Timber furniture is highly sought after as they’re not only timeless but classy. While some of us may head to international retailers for wood pieces to furnish our homes, it is little-known that you can actually support shops in Singapore and purchase timber furniture that is made locally. Many of us may not think of Singapore as a timber producer as trees require space to grow, but Singapore does produce tree logs, albeit unintentionally.
However, these are cut fresh and so have limited peak times before they rot. They are usually by-products of our insatiable developments and city-in-a-garden vision, with parks built all over the island and connected by a network to create one large, lush garden.
Local timbers are resilient tropical hardwoods to boot, and include angsana, tembusu, rain tree and African mahogany. But, being a thoroughly urban city, Singapore has a preference for importing wood and lacks the infrastructure to process tree logs into usable forms. As a result, there are multiple sawmills in Singapore with stockpiles of abandoned logs.
“More than 100 logs arrive each day, with no immediate purpose other than to be turned into wood chips or shipping pallets someday,” share Morgan, Lincoln and Ryan Yeo, the founders of Roger&Sons. Around 15,000 more trees are slated to be felled over the next 15 years.
A number of local furniture makers have been turning this untapped resource into desirable objects while others have explored more sustainable options like bamboo and rattan. Here are some of them.