Jepara — the Teak Furniture Capital You've Never Heard Of

If furniture had its own Bordeaux — a region whose very name is a guarantee — it would be called Jepara. This small port town on the northern coast of Java has lived for centuries off one thing: teak, and what human hands can make of it.

We're not writing about it from a guidebook. In August we're going there in person — to choose the workshops Sari Bali will work with for years to come. This piece is a preview of that journey and a short history of the place our furniture will come from.

A town where every other house is a workshop

It's estimated that thousands of furniture workshops operate in and around Jepara — from two-person family businesses to large manufactories. The craft has passed from father to son for generations, and the local woodcarving tradition (ukir Jepara) reaches back to the sixteenth century and the reign of Queen Ratu Kalinyamat, under whom the town became Java's main port. A curious detail: in keeping with Islamic tradition, Jepara's carvers work only in flowers, leaves and vines — never figures — which sets their intricate scrollwork apart from Bali's figurative carving.

The result? There is no anonymous furniture in Jepara. Every table has its workshop; every workshop has a name. This is exactly the model we believe in: every piece has a face.

Why here? Three reasons

1. The wood

Java is home to the most prized teak in the world — including timber from plantations managed since colonial times by the state forestry service. Mature Javanese teak has dense grain and a high content of natural oils, which we wrote about in our teak furniture guide.

2. The hands

In Jepara, traditional joinery is still the standard — tenons, dovetails, pegs — instead of screws and fittings. Furniture like this can be taken apart years later, repaired, rebuilt. It's craftsmanship in its purest form, just as verifiable as genuine Balinese handicraft.

3. Honest supply chains

Indonesia was the first country in the world to implement a timber legality licensing system recognised by the EU (SVLK/FLEGT). When you buy documented teak from Jepara, you know it doesn't come from predatory logging — and as the importer, we take on the obligations of the EU's EUDR regulation.

From log to table — how it really works

The process we'll see (and show you) on site in August:

1. 1.Selecting the wood at the yard — seasoned boards, assessing grain and moisture.
2. 2.Marking out and cutting — the design transferred to the board, cut with margin to spare.
3. 3.Joinery — fitted by hand, dry, before any glue appears.
4. 4.Carving — if the design calls for it; in Jepara this is a trade of its own.
5. 5.Sanding and oiling — several rounds, until the texture "wakes up".
6. 6.Seasoning the finished piece — before it enters a container for the 6–8 week voyage to Europe.

What this means for you

Sari Bali will bring its first furniture collection from Jepara: tables, benches, side tables and small solid-teak pieces — each with a note on the workshop it came from. No middlemen, no anonymity, with full documentation of the timber's origin.