Who We are
Custom Dining Tables is a website dedicated to dining tables made by Lloyd Brooke Furniture, located in Kerikeri, Northland, New Zealand. Lloyd specializes in creating a range of bespoke furniture: dining tables, storage units, shelves, desks and coffee tables. All items are made by hand from premium quality sustainable timbers. With no feature or process outsourced, he oversees every stage of the design, fabrication, and finishing.
my story
Lloyd has always found beauty and connection with the world through working with his hands. Inspired by the creations and tinkering that his father and Poppa displayed in their workshops, he learned the value of patience, purpose.
Early adulthood brought a shift in focus, as Lloyd explored the intricacies and magic of songwriting.
This creative pursuit, along with a desire for a fresh start, led him and his young family to relocate from Auckland to Melbourne.
Inspired by the Australian landscape and the beauty of native hardwoods, Lloyd found himself drawn back to exploring sculpture through woodworking. This newfound passion sparked the conversion of a vacant shed into a hand tool workshop. Here, surrounded by the tactile experience of working with wood, Lloyd saw the potential to craft heirloom-quality furniture, a stark contrast to the mass-produced, disposable pieces filling their home.
Lloyd’s passion for bespoke dining tables and other furniture grew as friends and family gathered in his workshop to design, chat, and create unique pieces. Inspired by Vanessa, his wife and business advisor (!), Lloyd took the leap and embarked on a career crafting heirloom furniture. Today, Lloyd Brooke Furniture, firmly back on New Zealand soil, specializes in sustainable, handmade furniture using premium timbers.
HAND TOOLS ARE PART OF OUR SUSTAINABLE FUTURE…
Unlike factory methods that rely exclusively on machinery, I use hand tools extensively in every piece piece I make. This approach deepens my connection to the wood while minimizing my environmental footprint and allowing me to operate from a smaller workshop.
While I use machines for initial cutting and squaring of lumber, the true joy comes from sharpening a blade and creating shavings by hand.
Each surface is meticulously hand-planed or scraped, then finished with my own oil blend. This hands-on process yields results that surpass the uniformity and potentially artificial feel of machine-made, lacquer-finished furniture.
