nataliecheo

Hey Liz, Teak wood is highly sought after because it's the most durable of all natural woods. It's very popular in Southeast Asia mainly because of our tropics. The composition of teak is very adaptable to our climate and it is resistant to rotting be it in hot or cold weather. To answer your question, the general rule of thumb is that if the teak furniture you see are cheap, very likely that are using engineered wood which comprised of compressed wood compost and a teak veneer as the surface. Usually you can tell if it is an engineered version just by the weight. Teak should be solidly hard and heavy. Of course, that's not to say that cheap teak furniture is using engineered wood. It may be that the seller has access to really good wood suppliers. On top of that, their operational costs is not as high as others. Usually you can find this in online stores without a shopfront. The operational costs to run a shopfront (staff payroll, rent, utilities etc.) all gets passed down to consumers in the form of a mark-up so the online store is your best bet. Be sure however to request a viewing of the inventory or if they don't have an inventory (that's how they keep their costs low), at least ask for a wood sample. If end product delivered is not like the wood sample, make sure they have a solid refund policy. Hope this helps

Hello Rek! I'm a furniture maker with Castlery.com. Do you have a reference picture? Perhaps I can help.

Try here: http://www.castlery.com/shop/lighting/

Heya! What do you need help with? I'm actually into furniture making and framing is part and parcel of my job. Some frames I've done is larger than what you specified. See here: http://www.castlery.com/shop/arts/

This is Natalie from Castlery! Thanks for the share! We have some customer reviews coming up and there's gonna be a showroom viewing sometime end of the year. You interested? I can lock you in for a private viewing! PS: We launched on 21 Oct 2013. So far so good!