A little while back we were taken on an emotional roller coaster ride by a teak bathtub. When we spotted William Garvey’s stunning wooden bathtubs and basins, it was love at first site. However, a day (and an hour of research) later, we felt hugely let down when we realized that the purported “sustainability” of these beautiful teak pieces didn’t quite live up to the description, as the material was coming from the Burmese rainforest. Fortunately, a clever reader spotted a company making similarly beautiful pieces – only using fallen branches and ecologically harvested wood, instead of environmentally suspect Burmese Teak.
Irish company Driftwood hand makes lovely wooden baths, sinks and Japanese ofuro from a wide variety of ecologically sustainable wood. The company recommends and prefers working with native wind-blown wood, as they have a partnership with Lisnavagh Timber Project, an Irish company collecting timber from fallen trees. However, in addition to the windblown option, customers can pick from a broad selection of European and “exotic” certified woods.
Driftwood offers free shipping to (lucky) customers based in Ireland. Happily, they take international orders as well, although overseas customers have to pay for their own shipping.
+ Driftwood Handmade Wooden Baths
Thanks Brendan for the tip!
If anyone else spots similarly sustainable cute wooden baths, please let us know.
Do any inhabitat readers own a wooden sink, bath, or ofuro. The pictures look fantastic, and I’m wondering how long they last, and how they differ in maintenance from a traditional enamled tub.
I’m wondering if anyone has ever been in a rectangular tub before. I don’t imagine them to be very comfortable. Any thoughts?
the curve looks like the bathtub gives a nice comfort fit but yia i see what you mean. its good modern design would fit perfect in my ideal home
Did anyone even bother to notice that while the Garvey tubs are photographed in all their (evil?) beauty, 100% of the images at driftwood are… COMPUTER GENERATED!
I will never buy a tub from someone who’s unwilling to show off their actual production samples. Especially anything dealing with wood!
I’ve just found this site and the comments about wooden tubs…
We’ve been making wooden baths for a number of years and we use cedar and cypress – Japanese baths are often made from Hynoki which is a cypress indiginous to Japan. The best project was one where we started by felling the dying Cedar of Lebanon in the clients grounds, air dried it in one of his outhouses, and then made duck board flooring, bath tub, basin and storage with a toilet in (interesting at parties apparently….) This cedar smells lovely and the smell lingers for years. Unfortunately because we’re very bad at photographing our work, this bathroom isn’t on our website yet, but there are a couple of tubs there.
They are comfortable as the volume of water supports your body weight, but we also make removeable angled backs if the client wants to lie rather than sit. Maintenance has to be a bit more careful than an enamel tub, mostly to stop the timber cracking – we suggest leaving some water in the bottom to keep the joints tight, and wiping out with a dilute bleach solution to deal with mould growth on the timber.