Chantik Offers Teak Treasures From Indonesia

Florida, USA - Stuart Gitlin is so entranced with the Indonesian merchandise he sells at his Miami store, Chantik Imports, that sometimes he moves things off the sales floor.

His attachment stems from knowing that some of the furniture, sculptures and accessories he stocks are one-of-a-kind pieces made by natives out of trees and materials from the houses in Java, Bali and other Indonesian islands.

Take, for example, a gnarled, open-shelved table Gitlin calls a ‘‘streetcar cabinet.‘‘ It was made from a tree trunk in Bali, and it costs $650. Owners of a restaurant want to use it as their hostess station. Gitlin keeps it next to him behind a counter where he can admire it until it‘s picked up.

‘‘I don‘t like mass produced,‘‘ Gitlin says. ‘‘I sell the kind of stuff you won‘t see at any of the chains.‘‘

Gitlin likes things made from old -- not new -- teak, and he looks for things no one else sells. In Chantik, rarely are two of the same product alike.

One of his elaborate imports is so large it fills almost the entire front space of the store. Nine feet wide and 16 feet tall, it was once the front entry to a house in a Javanese village. It can be separated into panels, with each panel costing $2,000. Gitlin envisions a developer incorporating it into one of the homes he builds.

Other curiosities are a teak cabinet with edging and legs made from plow handles ($562) and a 4-by-8-foot flat teak day bed, $1,500.

Prices range from $5 for a wood hand paddle and $12 for a box of Indonesian soap to $5,000 for hand-carved merchandise. A colorful carved processional of seven Indonesian natives is $157; a brightly painted carved chest on wheels is $975; a hand-carved, rolled arm sofa, $750; a carved Buddha sculpture, $350; coffee tables with intricately carved drawers are $475 to $500; and stick lamps, $89.

‘‘I even have chairs made out of the roots of teak trees,‘‘ says Gitlin, who started out as a recording engineer for Warner Bros. studios in Burbank, Calif., never dreaming he‘d be running a store selling imported Indonesian furniture in Miami.

But the career change came about several years ago when his brother-in-law became interested in Bali and its native crafts. He opened an Indonesian furniture store in Hollywood, Fla., but after a while decided he would rather live in Bali. Gitlin, who had helped out in the store on visits to Florida, gave up his recording engineer job in California to take over the business. He moved the shop to the corner of Biscayne and 67th four months ago.

Why is the store named Chantik?

‘‘Because,‘‘ Gitlin says,‘‘ that‘s the Indonesian word for pretty.‘‘ Bella Kelly

Source: http://www.miamiherald.com (12 April 2009)
Photo: http://www.thefurniture.com

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