About

A handmade furniture and design studio in Sandringham, Auckland, making timber pieces shaped by fire, restraint and hand-work.

  • Our Story

Beauty doesn't have to be perfect.

Blackfox takes its cues from two Japanese ideas. Wabi-Sabi, which holds that beauty doesn’t have to be perfect: grain, knots, asymmetry and the marks left by fire are not flaws to hide. And Shibui, simplicity without sterility, where restraint is the point and nothing needs to shout.

Neither makes this Japanese furniture. They are a way of working, applied to timber burned and finished by hand in Auckland.

01. Wabi-Sabi

Beauty doesn’t have to be perfect. Grain, knots, asymmetry and the marks left by fire are part of what makes each piece its own.

Fire is a design tool, not a finish. Burning changes the timber itself — raising the grain, deepening contrast and building texture.

Simplicity without sterility. Restrained forms and quiet surfaces, so the timber does the talking and nothing needs to shout.

Sealed to take daily life without killing the texture. Furniture you want to run a hand across, not just look at.

Japanese-inspired charred timber furniture handcrafted in Auckland

How the work is made

Rough-Sawn Timber

Knots and grain chosen, not avoided

Torched by Hand

An LPG flame, never a stain or a paint

Sealed, Not Smothered

Protected for daily life, texture intact

  • The Founder

Meet Our Founder

Behind every piece is a pair of hands and a flame. Marco Vergari founded Blackfox Studio on a simple belief: that furniture should be more than something you look at. It should be something you want to touch.

Italian by background, Auckland-based by choice, Marco works where Italian design sensibility meets Japanese restraint. Considered proportions, natural materials, surfaces that reward a second look. Rough-sawn, knotty timber is chosen on purpose, torched by hand, then brushed back and sealed. Protected enough for daily life, never so much that the texture dies.

The fox in the name stands for what the work is aiming at: calm, quiet, watchful, and elegant without being perfect.

Marco Vergari