ABOUT US

Reclaim furniture is a bespoke recycled timber furniture business expertly composing classic furniture designs and constantly developing our in-house future classics with a focus on the basic design principals of simplicity, aesthetics, practicality & strength.

As passionate designers, makers of timber furniture and current residents of planet earth we feel a moral responsibility to use recycled structural timbers, this allows us to lower our carbon foot print as well as preserving flora & fauna as a forest. A major benefit of using this specially sourced wood is the depth of character and personality that each furniture piece takes on from the ageing and curing process that the wood has been through in its previous incarnations, almost like the soul of the timber speaking of all it has seen and heard, flaws and imperfections in the wood manipulated and incorporated into a seamless new furniture design piece.

All of our timbers are sourced from timber salvage yards & demolition sites, de-nailed and dressed using  vintage machinery that works as well & efficiently as newly built 50-60 years ago, from this point  the timber is divided into compatible groups for their next life.

Each piece is finished to the highest degree using all of the most current and ecologically sound processes available with a focus on maintaining the raw integrity and visual richness of the original piece.

About Peter McManus…

Peter at work

‘It’s hard work for great reward’

The owner and operator of Reclaim Timber Furniture parents arrived in Australia just before his birth from Ireland on a 10-pound boat deal in 1968.

The main inspiration behind his passion for building, timber, sustainability, compassion and entertainment is steeped in the traditions of his parents’ upbringing in a rural part of Ireland. The stories retold of his homeland were those of celebrating the accomplishments of sustainable living. Such as saving the hay for the winter or harvesting spuds from the field below…Further from this is a realisation that his ancestors had no choice but to build and maintain the houses and everything else required to live in an environment that mostly supported itself.

From this necessity comes great training, all of Peters uncles & both of his Grandfathers were known as Carpenters and Stonemasons; Peter always knew he was going to follow along this path..

Learning his trade from his father and older brother in both commercial and domestic scenarios through to teaching at TAFE colleges around Melbourne provided inspiration and the direct design lineage to the structure and application of the magnificent personality of Australian timbers in his work.

Not merely restricted to woodchip strewn sheds Peter spends his downtime singing in a soul band covering the masters of this idiom, Sam Cooke, Otis Reading, Sam & Dave. The same soundtrack you would hear visiting his studio as he imparts his soul into the piece of furniture you will call your own.