From a Kunming workshop to your tea room
Sandry Law first came across this kettle stand on a supplier visit to a small joinery in the hills west of Kunming — a three-person workshop run by a family of carpenters who had once made altar tables for village temples. As home tea-practice boomed, they turned their hands to tea furniture, applying the same joinery methods to pieces scaled for modern apartments. The walnut they use is sourced from the same forests that supply the area’s pu-erh tea-factories — a hard, slow-grown wood that resists warping even when a full kettle of boiling water is placed on it day after day. Sandry worked with the maker to refine the dimensions: a top plate big enough for a 1.2 L electric kettle plus a digital scale with room to spare, yet still compact enough to sit beside a full chá pán. The legs are subtly splayed for stability, and the string shelf underneath holds a spare towel or a small tin of leaf. Each piece ships flat-packed with a tiny bottle of the same tung oil the workshop uses, so you can maintain the original protective coat. It’s not a statement piece — it’s the silent workhorse of your gongfu ritual.