The Craft
The slow work behind every quiet piece.
We believe how a piece is made matters as much as how it looks. This is what goes into an Almary — the timber, the hands, and the small choices that make furniture worth keeping.
Our commitment
Almary is a Malaysian family workshop, not a factory. We build furniture the way it used to be built — from solid wood, by hand, with a quiet pride you can feel in the weight of a drawer and the fit of a door.
For over thirty years, our craftsmen have specialised in solid-timber cabinetry — first as makers for other brands, and today under our own name. Every piece we sign is one we would keep for our own homes.
The Materials
Honest wood, chosen one board at a time.
We work only with solid timber — never veneer over MDF, never particleboard cores. It costs more, weighs more, and lasts longer. It is the reason our pieces feel the way they do.
Solid Oak
Warm, honey-toned, and famously stable. Our workhorse timber for tables, sideboards and cabinets that see daily life.
American Walnut
Deep chocolate tones with a soft, satin finish. Reserved for signature pieces where quiet richness matters most.
Tropical Hardwoods
Locally sourced species chosen for density and grain. A nod to where we are, and to the way Malaysian homes were furnished for generations.
Hard-Wax Oil
A natural, food-safe finish that protects without plastic-like film. Ages gracefully and can be spot-repaired at home.
The Process
Six unhurried steps from board to home.
Nothing here is fast, and that is the point. Each piece moves through the atelier at the pace of the wood — not the pace of the calendar.
- 01
Selecting the Timber
Every board is chosen by hand. We look for straight grain, honest colour, and pieces with quiet character — never the loudest figuring, and never the cheapest cut. Only responsibly sourced solid oak, American walnut and select tropical hardwoods make it into our workshop.
- 02
Drying & Acclimatising
Timber is kiln-dried and then rested in our Sungai Buloh workshop for weeks, so it settles into Malaysian humidity long before it becomes a cabinet or a table. This is the unglamorous step that keeps a piece flat, tight, and quiet for decades.
- 03
Joinery by Hand
Mortise-and-tenon, dovetails, tongue-and-groove — the joints that hold a piece together for a lifetime are still cut, fitted and glued by our master carpenters. No stapled carcasses, no hidden particleboard. Just wood into wood, the way it should be.
- 04
Sanding & Finishing
Surfaces are hand-sanded through five grits until the wood feels like warm silk. We finish with hard-wax oil that soaks into the grain rather than sitting on top of it — protecting the timber while letting you feel it, and allowing the piece to be refreshed at home years later.
- 05
Hardware & Details
Soft-close European runners, solid brass pulls, adjustable shelves and levelling feet — the quiet mechanics that make a piece a pleasure to live with. Everything we specify is designed to be serviced, not thrown away.
- 06
Final Inspection
Before a piece leaves the atelier, it is opened, closed, loaded and levelled. Only when it earns our mark does it get wrapped, boxed, and delivered to your home — usually by the same team that built it.
Malaysian, through and through
A workshop rooted in Sungai Buloh, run by the family that built it.
Almary is a Malaysian-owned atelier, run day-to-day by the same people who cut the joinery and pack the crates. The craftsmen you meet in the workshop are the ones building your piece — many of whom have been with us for over two decades.
When you commission an Almary piece, you are supporting a small Malaysian workshop and the trade that raised it.
Read our storyOur promise
Built to be lived with — and looked after.
Every Almary piece is covered by a lifetime structural guarantee on our joinery. If a joint ever fails from ordinary use, we repair it — at our workshop, at our cost.
Because we finish in natural hard-wax oil, small marks from daily life can be lifted at home with a soft cloth and a touch of oil. Larger refinishing, refitting or reconfiguring is a service we are happy to provide for as long as you own the piece.
We would rather see a twenty-year-old Almary in a home than a new one on a showroom floor.
Visit the atelier
The best way to understand our work is to feel it.
Come by our Sungai Buloh workshop to run your hand across a hand-oiled top, open a soft-close drawer, and see a piece being made. Visits are by appointment.
