Custom furniture in Abu Dhabi

Most furniture is bought to fit a room it was never designed for. You find something close, then you live with the gap at the end of the run, or the table that seats eight when the room wanted ten. Custom work removes that compromise, which is the whole point of it.

We have made furniture in Abu Dhabi since 2003, all of it made locally in the UAE. We work in beech and oak. Both take a carved detail cleanly and hold a joint in this climate, which matters more here than it does in Europe.

The games table in the gallery below has a chessboard and a backgammon board inlaid into the top, and a green baize card surface on the reverse. The pedestal table has its base carved from the solid. We can tell you exactly what is happening to your piece in any given week.

Joints and finishes, which is where the years are won

A piece of furniture fails at its joints long before the timber gives out. A mortise and tenon puts a tongue of one piece into a socket in the other, giving a large glued face and a mechanical lock. Dowels are quicker and rely almost entirely on glue and two small pegs. Both are used in real furniture, but they are not equivalent, and the difference shows up in a chair after a few years of somebody leaning back on two legs.

Where a piece is going to carry weight in a drawer or a case, a dovetail resists being pulled apart in the direction that matters, which is why it survives in drawer fronts long after fashion moved on.

The finish is the other half. Lacquer builds a film on the surface, so it protects well and gives an even sheen, but a deep scratch goes through the film and is repaired by refinishing the panel rather than the spot. Oil soaks in instead of sitting on top, leaves the timber feeling like timber, and can be patched invisibly on a small area. It also needs feeding once in a while. Neither is the better answer. A dining table that will meet hot dishes and spilled drinks and a carved side table in a formal room want different things.

Two things worth deciding early. Solid timber moves with humidity, so a wide solid top needs to be built in a way that lets it move rather than pinned so it cannot, or it will crack somewhere. And if a piece will sit in direct sun, most timbers will change colour over the first year, unevenly if something is standing on them.

If you are weighing a made piece against buying one, we have written about when custom furniture is worth it and what timber does in Gulf humidity.