Thread: Calling Australia home

Silky oak
a solid top with roman ogee edges, thick legs again solid silky oak, either 3 x 3's with a bit of shaping, or 3x3's turned.

chairs - silky oak, the old covered horsehair chair pad, the back with the two outer uprights and 3 smaller inside uprights, a shaped top all held together with string or elastic because the glue had given out on the dowels.

That's the table I grew up with.

My second choice would be a slab table of aussie timber with bench seats.

cheers
Wendy

big red cedar slab table and bench seats. with backs of corse you dont expect us to hold ourselves up do u.


if ya wanna be realy ausie coupla spalings suporting a camp oven top. oh and ya gota have a lo to lean against.

Behold, the Macquarie Chair. Now for a fitting table.

Something made by the likes of Neil Scobie, Anton Gerner etc etc

I think that it should have a bit or a lot of Huon in mix. It puts a talking point into the piece. You can gloat to the people that your showing the table to that Huon is thousands of year old.

I kind of thought the subject would draw more interest from the vast and varied amount of talent on this forum but that's OK, maybe, for some, it's not worth thinking about for some reason or other. Thanks to the people who contributed with their thoughts, I saw a little of our good old Australian spirit coming through the responses but was mostly impressed with Ruffly's comment "That's the table I grew up with".

Originally Posted by springwater

What would the quintessential dinning table and chairs inspired by Australia look like and made from?

well the chairs would be small rockers upholstered in kangaroo skin or leather.

the table would be a table


seriously
what is quintessentially australian?

the Southern Cross
an Aboriginal dot painting
anything with opal in it or on it
kangaroos
koalas
platapus
dry landscape
drought and flooding rains
bar-b-que
the sea shore
cities


so the table would be a tressle design where the legs were two carved crouching kangaroos
or two rather plain plinths with the southern cross picked out in white opal, copper or silver
the top would be wide and red (red cedar, red gum, maybe Jarrah) with a contrasting wide inlay of silver ash, yellow sliky oak or mountain ash meandering down the centre possibly swirling around an occasional river worn "rock" ceated with a piece of polished iron ore


as I said, the chairs would be upholstered in kangaroo leather or skin
as to the chair style, well now I'm becoming stumped

solid four square or something with a lighter look?
maybe in the Malof style but without the rocker arms?



ian

A black stump with a slab of rough sawn local timber nailed straight through into it with massive old mild steel nails that will rust and stain. Chairs - well to compliment the feel of the table they should be old fruit cases or maybe just cut timber rounds. If you want the modern contemporary look then milk crates would do

National spirit in a table is a bit contrived to my mind. (National spirit is contrived too.) (IMHO) I'd want to strive for good design and finish ect. But the quintesinal aussie table is prolly made in china, If you did a survey of actual tables people have, that is. The table I grew up with was a warm dark timber that ended up with quite a lived in surface, and the odd name scratched in underneith. (Which prolly meant it wasn't really made of hardwood.) That's the one I think of when I remember home, even though I don't think we had that one very long. The "nice new" table they have now is bland and soulless.

Quintessentially aussie??
hmmm....when I first moved out of home the dining table consisted of eight locally acquired milk crates with the real estates "for lease" sign as the top,
when inviting guests for dinner it would be nicely covered with a drop sheet
thats aussie, innit?

Originally Posted by Honorary Bloke

Behold, the Macquarie Chair. Now for a fitting table.

That must be Mr Macquarie's Chair cause here's his Mrs Chair



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mrs_Macquarie%27s_Chair

The one I remember was owned by my grandparents and it was in the dining room ,it was a large wooden affair ,very heavy , that sat people down each side an one at each end .
The legs were large and squared timber ,and had a panel between them (across ways),and a piece across the bottoms as a foot
The chairs were rounded backs made of laminated wood and had a cushion in the seat.
The two end chairs had curved arms that went from just under the back down to the front legs but the others didn't.
There was also a side board for all the table ware and cutlery
We had many Christmas dinners around that table ,all my rellies would gather there and the festivities would go on for days .
The old pianola would be pumping out the music well into the night .
When my grandmother passed away my grand father sold the house with most of the furniture and the dining room suite went to another family.

Later I bought two chairs , a bedroom highboy and a dressing table with a tilting mirror from a man whose wife passed away ,the chairs are the same type of end chairs that were with my grandparents dining room suite.
My father restored them and had new tapestry cushions made ,I still have them.
These looked like they were made from Australian oak or similar and were made some time in the late 30's or early 40's
The high boy and the dressing table are in use by my Daughter ,when I can finally get her to leave home I will reclaim them ,give them a light going over with some fine paper and re varnish

Kev.

If I was commissioned to make one according to that specification (which admittedly sounds a bit touristy) I would lean towards something rustic or farm based. Probably a slab, but might incorporate other elements like old machinery or hardware, even recycled timber. Something like Gay Hawkes would produce.
I personally like the thought of it, but when a vast majority of Aussies live in cities, on the coast (97% ?), the whole bush thing is a bit forced, a lot irrelevant! Local fauna under threat (diseased, hunted, eaten, pushed from the little remaining wild) and mostly seen in tourist traps, why do we persist with such a tenuous connection!?
Maybe an IKEA outdoor living suite would be more apt

Cheers

When I was younger we stayed a bit at Binna Burra. From memory they had big slab tables. The chairs were sturdy square things with thick leather back and seats. The leather was almost a hammock sort of think except there was a seam at the join between seat and back that was connected to a dowel behind it to keep it's shape. The whole set was reddish hardwood. I always think of those when I think of Aussie dining sets.

Peter