines instead of concentrating it. Alternating the growth ring direction board to board cancels most of the cupping out.
Species selection for wide fixed panels. River red gum and messmate are the highest-movement options on this page. They are excellent for a slab coffee table that is free to move on all sides, and a poor choice for a 700mm door panel that has to sit inside a frame all summer.
One more Adelaide-specific point that gets missed: extensions in this city are glazed heavily to the north. Direct sun through that glass bleaches an unprotected top unevenly within a single summer, and it lightens Tasmanian oak while it darkens blackwood. If the piece will sit in that light, raise it at quote stage so the finish is specified with UV inhibitors.
Where Adelaide timber comes from
- Tasmanian oak and Victorian ash are milled in Tasmania and the Victorian highlands and reach Adelaide through eastern-states merchants. Freight is part of why the baseline sits where it does.
- River red gum comes off the Murray, close enough that slabs are a genuinely local option here in a way they are not in Perth or Brisbane.
- Blackwood is Tasmanian and western Victorian, and supply of well-figured boards is intermittent rather than constant.
- Jarrah and marri are Western Australian, and most of what reaches Adelaide today is reclaimed rather than newly milled.
- Recycled Baltic pine is the genuinely local reclaimed stock: it comes out of Adelaide cottage flooring and roof joists during renovations, which is why the boards are narrow, full of nail holes and already 100 years seasoned.
Sourcing
Asking where the timber came from is a fair question
Responsibly sourced hardwood is available for every species on this page. The way to confirm it is to ask, not to look for a logo.
Australian furniture hardwood comes from 3 broad sources: plantation-grown stock, managed regrowth forest, and reclaimed timber pulled out of demolition and renovation. Plantation supply is the most consistent board to board and the least characterful. Regrowth carries more colour and figure. Reclaimed carries the most character and the most risk of a nail strike.
A maker who buys properly can tell you which of those 3 your timber is, and can name the merchant it came through. That is the practical test, and it is a reasonable thing to ask at quote stage. Take care with claims about specific certification schemes: certification attaches to a supply chain, so a maker quoting a certified claim should be able to point at the supplier holding it, not just at a badge on a website.
Reclaimed deserves its own note because the economics surprise people. It costs 20% to 60% more than new, not less. Boards have to be metal-detected, de-nailed by hand and docked around old fixings before a machine touches them, and 30% to 50% of a reclaimed stack ends up as offcut. Every one of those hours is on the quote. The full breakdown is in recycled timber furniture in Adelaide.
By piece
Which timber suits which piece
The right species changes with the job. Here is the short version for each piece type, with the full detail on its own page.
- Dining tablesSolid top, quarter-sawn if the budget allows, and the top left free to move.
- Coffee tablesThe one place a river red gum or marri slab earns its 60% to 120% premium.
- Desks & officeAmerican oak or Tasmanian oak. A desk sits near a window, so movement matters more than figure.
- BedheadsRecycled Baltic pine works here. It is soft, but nothing hits a bedhead.
- Entertainment unitsVeneered carcase, solid edges and doors. Heat from AV gear dries a solid panel unevenly.
- Buffets & sideboardsBlackwood, grain-matched across the doors from one flitch, veneered so the doors stay flat.
- Outdoor furnitureJarrah or another dense hardwood. Tasmanian oak will not survive an Adelaide summer outdoors.
- WardrobesVeneered or board carcase with solid timber edging. Solid doors this tall will move.
- Shelving & bookcasesSolid shelves for span, because a 900mm board under books sags where a veneered one does not.
- Custom joineryMixed by element: board carcases, solid faces, veneered wide panels. Specify each separately.
If the piece you own is already built and the timber has taken a beating, the answer is usually restoration rather than replacement. If you are still deciding who should build it, start with furniture makers for freestanding work or cabinet makers for anything fixed to the house.
FAQ
Custom timber furniture in Adelaide: common questions
What is the best timber for furniture in Adelaide?
American oak and jarrah are the 2 most stable choices for an Adelaide house, because both move less across their width than the alternatives once dried properly. Tasmanian oak is the value pick and behaves well if it arrives at 10% to 12% moisture content. River red gum is the least forgiving: it looks the best and moves the most.
Is Tasmanian oak actually oak?
No. Tasmanian oak is a trade name covering 3 eucalypt species, mountain ash, alpine ash and messmate, milled in Tasmania and Victoria. Victorian ash is the same group of species milled on the mainland. It is not related to American or European oak, it is softer, and it takes stain far less evenly, which matters if you want a dark finish.
How much more does recycled timber cost than new?
Recycled adds 20% to 60% over Tasmanian oak, so it costs more than new timber rather than less. The cost is in the handling: reclaimed boards carry nails and screws that destroy cutting edges, they have to be metal-detected and de-nailed by hand, and 30% to 50% of a stack is lost to old fixings, splits and paint before anything is machined.
Is solid timber always better than veneer?
No, and a maker who says otherwise is selling rather than engineering. Solid is correct for tabletops, edges, legs and rails. Veneer over a stable core is correct for wide door panels, tall carcase sides and anything over about 500mm wide that has to stay flat. A wide solid door panel in an Adelaide summer will bind, cup or split.
Will solid timber furniture crack in an Adelaide house?
Only if it was built wet or built restrained. Timber delivered at 10% to 12% moisture content and constructed so the panels can move survives 40-degree February weeks without a mark. Timber dried for a humid east-coast climate, or a wide panel screwed rigidly to a frame, opens at the glue line in its first or second summer.
How can I tell solid timber from veneer before I buy?
Look at an edge and at the underside. On solid timber the grain pattern on the face runs over the edge and continues on the other side. On veneer the face grain stops at a thin band of edging. Check inside a drawer runner housing or a hinge cup: an exposed core of fine brown particles or smooth grey fibre is board, not timber.
Keep reading
You might also find this useful
- Choosing timber for custom furniture in AdelaideThe full species guide, including how each one behaves once it is inside a South Australian house.Read it
- Recycled timber furniture in AdelaideWhy reclaimed stock costs more than new, where it comes from locally, and the 2 hidden problems to ask about.Read it
- Blackwood versus Tasmanian oakThe comparison most Adelaide buyers end up making, including the colour change that surprises people.Read it
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