The beauty of recycled railway sleepers is that no two are alike and therefore the rustic furniture that is made from them is always distinctive.

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Solid and rustic garden furniture and garden seats that stand out from the crowd and look wonderful in parks or your back yard. This is rustic custom made furniture with a difference. TK Tables are the rustic furniture Melbourne manufacturers for all of Australia.

Despite their rustic look, railway sleepers create attractive outdoor furniture. This type of solid outdoor furniture adds to the character of a garden, is functional and relatively maintenance free. Railway sleepers can be easily transformed into rustic outdoor furniture that is elegant and prominent. Take the following examples :

Rustic sleepers turned into a large picnic table

Benches made from rustic sleepers

A very functional and unique rustic outdoor furniture seat

Solid simple tables made from recycled railway sleepers

Rustic furniture even look great indoors

Understanding the choices in Railway Sleepers

Aged recycled railway sleepers are approx 225 x 120mm and come 2.4-2.7m in length. They are all slightly different depending on their age and how weathered they have been though their life. We remove all loose splinters and sand these back a bit but ensure they still provide a very rustic look and above all a very solid look to furniture made from them. When fastened together properly they are hard to damage or mark.

Often used in landscaping and retaining walls rustic railway sleepers come in a variety of grades. We use 'A' Grade sleepers for our furniture but sometimes even select 'AA'. These are normally sanded to remove splinters and provide a safe surface. Unfortunately they cannot be dressed because of the risk of foreign imbedded objects which would shatter and damage the machinery.

If you really want a dressed finish then you have to go for new sleepers straight from the mills, these still have plenty of variation. These dressed red gum sleepers can be oiled to give them a beautiful lasting deep red colour and the iron bark ones have lovely grey or reddish tones. As for other colours, you could use treated pine and stain it to the desired finish.
Unlike standard furniture timbers, all sleepers still retain some of their original rustic look due minor surface cracks and vein holes. Remember that this is rustic timber and not furniture grade timber.

For rustic outdoor furniture the choice of dressed or natural finished outdoor furniture really depends on the location of the item and the desired look you are trying to achieve.

For rustic tables and rustic furniture made from new sleepers, there are obviously no railway spike holes, rock depressions or chips. They will still have the knots and veins that are part of that timbers character.

DIY or thinking about having a go ?
Making furniture from large cross section sleepers is not as simple as an IKEA assembly - A simple bench or seat might pass but the rest - no not really !! This is heavy timber and solid furniture where some units will require 2 people to lift each member into place. Sleepers can weigh over 80Kg each depending on moisture content, they have larger cross sections and are hard to cut, drill and even move.

Whilst most of the TK Tables furniture is free standing and can be moved with effort, some units are anchored into the ground to a depth of 600mm to retain stability, other larger units are assembled on site.

Recycled sleepers will have some degree of variation in thickness and are not necessarily 100% straight, therefore each piece of furniture is custom made to ensure the best possible fit and alignment of rebates and joins. There will be gaps, cracks and splits and minor uneven surfaces, but this all adds to the character of the rustic tables. Rustic furniture made from sleepers like garden furniture or even a garden seat is attractive and relatively maintenance free and best of all it lasts for life.

For the best range of rustic furniture Melbourne has to off, give us a call to see what we can make for you.

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