Furniture Material Care Guide

This decorative technique (developed in Jaipur, India) makes cascading florals, intricate vines, and optical geometrics pop. Our intensive process begins with freehand drawings carefully sketched onto wood. Contrasting pieces of bone, stone, or mother-of-pearl are then laid onto the wood’s surface and secured with resin. Although each piece of naturally sourced material is inspected to ensure quality and color, none is exactly alike, so every console, table, or nightstand you bring home is truly one of a kind.

Our hand-carved pieces are the work of highly skilled artisans whose techniques have been passed down through generations. Using hand tools to chisel the wood, an artist begins at the base and works outward to create a three-dimensional motif of depth and exceptional detail. This furniture honours antique patterns from intricately cut flora and fauna to jali, the traditional latticework of Northern India.

Made with a millworking technique used for over 200 years, our veneer-crafted furniture offers unparalleled beauty and stability. Sourced from high-quality logs such as oak and sycamore, veneer refers to paper-thin slices made from "peeling" tree trunks or cutting blocks of wood. These slices are then applied with glue and pressed onto a solid base. With its natural grain patterns, veneer offers an elevated look – and is also considered more sustainable than solid wood.

Dating back to 16th-century East Asia, the earliest lacquers came from the sap of the native urushi tree and were applied to domestic objects such as bowls and vases. Today, the term lacquer describes a variety of glossy finishes on furniture. Not only does lacquer protect a surface – it penetrates wood to resist external damage – but it's also a striking design element. With varying levels of sheen, furniture covered in high-gloss lacquer offers a smooth finish ideal for a contemporary interior.

Marble is the epitome of luxury. Furniture crafted from this natural stone is heirloom-quality and designed to be timeless. With unexpected colour and vein variations, it's unlikely that any two slabs of marble look the same. Individual striations are marks of style and distinction. At Anthropologie, each marble-topped piece of furniture comes from stone slabs such as blue-grey-hued Carrara marble or polished white marble.