Really sorry for the hefty delay between updates, Iv had a few weeks out of the factory! This HUGE ‘catch up’ update shows awesome highlights from the last few weeks of production and a few other interesting things. Looks like Blackwood is back! Solid timber, timber veneers or a combination of both, what ever it takes to get you the best value furniture possible that’s made just for YOU! -Matt Continue reading Factory Floor: Catch up!

Enjoy this weeks Factory Floor update! BTW If you can’t see the actual factory your “Australian Made” furniture was made in, was it really “made in Australia”?? 15-18 week lead times generally indicate imported goods, our average lead times are around 4-6 weeks. In 65+ years of manufacturing furniture locally, we have never run 16 week lead times, ever… #buyingtips  Continue reading Factory Floor: Weekly Update…

Its Friday so that means its weekly update time! Catch up on what’s been happening around the factory this week, there’s some really nice pieces to see so click on through and check it out…. #likeitshouldbemade Continue reading Factory Floor: Weekly update…

Take a Capt’n Cook around the factory floor and see what’s new this week! Fresh timbers + timeless design + premium skills = the best value furniture in the land. Still making furniture just like it should be made… Continue reading Factory Floor: Weekly update…

We’re the only Adelaide furniture manufacturer to publish weekly updates of customer orders. Always fresh, new and current. Take a peek to see what designs, timbers and styles people are choosing today. Don’t be told what you need by the retailers, do what thousands of South Aussies do each year, have it made just for you, right here! Continue reading Factory Floor: Weekly Updates…

The furniture market in Australia continues to rapidly change towards a “fast food” style offering via imported mass produced, price driven, low value furniture flooding the market via huge bulk buying corporations. Most customers I speak with on a daily basis are sick of the poor choice, quality and value in todays retail furniture market and more and more people are seeking something local and special.

Just like wine, there’s fine wines and there’s budget casked wine but its all wine right? Well obviously not so this is a great analogy for furniture that puts it in perspective. Just like a cheap wine, you don’t need to interact with it for very long before the lack of quality becomes pretty obvious.

I digress, import furniture is perfect for first home owners and the spare room etc but where’s all the quality furniture gone? I continually notice high end homes being filled with SE Asian imported furniture purchased from electronics retailers when we can make it here, in your chosen timber, with a far greater value and style sometimes for not much more money! (and in most cases much less than a post modern Euro import!)

‘Nice homes deserve nice furniture -YOU deserve nice furniture!’

Our ranges are timeless in design and we let the timber tell the story, I’ll say it again, keep it timber and keep it timeless, no steel, no glass, no chrome, no copper etc etc. Our KT range has been very popular for nearly 20 years and is still as popular as ever. We make a point of giving a wide berth to replicating current “trends” created by the generic retailers because they date rapidly. “Natural edges” and concrete tops are a good example of current ‘on trend’ that will be a regrettable purchase one day for many, it happens over and over and over. Six decades and three generations of furniture making and you get to notice this stuff…

‘Sold and priced at factory level for maximum value and design flexibility’

Long gone are the old industrious Adelaide days with a factory in every suburb and making things here was a huge chunk of the economy, now the only type of furniture that can be manufactured locally and viably is premium, high end, contemporary timber furniture (because Australia is blessed with so many lovely timbers and timber is timeless) Furniture crafted just for you by highly trained South Aussie craftsmen, sold and priced at factory level for maximum value and design flexibility and all made from timbers hand selected by you. Essentially ‘designer’ furniture where you get involved while avoiding full custom pricing. We realised almost 10 years ago the retailing our own locally made product made no sense so we wound it back to factory direct, just like the start in 1952.

‘You must know how to make furniture before you attempt to design it’

This brings me to price and price driven furniture vs quality based… read on

We’re in the process of shifting our systems away from providing pricing for our furniture online or by phone to encourage people to visit the factory showroom to inspect our quality and choice before jumping straight to price. We find it hard to do business when price is a potential customer’s first consideration. This is not the fault of the furniture shopper, this is the result of the mass produced import market where the perceived value of ALL furniture has been driven into the dirt for a couple of generations now. Sure price is a huge factor for most so its very important you do your homework on furniture before spending large amounts of money, it’ll help you establish a budget and maximise your dollar value.

“The slogan ‘making furniture like it should be made’ is far more apt now than it ever was in the 80’s”

As we hand craft all our own furniture, we’re not out in the market competing on price, we’re competing on design, quality, choice and value and we believe we are miles ahead in all 4 of those areas. Occasionally we can successfully “build to a budget” by altering our designs, materials and construction methods but we never sacrifice quality just to achieve a budget. Ever.

Premium hand crafted locally made furniture is a decent investment and something that really needs to be investigated, you can start (or end) with a visit to our factory / showroom where it becomes a very personal experience with a furniture designer not a salesperson and the quality and value of our furniture become immediately apparent. Our clearly refined styles are showcased on our expanding website catalogue and our factory / showroom, the service is very personal with no ‘sales pitches’ just friendly professional advice and sublime furniture…

Looking for real furniture? Come on down and I’ll show you around, not many people can say they’ve seen the factory their furniture was made in…
-Matt

723 Port Road Woodville Pk SA 5011

Here we are with another customer update direct from the factory floor! Keep across new design ideas and timber choices by liking and following our Facebook page. Always fresh because its furniture made right here, just for you! Continue reading Factory Floor: Weekly Updates…

I’ll kick this off by declaring our firm belief that trends and furniture do not mix, all the proof you need is to do a search on GumTree and see thousands of ads for dated furniture being given away left right and centre. 25+ years of cheap imports have created a whole culture shift amongst the last couple of generations where furniture is seen as a disposable fashion statement not a valued asset that can be handed down through the family, the key to that is timeless design, premium materials and skilled hands.

Concrete tops is the latest trend the import retailers want you to “buy” into along with faked ‘natural’ edges. Last couple of years it was copper and rose gold, before that it was marble and granite and before that it was “wenge” and on it goes… Wenge was a terrible name for a terrible colour which saw all ‘on trend’ furniture stained very dark brown and it was everywhere around 10-15 years ago. The only reason ‘wenge’ was so popular at the time was because of the influx of mass production, low grade timber furniture from Asia and the dark stain was used to hide the poor quality timbers and workmanship being used. The stores were flooded with it and naturally shoppers perceived this as “trend” so they filled their houses with it. Most now regret the choice, we take a call a week here for people wanting us to lighten up their furniture because they’ve just realised how drab it is… not to mention the dust, fingerprints and the way black can really highlight surface scratches.

This takes me to the point of this post… Black. We’re starting to see more interest in using black in furniture again, seems black is back with taps, bench-tops and kitchen cabinetry etc with dark grey tones definitely being the dominant fabric colour choice over the last 12 months. Enquiries lately are for black in parts of furniture or full black but only one or two minor pieces as a feature in the home i.e. coffee tables, lamp tables.

Black table bases are a popular choice right now for breaking up timber floors and timber table top, although we always resist black in furniture for the reasons above, we see no dating issues with a black table base as it spends most of its life unseen anyway. Here’s some very recent pics of customers using black in our furniture while still retaining the natural timber, much smarter ideas than using black everywhere, more black can be introduced with non-permanent materials like chair fabric, placemats, table runners etc..

Our Motto: Keep it timber, keep it simple and you’ll keep it timeless… Natural timber does not date (unless you stain it)

We’re not saying don’t use black at all in modern furniture, the advice here is to use it sparingly and sporadically.

Matt Mabarrack -furniture designer, cabinet maker. Continue reading Thinking Black? our guide to getting it right….

Catch up on the latest pieces, fresh from the factory floor! Crafted right here by South Aussies for South Aussies, for over 65 years. Continue reading Factory Floor: Weekly Updates…

The next big thing in timber is Spotted Gum! Solid or veneers, this timber species has a unique look thats hard to go past… Come in, have a look and you can be the judge! Exclusive to Mabarrack Furniture Continue reading Spotted gum NOW IN STOCK!