Is Teak Wood Really Better? Why We Build in Teak

Growing up, teak was the furniture we knew. It wasn't bought casually. Families planned for it because they expected it to last. Buying furniture was a decision with a horizon attached to it you thought about how long the piece needed to last, not just how it would look in the room this year. That’s the version of furniture we grew up around, and it’s the standard we build to now. It isn’t nostalgia for its own sake; it’s a way of thinking about what a piece of furniture is for.

We also build in teak because we simply enjoy living with it. We like the warmth of its colour, the variation in its grain and the way it develops over time. There are beautiful pieces made in sheesham, mango and many other woods, but teak is the aesthetic we keep returning to. If we are going to spend months building a piece, we want it to be in a material we genuinely love looking at every day.

Why Teak Costs What It Costs

Teak is relatively expensive. Two things sit inside that price. The first is the material itself teak’s natural oils and dimensional stability aren’t replicable with chemical treatment the way you can partially compensate for in a cheaper wood; you’re paying for a tree that took decades to grow the properties you actually want. The second is labour, and we’re direct about this: we pay our craftsmen fairly. Furniture priced lower than ours in the same material category is, more often than not, cutting one of those two things cheaper timber passed off as something better, or work paid for at a rate that doesn’t reflect what it took to execute properly.

The Apples-to-Oranges Problem

The most common pushback we get isn’t about the use of teak itself it’s a price comparison against a completely different material. Someone will point to a mango wood piece at a fraction of the price and ask why ours costs what it does, as if the two are interchangeable options at different price points. They aren’t. Mango wood furniture, done well, has its own place. We have shared on note on this in our  wood comparison guide, but it isn’t teak with a discount. It’s a different material with a different lifespan, different maintenance needs, and a different reason to exist in your home.

Plantation Teak, Old-Growth, and Where Reclaimed Sits

Not all teak is the same, and “is plantation teak as good as old-growth” is a fair question without a simple yes-or-no answer. Old-growth teak, grown slowly over many decades, tends to have tighter grain and higher natural oil content than fast-grown plantation teak. But we build primarily with reclaimed teak, salvaged from demolition sites, old havelis, and structural pillars. That wood has typically spent many years already doing its expanding and contracting. When we open up a beam from a structure that stood for seventy years, what’s inside is frequently denser and more stable than anything you could buy new today, plantation or old-growth. It has already lived through every humidity swing India can produce.

Does It Really Last a Lifetime?

It depends on more than the wood. A well-built teak piece, properly joined and finished, can genuinely outlast the person who bought it. But teak isn’t magic, and a badly built piece in poor teak won’t outperform a well-built piece in a cheaper wood. Longevity comes from the combination of material and craftsmanship, not the species name on its own. We build for the material’s ceiling; that ceiling doesn’t exist in sheesham or mango the same way, but it’s still on the maker to actually reach it.

We Aren't Purists

One thing we're often asked is whether we use solid teak everywhere. The answer is no, and that's a deliberate choice. On some large cabinet sides, table tops and wide panels, we use high-quality teak veneer over board instead of solid timber.

Why? Very wide solid teak planks are increasingly difficult to source, especially in reclaimed timber. Joining narrower planks together is common practice, but those joints can become more visible as as the piece is used and moved around. A well-made teak veneer gives us the warmth and character of teakwood while offering greater stability over large surfaces. It also allows us to use reclaimed timber more thoughtfully, making the best use of a limited resource.

We also don’t think solid teak is the answer to every design problem. Sometimes the best furniture comes from choosing the right construction method, not simply the most expensive material. Plus there is the matter of individual tastes, preferences and budgets.