Nobody publishes what solid timber furniture actually costs in Australia. Retailers publish the piece in front of you; comparison sites publish a range wide enough to be useless. So here is our own catalogue, opened up: 346 products currently for sale, broken down by category, with the real entry price, the real top price, and the median — which is the number that tells you what a category costs, because a range of "$175 to $1,919" tells you almost nothing about where the pieces actually sit.
Every figure on this page is read from live product data on 7 October 2026 and includes GST. We are one retailer, not the market, so treat this as one well-documented sample rather than a national average — but it is a sample of real transactable prices rather than estimates, which is more than most price guides offer.
Short answer
- A solid timber dining table in Australia typically runs around $1,000; sideboards and TV units around $1,100.
- Bedside tables are the cheapest real casegood at a median of $345. Dining chairs start around $107 each.
- Bed frames are the most expensive median in the house at $1,365, because the piece is simply larger than anything else you buy.
- The cheapest honest entry into solid timber is a coat rack ($131) or a bedside table ($175).
- Oak costs more than rubberwood or pine for the same form, and walnut more than oak. The timber, not the size, is usually what moves the price.
Prices by category, measured
"Entry price" is the cheapest variant of the cheapest piece in the category; "top price" is the dearest variant of the dearest. The median is the midpoint of the entry prices across the category, which is the best single number for what a category costs.
| Category | Pieces | Entry price | Top price | Median | Most common timber |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bed frames | 21 | $770 | $2,795 | $1,365 | Pine |
| Sofas | 20 | $260 | $2,810 | $1,365 | Oak |
| TV units | 28 | $430 | $8,460 | $1,110 | Oak |
| Sideboards & buffets | 27 | $574 | $3,694 | $1,067 | Oak |
| Dining tables | 30 | $345 | $2,980 | $1,025 | Oak |
| Chests of drawers | 32 | $110 | $2,215 | $998 | Walnut |
| Dressers | 27 | $260 | $2,810 | $855 | Oak |
| Bookcases | 5 | $430 | $4,881 | $845 | Oak |
| Shoe cabinets | 42 | $175 | $1,919 | $804 | Oak |
| Dining sets | 10 | $405 | $2,380 | $770 | Rubberwood |
| Floor mirrors | 2 | $430 | $1,025 | $728 | Cherry, rubberwood |
| Coffee tables | 36 | $201 | $1,280 | $587 | Oak |
| Cabinets | 6 | $328 | $1,110 | $558 | Oak |
| Dining benches | 5 | $215 | $940 | $345 | Oak |
| Bedside tables | 25 | $175 | $855 | $345 | Oak |
| Dining chairs | 22 | $107 | $515 | $200 | Oak |
| Coat racks | 4 | $131 | $243 | $145 | Rubberwood |
| Console tables | 1 | $940 | $2,044 | — | Oak |
| Study desks | 1 | $281 | $841 | — | Rubberwood |
Two things in that table are worth explaining rather than glossing over. The TV unit top price of $8,460 and the bookcase top price of $4,881 are modular wall systems sold as a single configurable product, not one cabinet — which is why those two categories have a range far wider than their median suggests. And chests of drawers start at $110 because the category includes narrow three-drawer units as well as full nine-drawer tallboys.
Why the median matters more than the range
Shoe cabinets are the clearest example. The range is $175 to $1,919 — an eleven-fold spread that could describe almost any market. The median entry price is $804, which tells you something real: this is a category where most of the stock is a substantial piece of hallway furniture, not a rack. The cheap end is two or three small units; the expensive end is a 285cm-wide wall of storage. Half the range sits within a couple of hundred dollars of $800.
The same correction applies in the other direction to dining chairs. A $515 chair exists, but the median is $200, and that is what a solid timber dining chair costs in this market.
What timber does to the price
Across 346 pieces, the species that turn up are not evenly distributed, and the distribution explains most of the price spread within a category.
| Species | Pieces | Relative cost | What it is used for here |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oak (mostly FAS-graded American white) | 165 | Benchmark | The default across every category |
| Rubberwood | 48 | Below oak | Entry-price dining, coat racks, small storage |
| Pine | 46 | Below oak | Bed frames and sofa frames, where it is structural rather than visible |
| Walnut | 43 | Above oak | Chests of drawers, bedsides, coffee tables |
| Ash | 36 | Near oak | TV units, dining, coat racks |
| Cherry | 22 | Near oak | Chests of drawers, coffee tables |
| Beech | 18 | Below oak | Bed frames, bedsides |
| Liriodendron, merpauh, poplar, mango, acacia, maple, catalpa | 1–5 each | Varies | Painted pieces, secondary structure, one-off designs |
The counts add to more than 346 because a single piece can combine two species — an oak carcass with ash drawer fronts, say.
The practical reading: if two pieces in the same category are 40% apart in price and the same size, check the species before concluding one is overpriced. Walnut at a given size will always cost more than oak, and oak more than rubberwood, because the raw board costs more. That is a material cost difference, not a margin difference.
What you are paying for above $1,000
Within solid timber, the things that move a price past four figures are, in rough order of impact:
- Sheer volume of timber. A 180cm dining table contains several times the board feet of a bedside table. This is why bed frames have the highest median in the house despite being structurally simple.
- Species. Walnut and cherry board costs multiples of rubberwood.
- Grade. FAS requires boards largely clear of defects on both faces. A lower grade with knots and sapwood costs considerably less and is entirely sound structurally — it just looks different.
- Joinery. Dovetailed drawers, mortice-and-tenon frames and solid timber drawer bottoms all cost labour. Stapled boxes with ply bottoms do not.
- Hardware. Soft-close runners and concealed hinges add real cost per drawer and per door, which is why a six-drawer piece carries that cost six times.
Solid timber and what else is in the piece
Of the 346 pieces currently for sale, 284 are solid timber throughout — no veneer, no MDF, no particleboard anywhere. The other 59 combine solid timber with a material that cannot be made of wood: a glass table top, an iron frame, rattan door panels, upholstery on a sofa or dining chair. Every product page states its own material in a dedicated field, and that field is published in the page's structured data as well, so you do not have to infer it from the photographs.
It is worth saying plainly, because the industry is vague about it: a piece described as "solid oak" in Australian retail frequently means an oak-veneered MDF carcass with solid oak legs. The test is whether the listing names the material of the carcass specifically, and whether the end grain in the photographs runs through the edge of a panel rather than stopping at a glued-on strip. Our guide to solid timber versus veneer and MDF goes through how to tell the difference in a showroom.
The rest of the cost: delivery
Furniture freight is a real part of the price and is quoted inconsistently across the market. Ours: free over $600 to metropolitan Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, a flat $50 under that in those areas, and a live postcode quote everywhere else. Dispatch is within two business days; metro goes on our own trucks, and the rest of the country is tracked furniture freight at 5–10 business days. Collection is free from the warehouses in all three cities, whatever the order is worth.
For a single $345 bedside table in Sydney, that $50 is 14% on top of the price. For a $1,400 bed frame it is nothing. This is the real reason furnishing a room in one order rather than four is cheaper, and it is worth arithmetic before you check out.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a solid wood dining table cost in Australia? Around $1,000 is typical. Across the 30 solid timber dining tables we currently sell, the range is $345 to $2,980 with a median entry price of $1,025.
How much should I pay for a solid timber bedside table? $345 is the median across 25 pieces; the range is $175 to $855. Below about $150 you are generally buying veneered MDF rather than solid timber.
Why is walnut furniture more expensive than oak? The raw board costs more. American black walnut is slower growing and less abundant than white oak, and the price difference carries straight through to the finished piece at the same size and construction.
Is solid timber furniture worth the extra cost over MDF? On a piece you will keep for a decade or more, yes — solid timber can be sanded and refinished, repaired at a joint, and holds a screw that has been removed and replaced. MDF cannot do any of those. On a short-term rental fit-out, the arithmetic is different.
What is the cheapest solid timber furniture you can buy? In our range, a coat rack at $131 and a bedside table at $175. Dining chairs start at $107 each.
What does FAS-graded mean? FAS, "First and Seconds", is the top grade in the American hardwood grading system. It requires boards to yield a high proportion of clear, defect-free face, measured on both sides. It costs more than lower grades and is purely about appearance — a lower grade is structurally sound.
How much is furniture delivery in Australia? It varies widely by retailer. Ours is free over $600 to metro Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, a flat $50 under that, and quoted by postcode elsewhere; collection is free from all three warehouses.