When starting YARD Furniture we intentionally set out to use reclaimed Australian timber for our furniture.
In Australia we are lucky to have access to some of the most beautiful timbers in the world. From the swirling, contrasting details in feature grade Messmate, to the clean minimalism of Mountain Ash, Victorian timbers provide an amazing palette of tones and features that compliment Australian homes and interior styles.
Our timbers are salvaged from commercial buildings as the landscape of our city changes. These timbers age from 50 to often over 100 years old!
The species we use include Messmate and Stringybarks, Ash’s including Silvertop and Mountain Ash, as well as timbers like Southern Mahogany, Wormy chestnut and Blackbutt.
Apart from the beauty of these timbers, we use these reclaimed hardwoods for environmental reasons.
Sustainability
As passionate advocates of sustainability, using reclaimed timbers prevents logging new growth and saves beautiful structural timbers from landfill.
Our timbers often tell a story of their past life. We’ve previously salvaged timbers from higher profile locations such as the Jam Factory, NGV, and The Don Factory, and regularly salvage timber from commercial buildings circa 1920s to 1970s.
Making furniture to last
We use traditional furniture making methods to construct our furniture, and together with the strength of solid timbers, our pieces will last a lifetime.
Working with reclaimed timber saves new logging and the use of cheap, chemical laden materials, and reduces the need of cheap replacements and more waste in the future.
Our ethos is buy once, buy well and we believe in creating timeless styles that will look good for decades and withstand trends.
The Process
We salvage our timber directly from commercial sites and residential demolitions.
Once we bring it back to our workshop it undergoes a process of de nailing and removing any foreign objects before machining. Following machining the timber is then ready for furniture making.
To read more about this process view our post here
The extra steps are more involved than standard furniture making, and this process allows us to be very hands on with the timber to select the perfect timbers for each piece. This can be seen through examples of our work where there is a beautiful cohesion in the finished pieces.
The result is a bespoke furniture piece that is made to last a lifetime.
