founder story
I started designing and sourcing live edge furniture from the craft villages surrounding Hanoi in 1998. Despite the fact that I was predominantly selling antiques, I just couldn’t shake the need to turn a beautiful slab of timber into a simple but sophisticated table using just the right weight of wood. Not too light and not too heavy.
In 2004, I moved down to Ho Chi Minh City to open a small workshop with my brother-in-law. A few years later I teamed up with Ed Stoddart, a fellow Brit, to found Square Roots.
We started gaining traction in our designs from around 2010, with the Singapore furniture fair being a springboard into Korea, the US, UK, Japan, China, South East Asia and Australasia.
During this time, while the trend swung from industrial to live edge and then to scandi, we remained consistent, just doing our own thing of making considered live edge pieces on a medium but growing scale.
A post covid foray into the world of mass production and standardisation wasn’t for me. Boka is a return to my roots of designing, sourcing and crafting on a boutique scale.
- Justin Wheatcroft
Purity over perfection
Crafted by hand
Our passion at boka is oak. How to honour the tree, how to offer our customers the unexpected. We value purity of perfection, soul over standardisation.
Our goal is to bridge the gap between the artisan, who gets the pulse racing with a one-off and the industrialist who delivers efficiency and repeatability.
We design timeless beds, tables and chairs and craft them to last a lifetime.
We draw upon age old joinery techniques, artisanal craftsmanship and mid century design to create stunning furniture that reflects the beauty of the precious materials that we use.
Trees are a cherished ancient resource. When it comes to making furniture, we want to embrace their natural wonder, not bend it to our will.
Materials and our craft guide our design. We don’t embellish. We seek purity, longevity and balance.
Like a good chef, we are fastidious when sourcing our ingredients.
Quality and sustainability are paramount. From our PEFC certified sustainable oak to our natural linens and recycled cast iron, our choices are driven by delivering you long-lasting furniture in a responsible way.
In a world of furniture, oak is prized for it’s strength and beautiful patterns. In a world of winemaking, it is embraced for its tannin content which imparts flavour to the wine when stored in its barrels. It is this tannin that has allowed us to develop artisanal finishes. We make an alkaline to react with these tannins, creating natural and rich colours. There are no stains and dyes used in this process. The results are fresh hues that celebrate the grain.
Just like you, every piece is unique.
The natural world with its infinite variations and imperfections is a thing of beauty.
We strive to retain the true nature of every piece of furniture that we create. Bringing the wonder of the natural world into your home.
furniture with soul
