Indoor teak furniture: a buying guide for tables, cabinets and chairs

Teak indoors has an easier life than in the garden: no rain, no frost. Even so, plenty goes wrong with indoor teak furniture: tables that crack next to the stove, stains on untreated wood, or a “teak” sideboard that turns out to be mostly board with veneer. This buying guide sets out what to look for. Want to know what teak is first? Read teak wood.

Solid, veneer or board?

The first thing to know is what’s really in the piece. The Dutch furniture company Meijs Wonen explains the difference clearly (Meijs Wonen, Dutch):

• Solid wood moves with humidity and temperature; a top can cup or bow as a result.
• Board with veneer or foil is more dimensionally stable, but veneer is less easy to repair. That’s why many pieces have a solid top or solid edges.

On a dining table that sees years of intensive use, solid teak can be restored by sanding; with veneer that’s only possible to a limited extent. So always ask.

Quality of the wood

• Heartwood or sapwood. The durability teak is known for applies to the heartwood (Centrum Hout, Dutch). The lighter sapwood is susceptible to powderpost beetles (Business Queensland). Indoors that’s less critical than outdoors, but an Indonesian exporter still sees sapwood mainly as suitable for hidden parts, drawer bottoms or fully finished indoor furniture, and the lighter outer heartwood layers as “acceptable for indoor furniture” (Bali Teak Furniture). Sapwood also gives a two-tone look.
• A, B or C? There’s no official standard; every supplier uses its own grading. How to see through it is covered in teak grades.
• Drying. Teak that ends up insufficiently dried in a heated living room can crack, especially in winter (Teaktafels.nl, Dutch). Gloster dries its teak to a 12% moisture content (Gloster). Ask the seller how the wood was dried and to what percentage.

New, reclaimed, old or vintage?

• Reclaimed teak is widely used for indoor furniture. Expect knots, unevenness and inset repair pieces; that’s part of the material (Troedoor, Dutch). According to the Dutch retailer Teakhuis, there’s no difference from plantation teak, provided it’s properly processed and dried (Teakhuis, Dutch). More in reclaimed teak.
• Old and colonial teak often turns up in sturdy cabinets and tables: see old teak.
• Vintage teak (such as the well-known sideboards from the 1960s) is a market of its own with its own points to watch: see vintage teak.

Construction: indoors isn’t outdoors

A teak dining table for indoors is built differently from a garden table. The Dutch furniture maker Souren explains that an indoor top consists of several boards glued together without gaps between them (Souren Meubels, Dutch). Outdoor furniture traditionally has slats instead of wide boards, because wood moves more strongly outside (Gloster).

Wondering whether your indoor table can go on the patio too? It can, but with a shorter lifespan and more maintenance; Souren advises against putting cabinets and sideboards outside (Souren Meubels, Dutch). Everything about that is in indoor teak outdoors.

Finish: what do you get?

Always ask whether the piece is delivered treated, and with what.

• Untreated teak indoors is prone to stains: the natural colourings dissolve in water (Meijs Wonen, Dutch). According to the Dutch retailer Teak.nl, a new teak table or teak coffee table is usually delivered untreated (Teak.nl, Dutch).
• Oil is a common finish for teak, as is nitrocellulose lacquer (Centrum Hout, Dutch); the furniture brand Muubs delivers its indoor teak oiled (Muubs).
• Lacquer is the lowest-maintenance option (Meijs Wonen, Dutch). Take care with brushed reclaimed teak: black-blue stains can appear under a sealed two-component (2K) lacquer (Troedoor, Dutch).

A cabinet or sideboard is easier to leave untreated than a dining table, because they’re used less intensively (Teak.nl, Dutch).

Where will it go?

Solid teak keeps moving, indoors too. Meijs Wonen advises (Meijs Wonen, Dutch):

• a room temperature between 15 and 24 °C (59 and 75 °F) and humidity between 40 and 60%;
• at least 2 metres (about 6½ ft) from a stove, open fire or radiator;
• no direct sunlight, because light makes wood change colour.

Muubs names dry heat from wood-burning stoves and fluctuating humidity as causes of rough and warping wood (Muubs). Teakhuis recommends a humidifier or a bowl of water in winter (Teakhuis, Dutch).

In the bathroom, extra requirements apply; see teak bathroom vanity.

Checklist for the shop

1. Solid, veneer or board? And is the top solid?
2. Heartwood, or a lot of pale sapwood?
3. How was it dried, and to what moisture content?
4. New, reclaimed, old or vintage?
5. Indoor construction (glued top), or really a garden piece?
6. Delivered treated? With what? And what maintenance goes with it?
7. Origin or certification? Ask about it; what the labels mean is in FSC teak.
8. Where will it go? Far enough from the stove and the sun?

The same questions apply to teak dining chairs and benches: ask what they’re made of, how they were dried and how they’re finished.

We deliberately don’t give prices: we found no public, well-founded price ranges we can stand behind.

Care

How to keep teak clean indoors, choose and apply a finish and deal with small cracks is covered step by step in indoor teak care. For a dining table specifically: teak table care.