Innate Furniture

We’ve just added a section to the new website about custom-shaped dining tables, which is something we probably should’ve done a long time ago!

We’re big fans of softer shapes and more organic forms. This one is a pebble top in cyclone-salvaged rimu, sitting on a New Zealand steel Crossroads base.

It still works great as a dining table, but the shape changes the whole feeling of it. Less formal than a rectangle, a bit softer in the room, and a good reminder that a table doesn’t have to start with four square corners.

A couple visited the showroom yesterday and ordered a Danish Oval dining table in beech. Then on Monday we’re drawing up a large pill-shaped boardroom table.

Turns out these shapes are a lot of fun!

Did you know no two Innate tables are the same?

We only start making your table once the order is placed, and by then you have chosen the size, shape, timber, colour, and base that suit your space.

Then it moves through the workshop, one stage at a time, until it becomes your table.

Most kitchen surfaces are chosen to disappear. Timber does something different. A native timber island top like this gives the room something with life in it: grain, knots, colour movement, and the small irregularities that make the surface feel like it belongs in the home rather than just being installed into it. With island tops and benchtops, the early decisions matter: size, thickness, finish, cut-outs, overhangs, and how the timber will actually be used day to day. It is slower than picking a standard surface, but that is also the point.

Physical samples make the timber decision much easier.

On screen, it’s hard to judge the difference between clear, warm, dark, calm, or bold. In your hand, the choice becomes more obvious.

This is West Coast Rimu in Clear beside Northland Tōtara in Blackwash. One keeps the natural warmth close to the surface. The other darkens the tone while still letting the grain come through.

Neither is “better”. They just lead a room in a different direction.

If colour and timber feel matter for your table, samples are worth doing before you commit.

Timber samples are available through the website, or you’re welcome to compare them in the Christchurch showroom.

Freshly milled Northland tōtara, rough sawn and stacked before it ever gets near our workshop.

This is the part of a table people usually do not see. The log has already been selected, opened up on the mill, and cut into boards. From here the timber still needs time, sorting, drying, and later another round of judgement before we decide what is suitable for furniture.

A finished tōtara table can make the material feel simple. It is not. There are a lot of practical calls before the timber becomes something we can make with: what each log gives back, which boards are worth carrying forward, and what needs to be left out.

This is the supply chain becoming visible, board by board.

Tāne's Tree Trust

This table and bench were made from recycled rimu supplied by the customer.

They already had the timber and wanted it turned into something useful again, which changes the job. We’re not just choosing boards from our own racks. We’re working with material that already has a history, a colour range, and a few limits of its own.

With recycled timber, part of the work is figuring out what the boards will allow. Which marks stay visible. Which lengths can be used. How much variation belongs in the top before it starts feeling too busy.

That’s one of the good parts of custom work: sometimes the timber already belongs to the customer before we start making.

Dylan working a hallway console top through the sander before the coating stage.

This is the stage where the timber starts telling you whether you’ve done the earlier work properly.

Once the oil goes on, little things become obvious: sanding marks, uneven patches, spots where the surface wasn’t quite ready. So the boring-looking part matters.

Work the surface. Check it. Work it again. Then finish.

A lot of the final feel of a timber top is decided long before it looks finished.

A small look at the timber and finish options we work with every week.

This grid shows three of our New Zealand timber species: tōtara, rimu and beech, each finished in Clear, Country Bark and Blackwash.

We use natural hardwax oil finishes, so the timber still feels like timber. The grain, colour and natural character stay visible, while the surface has protection for everyday use.

Samples are a great place to start if you’re choosing for your own home. They help you compare the general tone: Clear is closest to the natural timber, Country Bark adds warmth and depth, and Blackwash brings more contrast while still letting the grain show through.

If you’d like to see more of the material, you’re welcome to visit the showroom and look at larger pieces in person. That’s where you get a better sense of the variation, movement and character in each timber.

And if you have a particular colour or tone in mind, we can talk through custom options too.

If you’re choosing timber for a custom table or furniture piece, you’re welcome to order samples, visit the showroom, or get in touch.

www.innatefurniture.co.nz

Northland tōtara is having a moment, but the story behind it has been years in the making.

For a long time, landowners, researchers, foresters, millers, and have been doing the careful work: understanding how naturally regenerating farm tōtara can be managed responsibly, selectively, and permanently for future generations.

Now that work is starting to meet the market.

At Innate, we’re proud to help carry this story into homes and workplaces through long-life, New Zealand-made furniture, connecting the people and forests behind the timber with pieces that are made to last for generations.

We’ve put together a page explaining how Northland tōtara fits into our work, why it matters, and the story behind this remarkable native timber.

Read the full story on our Northland Tōtara page.
Link in bio or search Innate Furniture Totara

Northland tōtara is having a moment, but the story behind it has been years in the making.

For a long time, landowners, researchers, foresters, millers, and Tāne's Tree Trust have been doing the careful work: understanding how naturally regenerating farm tōtara can be managed responsibly, selectively, and permanently for future generations.

Now that work is starting to meet the market.

At Innate, we’re proud to help carry this story into homes and workplaces through long-life, New Zealand-made furniture, connecting the people and forests behind the timber with pieces that are made to last for generations.

We’ve put together a page explaining how Northland tōtara fits into our work, why it matters, and the story behind this remarkable native timber.

Read the full story here:
https://innatefurniture.co.nz/pages/northland-totara