Winter in Brisbane

“If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere …”

Van Gogh was correct, and Winter is no exception, although there may be no prolific tropical blooms around at the moment, there is much to admire and inspire in the great outdoors .

Bougainvillea in all its colourful glory

The wonderful colours and textures against a blue sky day

Nothing can compare to that home grown sweetness

That early winter sunshine …

With only a few weeks until Spring, its time to savour these wonderful winter days.

Beautiful things for the everyday

One of our goals when we formalated the idea for creating our own gallery was to make beautiful small items for the home, and to have beautiful things in which to entertain.

Simple, classic pieces that are visually appealing and easy to use, things that wont date or age or seem fadish but just beautiful sustainable pieces that you would want to use again and again

Making the everyday an occasion a celebration is what we firmly hold dear, so why not use something beautiful to celebrate a Monday Night Takeaway …

Simply classic entertaining

Easy ambience

Everday Luxury …

Sushi time

Just some of the beautiful home accessories we have, slowly we are uploading items to the online shop, but we invite you to pop down and peruse the wonderful colurful textural Qld Made items we have

A little restoration project ...

We love our restoration projects.

There is so much satisfaction in repairing and restoring a piece of history, someone’s past, someone’s heirloom.

A forgotten household item now becomes the star of the living room.

It becomes a talking point.

It becomes a loved functional piece of furniture again and it goes without saying that in this mass produced era, its kind of cool to have something that is uniquely yours , that one of a kind feeling.

This little Oak Table is now a shining addition to its owners lounge room …

In need of some TL C

A beautiful restored finish

An elegant addition to the home

A beautiful end result for this Oak Occasional Table .

We repaired where necessary, sanded and polished to bring out the richness of the grain

#lovewhatwedo

Grand Opening ...what a day !

The torrential rain and winds did little to dampen the enthusiasm of our team and all the wonderful people who came to our official opening last Saturday .

It was truly a wonderful day, the coffee was hot and inviting as we welcomed the crowds to peruse our gallery, shop for products, chat to Stuart and to see first hand what goes on behind the scenes .

Never too young to think about your career in woodworking

Our Woodworking students who kindly brought in their finished pieces were only too happy to chat and answer questions from interested perspective students

Matt, a woodworking student, putting the finishing touches on a shelf

Meet the maker … Stuart

We were so pleased and proud of the wonderful response to our Opening .

A huge thanks to our wonderful team of Michael, Gil and Will

As well as fabulous woodworking students of Steve and Matt who so kindly gave up their Saturday to showcase their woodworking projects.

And of course last but definitely not least, our wonderful family for their love and constant support

Daniele and Stuart

Gorgeous Accessories

Creating wonderful accessories for the home ,has been a priority for us once we decided to embark on building our gallery …

We wanted to make classic pieces, that would be durable as well as beautiful and functional.

Pieces that would suit any decor and transform the grazing table to a thing of beauty and highlight the great fresh produce that we have in Australia, right across the 4 seasons …

Our serving boards are a thing of beauty, made from Australian timbers, in classic designs , in rich timbers and are just wonderful for any occasion , albeit a cheese platter on a Friday evening, or an afternoon tea with nan.

And of course made right here in our Brisbane Workshop

Elegant take away, our teak sushi platters take it to a whole new level

Spoilt for choice … hazelnut slice or Lemon Meringue ? or both ?

What better way to enhance glorious seasonal fruit

Our Grand Opening ... July 6

Its been a while in the making …

We have been working on the build of our gallery, along with curating beautiful products .

We are so pleased to announce that our gallery is ready and our official opening is this Saturday July 6.

In our gallery you will find beautiful timber furniture

Gorgeous accessories for the home.

Original Bywater Design products you wont see mass produced

Designed and made in our Brisbane Workshop.

An exquisite collection of homewares

Beautiful timber servery products

Our gallery is ready

We invite you to come down , enjoy or coffee or a chai and peruse our wonderful collection of homegrown homewares …

6/32 Zillmere rd

Boondall Brisbane

10 - 3 pm

July 6

Custom making Media Units ...

A wonderful finished product on this custome made TV Cabinet …

Our client required a modest cabinet to accommodate a DVD Player and accessories , and it also had to fit within the room parameters , so as not to overpower the other gorgeous furniture in the room .

Stuart designed this sleek cabinet with ample storage for all components as well as the inclusion of grey speaker mesh to emphasise the quality of sound as well as harmonise with the 2 Pack finish.

We chose Dulux Snow Season a sophisticated white neutral to highlight the gorgeous timber flooring.

The chrystal handles ( a client love) was the final embelishment on this elegant minimal yet functional cabinet.

A fresh new look for the corner of the living room

Classic clean lines with ample storage

The wonderful finished product

The timely process of restoration

Restoration or refurbishment is the process of repairing, fixing , modifying, repainting and repolishing an item of furniture.

It can often be a lengthy process, as repairs especially to antique pieces that are hundreds of years old require skill, patience and craftsmanship to ensure every detail is completed successfully whilst often keeping the delicate infrastructure intact, especially the case with veneers, paper thin and fragile, the successful repair of these can really make or break a treasured heirloom.

The argument for restoration is a strong one, sustainably wise and of great sentimental value, the journey of restoration is often an emotional one.

The adventure of restoration provides us with such a sense of satisfaction . Being involved in our clients’ family history and being able to restore a much loved item of furniture for them is one of the best things about our work. Being privvy to such an evocative journey reinforces our love of why we do the things we do.

There is so much history in each and every piece, a tapesty of lives interwoven and we are honoured to be able to enrich each and every piece of furniture, albeit it a tiny child’s chair, or grandmother’s dressing table, a great great grandfathers chair or a favourite aunty’s dining table .

Restoration is a gift for now and the future

A forgotten dressing table , some would say has seen better days …

An old dressing table is now a gorgeous new bathroom vanity

Late Autumn Days

Brisbane is finally getting some kind of Autumn , the days are definitley shorter with the evenings drawing in sooner and mother nature is once again showing off

Salvaging Silky Oak ...

Exciting times ahead for Bywater Design, as previously mentioned we are busily creating new work for our gallery.

We strive to follow our ethos of using reclaimed and salvaged timber wherever and whenever we can and by using recyled timber we are contributing to saving our plantations as well as using something that may be destined for the scrap heap.

More often than not resalvaged timber has a charm and a wonderful patina all of its own, and with age comes beauty and character, timber is no different.

Currently we are in the process of using some salvaged Silky Oak and making some small items of furniture with it.

Silky Oak (Grevillea Robusta ) is an ideal timber to use for furniture making, its warm pink lustre, and detailed grain make for a wonderful finished product.

Its durability for most types of climate make it wonderful for the Queensland Climate.

A beautiful table just waiting to happen …

Ready for the finishing touches …

We cant wait to reveal the final product

Ethical classic and durable

Watch this space !

Notes from the The May 2019 Surfboard Class

Our May Surfboard class finished last Sunday and what a resounding success it was.

We were lucky to have 4 beautiful Brisbane Autumn Days that provided the perfect amount of sunshine and light for our action packed workshop.

Precison is key

Lovely sets of rails

Jim is pretty impressed with his handywork and so are we !

things are starting to come together

winners are grinners !

just a casual stroll for a photo shoot

its all in the detail …

The graduates !

Once again we feel so privileged to be able to share our passion and knowledge of surfboard making. Each student was so enthusiastic and worked diligently over the 4 days to create board that are just amazing.

Beautiuful new additions to the gallery

We have been working on some wonderful new additions to our Gallery.

Our aim is to create quality, original beautiful timber furnishings made from ethically sourced timber .

Proudly Australian made of course.

It all starts with this…

Rich aromatic Camphor Laurel

simple curves make for a strong statement

Using the natual beauty of the grain, gorgeous camphor laurel platter

It starts off with a slab of timber and becomes something quite beautiful.

Without embelishments , without distractions the camphor laurel platter lets the grain do all the talking

In Bloom ...

Autumn is often described as a second spring, and its easy to see why becaue of the wonderful array of new colours and foliage that are in abundance at this time of year,

Its a different feel, the sunlight is lower, the weather is cooler and the days are somewhat shorter.

Its a perfect time for morning walks and sunset strolls discovering a brand new season.

Cultivating traditonal style

Silky Oak is a wonderful traditonal timber, popular in use for its rich mellow grain and durability for furniture making which is most likely why it was so prevalent for manufacturing in the early 1900’s and beyond.

When refurbishing this large bar area, Silky Oak was a natural choice the goal was to keep the traditional decor and enhancing the heritage features of the area.

With the inclusions of new pelmets, panelling, skirting and door panelling we enhanced the design asthetic providing detail and character to the existing area.

The benefits of blue

It doesnt take much to rejuevenate a room, adding new upholstery injecting some colour , will bring new life into a space, giving it new life and new energy.

By recolouring these quaint chairs, a whole new world of decorating opportunities open up.

We used Dulux Northen Sky in 2 pack for these family heirloom chairs.

the use of 2 pack is a personal choice, but we used it in this intstance to provide sheen and longevity .

A fabulous fun result for these chairs !

A gift made from the heart ...

Our woodworking students always give us great joy when it comes to their dedication and persistence.

Bill , a Monday night student has worked tirelessly over the last few months working on a beautiful coffee table for a wonderful surprise birthday present for his wife.

Made from Melaleuca , which is part of the Myrtle tree family this elegant table uses resin as a centre feature to highlight the wonderful warm patina of the grain .

Finished off with light coats of lacquer, this gift made from the heart is one we are sure will be a treasured heirloom for many years to come.

Congratulations to Bill on such a wonderful achievement.

Silver Ash coffee tables

Using Silver Ash for a base and featuring Laminex in contemporary shades, these coffee tables are the perfect addition to this beautifully appointed Brisbane home.

Using Laminex in Cosmic Grey and Alto these tables provide an avant garde atmospbere to this wonderful lounge room.

Autumn ...The mellow time

Autumn, you have been a long time coming.

You are officially here but your’e not. The days are still hot and the nights humid.

But , we notice subtle changes …

The light has changed direction

Natives begin to blossom

Days end a little sooner

We are treated to spectacular sunsets

Good days are coming, Autumn in Brisbane really shines !

Its all about the subtle nuances , the slight drop in temperature , shadows cast early in the day.

An ever so slight crispness in the air

The changes are understated , but so very welcome

The finer things ...

Our gallery is taking shape…

With lots of special pieces, where the emphasis is on innovative design and excellence in craftmanship.

Silver Ash Bow and Arrow Shelf

Beautiful Restoration of a Chiffonier

We take so much joy in the process of restoration.

To turn something broken, old, and in dire need of some TLC into something beautiful and serviceable once again is a joy and a privilege for us.

Fresh out of the workshop last week was this gorgeous old chiffonier ; in need of a makeover.

We removed the old finish, repaired the veneers and the drawers and other areas that needed some adjustments.

We then sanded and polished and colour matched to blend in with the clients existing decor.

Beautiful once again , restored chiffonier.

Restored to its former glory, the restoration process has given new life into this wonderful piece.