Bali is such an awesome place to get hand crafted furniture and home decor! We all would love to bring a full container of stuff every time we visit the Island of Gods! But what makes Balinese furniture and home decor so special and qualitative?
Balinese artisans are very skilled at working the wood, as we highlighted in one of our previous article. Balinese craftsmen also work with a wide range of material, especially different kind of woods, which allows them to achieve different levels of quality. When shopping for furniture or home decor, one often asks oneself questions such as:
What kind of wood to choose for furniture?
Is teak wood suitable for outside use?
What is the difference between teak wood and mahogany wood?
Why is teak wood more expensive than other woods?
To try to answer these questions, we decided to provide you guys with some basic facts about the different types of woods used to make furniture and home decor from Bali (or other places, as a matter of fact).
Let’s get started!
Teak wood
What is teak wood? Teak is often called the king of all woods. Where does teak wood come from? It can be sourced from various regions such Myanmar, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Burma. Why is teak wood so durable? Teak wood is one of the most durable woods available, because it naturally contains silica, an oily chemical compound that keeps the wood strong over time.
In addition to be very durable, teak wood ranks very high in terms of aesthetics. What makes teak wood look and feel so smooth? The answer resides in one word: grain. Teak wood has a very nice grain and texture, giving it an incomparable elegance versus other woods like oak or pine.
Teak wood table top with a lovely grain
Thanks to its high oil content and strength, teak wood can be used outdoor for many years without requiring any maintenance. It is not uncommon to find whole houses built from teak wood in Bali.
Finally, you might have noticed that teak has a lovely, distinctive smell. This is not a major concern for people who shop for furniture to move-in a new place, but it still an added benefit!
For all these reasons, teak is one of the most expensive woods on the furniture market. In Bali, it is used for furniture (teak tables, teak desk, teak beds for instance) of for home decor (teak bed headboards and other teak wood carvings are very popular).
You might pay a high price for your piece of furniture, but remember that your item will remain in excellent conditions for dozens of years without requiring a lot of maintenance. This is a priceless advantage.
In the second part of this article, we will discuss mahogany wood, another very popular type of wood found in furniture and home décor!