Huge Built-in Bookshelf Made From Recycled Teak CSIRO Benchtops // From the Workshop
April 2023
Our design process for custom work is very collaborative, which allows us to come up with refined, and often extremely personalised solutions. This often means that the eventual design we land on with a customer can be quite different to the original concept, which was the case with this huge, custom-designed, built-in bookshelf made from a lot of our recycled teak—read on to learn more.
Recycled Teak Built-in Bookshelf
DESIGNER: Rohan Hunt
MAKER: Julian Beukers
TIMBER SPECIES: Salvaged teak benchtops
DIMENSIONS: 3.9 x 2.6 x 0.5m
FINISH: Clean dressed
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The (Ever-Evolving) Design Brief
Our customer, Josh, approached us with a special project in mind; a wall-to-wall built-in bookshelf in his Weetangera living room. His plan was to purchase timber from us and undertake the build himself, having had a handful of woodworking experience in the past.
Josh got chatting with Rohan, one of our designers, who helped him tease out the ideas with design drawings and a few different potential approaches. Through this process, Josh soon realised that this was a much bigger project than he'd bargained for and decided to entrust the Thor's Hammer joinery team with the entire project.
Josh opted for our recycled teak benchtops, salvaged from the CSIRO Plant Science laboratory. It wasn’t just the significant history of the benchtops that Josh was attracted to though. Choosing this timber was a matter of practicality, too.
Available in large, pre-laminated and uniform sizes, these teak pieces were going to require far less energy (and expensive machinery) than a standard piece of recycled demolition timber.
Josh’s unit needed a lot of teak, but thankfully we salvaged 300 lineal metres from the CSIRO labs. Teak is super rare for us to come across in our salvaging jobs, so we were lucky to acquire this haul from the CSIRO. We still have some left, so contact us if you have a project in mind. The teak has been used for kitchen benchtops, sit/stand desks, furniture and even a custom-made dog house for Daphne the French Bulldog.
Design, Build & Installation
In design, Josh’s shelving unit is relatively simple. It was the sheer size however that posed significant challenges for the design and build, needing to fill the entire wall of Josh’s living room.
To enable smooth installation—including transport, building access and assembly—we built the unit as three separate pieces from within our workshop.
When we reached Josh’s house, we glued and assembled the components together before shuffling the unit into its final resting place.
Check out these shots of the bookshelf installation at Josh’s place in Weetangera in Canberra.
We custom design and make a huge variety of furniture and joinery products.
We move mountains to help customers achieve their visions for a range projects; whether that’s preparing timber with customised profiling or dressing for a DIY renovation, or handling a joinery or furniture project from beginning to end—or anything in between.
If you have a project in mind, get in touch with us to explore your options. We can’t wait to create something with you.
Photos by Rohan Thomson. Words by Ellie Keft & Rohan Hunt.