A business selling bespoke tables is giving new life to timber from old farm sheds, telegraph poles and even bridges.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Thomas Keith bespoke tables run by Thomas and Maddy Baker opened its new showroom at Endsleigh Avenue in Orange on Thursday.
"My middle name is Keith and my grandfather was also Thomas Keith and I had his cattle brand, it was TK and so when I first started I used to brand it with the TK," Mr Baker said of the business name.
He said he's made close to 1000 tables since starting eight years ago.
He said he started out when he was working on a large farm at Gunnedah and wanted to make use of the wood from old sheds as they were pulled down.
Mr Baker now makes the tables at his farm outside of town and sold them from a shop in Millthorpe. However, he needed more space for the tables which can seat 12 to 14 people.
"It was only 35 square metres where as this is huge but also to get a bigger footprint and become part of a bigger town," he said.
"Millthorpe was more of a tourist town so it's great because you get seen by new eyes but they are all from further away whereas we wanted to localise and be part of the Central West."
"Anyone from Dubbo, Bourke, Cobar, Broken Hill, all drive through Orange to get to Sydney but they weren't sort of diverting out to Millthorpe so much.
"When we are in here we are becoming part of the town and the area and Orange is such a big place now."
However, because Millthorpe is such a tourist area they did have a woman from the Mornington Peninsular buy a table while visiting the area.
"We only had the shop in Millthorpe for one year so for the previous six or seven before that we were online, COVID was good for online purchasing and we just got to the space where we were big enough to get into a space," Mr Baker said.
He said the larger space means he can showcase larger tables and more tables than he could before.
"Before we were a bit more custom and people would come and tell us what they want and we would build to suit but what we want to offer in here is more tables for sale so people can just buy what they see, which suits some buyers."
Mrs Baker said selling pre-made timber also works better for the recycled wood and people can see the finished product.
"Some people really want to touch them and feel them and try and pick them up," Mr Baker added.
"They just need to see them in person, we get great photos but it is an aesthetic product but to see them in person is just so much scale."
Mr Baker said most of the clientele come from the country and having originally been based in Gunnedah he sold a lot of tables to Moree, Narrabri, Narromine and out west.
"We do have farming clientele," he said.
Mr Baker said he was originally a farmer at Gunnedah and got the timber out of the sheds and started building tables learning as he went and is completely self taught.
He said as he started to get clients and they told him what they wanted he'd learn new skills and buy new tools.
"It just went step by step," he said.
He's now approaching 1000 tables.
"We don't try and do anything too fancy, we let the timber speak for itself ... just make good dimensions, good product," he said.
"Maddy does a lot of work making sure the dimensions are right, just getting the right angles on legs and tightening things up, it changes what it is."
To date the most popular tables were glass-topped wool tables from shearing shed.
"Five years ago everyone was chasing wool tables, people are still chasing wool tables," he said.
"People would bring me their old ones and I'd do it up and put photos on Facebook and everyone would be like, I want to buy it and we decided we'd just start making our own.
"They are really popular, we'd send them to Julia Creek, far north Queensland, Tasmania, Adelaide, everywhere."
Just before Christmas Mr Baker did 6500 kilometres in deliveries driving up past Emerald and Banana in Queensland as well as out to western NSW.
He said some of the orders were made six months in advance so they were able to make bulk deliveries in time for people to host their Christmas celebrations.
"You are driving out to these properties and it's really good fun," he said.
Work under way
Work has started for the fit out of Milky Lane in Summer Street.
News broke at the beginning of February that the national burger restaurant would be opening a store at the Orange City Centre.
The restaurant is set to open in the former Lone Star Restaurant at the corner of the centre next to Post Office Lane.
"I think it's such a good opportunity. We don't sit in the space of being just a burger restaurant, we sit in the space of a full service restaurant experience who happens to serve burgers," Milky Lane director Christian Avant told the Central Western Daily in February.
The venue is set to be a make-shift nightclub with a DJ playing on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.
However, the focus will shift to families from Monday to Thursday.