Designed to come out year after year.
Last Christmas, a client came to us with a simple request.
They could no longer see the value in bringing out a plastic Christmas tree each year.
They wanted something beautiful. Something handcrafted. Something their family could bring out every Christmas for years to come.
And they asked if we could make it from reclaimed Australian hardwood.
So we designed one.
We thought about everything.
Making something that looked like a Christmas tree wasn't particularly difficult. Designing one that actually worked was much more interesting.
It needed to be light enough for one person to carry, but substantial enough to stand securely. Simple to assemble. Easy to pull apart and store for eleven months of the year. Safe around children. Adaptable to the Christmas decorations people already owned. Beautiful enough to sit proudly in the home. And strong enough to do it all again next Christmas. And the Christmas after that.
But we also wanted it to be fun.
Christmas isn't supposed to be too serious. So we designed each of the timber branches to rotate independently around the centre of the tree. And that's when the design became much more interesting.
Line them up and it feels familiar. Give them a turn and the tree begins to spiral. Keep going and it becomes something completely different.
There isn't a correct way to arrange it.
That's deliberate.
We wanted children to play with it. Adults too. Change it throughout December. Let someone else rearrange it. Start again next year. It's a Christmas tree you can actually interact with.
Made from what remains.
There was another part of the idea that felt very The Wattle Road.
Every year, making furniture leaves us with offcuts. Beautiful pieces of Ironbark, Spotted Gum, Blackbutt, Brushbox and other Australian hardwoods we've recovered from homes, factories and other places.
Too small for another dining table.
Far too remarkable to throw away.
So we keep them.
Over the years they've become Christmas chopping boards, platters and even the timber HO HO HO sign that comes out with the Christmas lights in our own front yard. Now some of them become Christmas Trees.
It means every tree carries a mixture of timber, colour, grain, character and stories from the furniture we've made throughout the year.
No two will be exactly the same.
Bring your decorations.
We deliberately didn't design a new set of decorations to go with it. Because chances are, you already have them. The beautiful ones. The ones collected while travelling. The handmade ones. The ones the kids made years ago that somehow still make it onto the tree. Christmas decorations accumulate stories.
We wanted our tree to make room for them, not replace them.
The open timber branches allow decorations to hang naturally, and because you control the position of each branch, the tree can adapt to what you put on it.
Lights?
We've been thinking about those too. We haven't integrated them into the design yet. We have some ideas, but we'd rather solve that properly than add something simply because we can.
Your existing Christmas lights work beautifully in the meantime.
Designed for January too.
Perhaps one of the least glamorous design questions was also one of the most important.
What happens when Christmas is over?
A Christmas tree spends far more of its life packed away than it does standing in the living room. So ours had to come apart. The components separate simply, allowing the tree to be packed away compactly until next Christmas. No enormous cardboard box. No wrestling a plastic tree back into packaging it hasn't fitted into since the day you bought it. Just a beautifully simple object, designed for the reality of owning it.
The Workshop
Each tree is made individually in our Port Macquarie workshop.
The reclaimed hardwood is selected, prepared and machined before each of the branches are shaped and finished by hand.
The final assembly is checked for movement, balance and stability before the tree leaves us. To see a sample tree and to view the testing process, watch the video below.
Three Sizes
This year we've developed the TWR Christmas Tree in three sizes.
SMALL
Height: 600mm
Perfect for smaller spaces, tiny homes, apartments, offices, entryways or as a second tree.
MEDIUM
Height: 1,400mm
A beautiful everyday family tree without overwhelming the room.
LARGE
Height: 1,800mm
Our statement tree - designed to take the place of a traditional full-sized Christmas tree.
Because we work with reclaimed Australian hardwood, timber species, grain, colour and markings will vary from tree to tree. That's part of what makes each one yours.
Made for this Christmas. And the ones after it.
Last year, we designed one tree for one family.
When we shared it, a lot of people asked whether we'd make another. So this year, we are.
If you can see one becoming part of your family's Christmas, we'd love to make one for you.
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