“I wanted it to feel like you have to go hunting for the perfect piece.”

What will you find at Classic Furniture Gallery? When you roam our market-style store at Newtown or the beautiful set-up at Castle Hill, it won’t take long to find the perfect piece that simply takes your breath away. There is always something that will capture your heart – from decorated daybeds to magnificent dining tables and luxurious four-poster beds. Many of our pieces are antiques, unique wooden furniture that has been passed on for generations. Each has its own character that is rarely in newly made pieces.

“A moral question – where did this wood come from?”

Indonesia is a beautiful country abundant in teak. Teak is a hard timber that is used to build the decking on ships because it survives the best in the extreme weather conditions. As owner Normando Do Carmo says, “If it is good enough for ships, it is good enough for my furniture.” This also makes the pieces versatile, as it can be used indoors, making the perfect feature for any room, or outside to create and oriental themed garden.
We refuse to buy furniture from the big manufacturers because unfortunately, even though there are now plantations from which the wood can be farmed, many immoral suppliers still take the wood illegally from the rainforests. At Classic Furniture Gallery you can be sure that you are buying quality, 100% recycled wood that has had all of our devotion poured into it.

“Every trip is an adventure”

Normando travels to Java to personally locate and purchase wood. “I am very privileged to be allowed in. Each time I go there they let me in a little bit further, into certain areas where I wasn’t welcome before. Every trip is an adventure, but yet also a challenge in finding this beautiful old timber.”

He works with people from several villages in various parts of Central and Eastern Java. They all strive together to locate disregarded logs – trees that have fallen due to erosion or flood. He also buys the wood from dilapidated houses – and even boats – paying the owners enough money to rebuild in brick. He then sets about collecting the wood from the buildings, beautifully aged teak, most of which is over 500 years of age. The wood is the ideal product for furniture, proving its durability by withstanding the tests of time.

“I’m improving their standards at their own pace.”

And more than that, our furniture is making a difference in other people’s lives. The villagers who work for us used to exist in wooden huts with dirt floors set among the rice fields. Their daily lives were devoted solely to providing food for their families from one day to the next.

“The locals consider me a bit crazy when I offer to buy a stump from the local chief, and then pay his men to dig it up! They derive income for something they considered worthless, it reduces the need to cut down newer timbers, and jobs are created.” Now the Javanese people have begun to make their own furniture to sell in their local markets.

“Teak under the ground.”

In return for what we do, the Javanese villagers are sharing their own secrets. Hundreds of years ago, when volcanoes erupted in Indonesia, they destroyed entire forests, burying the trees with mud and ash. Now the land has changed and where these ancient forests once lay there are endless rice fields.

We set out to uncover these hidden forests, digging into the ground and cutting out each tree in sections. It is hard work but what comes of it is antique timber as hard as steel-perfect to make good quality furniture that will last for generations.