"Creating furniture, for Tony Parker of Tree Essence, isn't just cabinetmaking, it's an artform. From the initial interior design stage, he works towards producing concepts for clients. He then constructs the product using traditional methods and finishes it with techniques that lend authentic character. With confidence and ability beyond his years, Tony went straight into his own business after completing a cabinetmaking apprenticeship. Now just 31-years-old, he has been creating beautiful furniture, from an unusually wide array of timbers, for almost 10 years.

The business started in Devonport. But there was so much work involved with one of his original customers, Sally Holland who established Glenora Estate, boutique accommodation on Waiheke Island, that he moved his whole factory over there. The one client spearheaded huge demand for his work and consequently, he never returned to the mainland.

"There is oodles of work of there," says Tony. "It's a good little market for me because everyone is close and they talk. It's the sort of clientele that I target. Many of the homes are quite Mediterranean." Like Sally, who built a French farmhouse, many want one-off designs with a fine hand-crafted finish.

Clients discuss the kind of look they are after for their home and the type of furniture that might suit that look. After picking up a feel for his client's needs, Tony will produce with a concept plan and take it from there. Lately he has built a lot of furniture with an aged look, but he says he also enjoys creating contemporary furniture.

"For me it's about creating an authentic look, whatever it happens to be, starting with traditional construction methods, using mortise and tenon door construction and dovetailing as opposed to nailing pieces of wood together and a "'she'll be right' approach." It's time-consuming which makes it more expensive, but Tony prefers to create high quality pieces that last forever.

For her new home on Takapuna beach, Dale Garratt of 'Decor to die for' wanted an aged, rustic, antique look. To suit the style of the Spanish Mission architecture she envisaged drawing together pieces of individual furniture, rather than a streamlined manufactured look.

Tony created many different items using a variety of timbers as well as zinc which lends a soft grey patina quite at home with the wooded finishes. Zinc is pitted with a hand-punch to form striking patterns inset in oak pantry doors and in other kitchen cabinets. Rugged pine was recycled from the Matiatia Wharf on Waiheke for external doors. Unafraid of mixing his timbers, he added a large kauri dresser and kauri plate racks in the scullery.

Although they look as if they have been around for years, their imperfect blemished exteriors conceal functional, modern appliances such as the dishwasher and fridge/freezer and high quality runners inside drawers.

Bathrooms are endowed with hand-crafted vanities, based on traditional designs though more user-friendly with good storage capacity. One features an oiled Lawson Cypress top softly curved and coloured blue. Another borrows from a traditional wash-stand design with a smooth zinc top inset with a little porcelain bowl. The traditional wash-stand design is repeated in another bathroom with a richly coloured Oregon top and pale streaked timber cabinetry.

To achieve the surface effects, Tony studied antiques. He developed a feel for the way they look and how and where surfaces age in order to replicate that look. He admits it has been 'trial and error'. Also helpful was a course with paint finish specialist Sylvia Sandford. "She was so enthusiastic and inspiring," he says."

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