12 Seater Dining Table in Carved Teak with Gold Finish Chairs

No tree gives a board wide enough for a twelve-place dining top, so every long top is several boards joined edge to edge. The question is which boards, and in what order.

The easy way is to take whatever is in the rack and join it. The result is a top where one board is a shade lighter than its neighbour, or where the figure changes abruptly at a join - and once the finish is on, that difference is permanent and it is the only thing anyone sees when they look down the length of the table.

So the boards for a top are selected together and laid out dry on the bench first. They are shuffled, turned end for end, and turned over, until the sequence reads as one continuous surface - colour running gently from one board to the next rather than jumping, and the figure of each board sympathetic to the one beside it. Then they are marked in that exact order before anything is glued.

The joins themselves are then placed. On a dining table, we set them to fall under the place settings rather than down the centre line, because the centre of the table is where the eye rests and where a runner or a centrepiece will not always be. A join under a plate is a join nobody ever notices.

It takes an afternoon before any cutting starts. On a table that will be looked down the length of for decades, it is the afternoon that matters most.

Set: one dining table with twelve chairs including carvers, made together as one commission.

Frames: solid teak throughout, hand-carved by master Indian artisans.

Top: boards selected and sequenced together for colour and figure, with joins placed under the place settings rather than down the centre; decorative centre within a banded border and a moulded gilded edge over a carved frieze.

Base: twin carved pedestals on scrolled feet, joined below, leaving both long sides completely clear of legs.

Side chairs: carved crests over buttoned upholstered backs, upholstered seats.

Carvers: matching backs with open carved arms set to pass beneath the table frieze.

Upholstery: pale damask as photographed; any fabric or leather available.

Finish: hand-laid gold; ivory, silver, walnut and natural teak also available.

Dimensions: custom sizes made to order - final measurements confirmed in writing before production.

Thirteen pieces travel as thirteen crates. Chairs are never nested - with twelve of them, a carved crest resting on an upholstered seat is a risk multiplied twelve times.

The top is the most vulnerable piece in a set this size. It travels face-protected with a rigid board across its full surface, edge-protected along its entire perimeter, with additional corner protection at all four corners and extra support along the length so it cannot flex in transit.

Each upholstered panel is covered in soft non-abrasive sheeting. The carved crests, the carver arms and the pedestal scrolled feet are all padded individually with foam formed to each shape.

Unpack the chairs first so there is floor space, then the base, then the top - which needs several people. Nothing needs dismantling and no fixing has to be undone.

Delivery is free anywhere in India for the whole set, and every piece is guaranteed to arrive dent-free. If anything is wrong when the crates are opened, correcting it is our cost, and we commit to that before you order.

Production begins once the table length, chair and carver count, upholstery and finish are confirmed in writing. Twelve chairs and a table are made together and dispatched together, which is the only way the gilding stays consistent across the set.

Dispatch waits for the hand-laid finish to cure fully. We share the schedule at confirmation, update you as each stage completes, and send tracking as soon as the crates leave us.

Open every crate with the delivery team present and check each piece. A twelve-place top is the hardest item in our catalogue for access, so send us your doorway, lift, stair and turning measurements at the enquiry stage - we would rather plan the length around your route than deliver a table that cannot reach the room.

Every frame in the set carries a 20-year warranty on solid teak frame and joinery - the table, both pedestals and all twelve chairs on identical terms. On a top of this length the glued joins are structural, and they are covered along with everything else.

A lifetime warranty against termite damage runs on every piece, resting on teak's own oils rather than on an applied treatment, and issued in writing with the set.

Both documents are tied to your order and handed over on delivery. If a covered fault appears on one chair, send photographs and we repair or replace that chair alone rather than asking for twelve pieces back.

Upholstery and the hand-laid finish are wearing surfaces and are handled separately. We re-cover and re-gild our own furniture at any age, and your specification stays on file, so a chair added or re-covered years later matches the other eleven exactly.