What types of businesses does The African Touch supply furniture to?

The African Touch supplies bespoke and standard hardwood furniture to safari camps, game lodges, boutique hotels, private residences, and hospitality venues across Africa and internationally. We work closely with interior designers, decorators, architects, lodge owners, and camp operators.

Can The African Touch create custom furniture for a lodge fitout?

Yes. We specialise in bespoke furniture fitouts tailored to each project. We work within your design brief to produce custom pieces in Zambezi teak, mahogany, and other African hardwoods, combined with leather and brass detailing.

What hardwoods does The African Touch use?

Our primary materials are Zambezi teak (Rhodesian teak) and African mahogany — both prized for their durability, grain beauty, and suitability for the African climate.

Does The African Touch ship internationally?

Yes, we ship worldwide. Pricing is available in both USD and South African Rand depending on your project location.

How long has The African Touch been making safari furniture?

The African Touch was founded by Richard Lowe and has been crafting handmade African hardwood furniture for over 28 years, supplying lodges, camps, and homes across Africa and globally.

What is campaign furniture?

Campaign furniture is a style of portable, foldable furniture originally designed for 18th-century British military officers on expedition. The African Touch reimagines this classic style through an African lens, crafting pieces from solid hardwood, leather, and brass for use in safari lodges, camps, and homes.

How do I place an order or request a custom furniture quote from The African Touch?

To place an order or enquire about a custom furniture project, visit theafricantouch.co.za and use the Request a Quote function, or contact us directly via our Contact page. For trade and hospitality partners, register through our Trade Partners page to receive our full catalogue and pricing in your preferred currency. We recommend including as much detail as possible about your project — including dimensions, timber preferences, quantity, and any design references — so we can provide an accurate quote.

What information do I need to provide to commission a custom furniture piece or lodge fitout?

To get started on a bespoke furniture commission, it helps to share your project brief, preferred hardwood (such as Zambezi teak or African mahogany), desired dimensions, finish and upholstery preferences, quantity required, and your delivery location. If you are outfitting a lodge or camp, details about the space, aesthetic direction, and any architectural drawings or mood boards are also useful. Our team works closely with you throughout the design process to ensure the final pieces are exactly right for your project.

What is the lead time for custom or made-to-order furniture from The African Touch?

Lead times vary depending on the complexity and scale of your order. Standard in-stock pieces are available for dispatch more quickly, while bespoke and made-to-order items — particularly large lodge fitouts or custom-designed pieces — typically require a longer production lead time. We recommend contacting us as early in your project timeline as possible so we can confirm availability, schedule production, and allow adequate time for international shipping if required.

Can The African Touch match existing furniture or replicate a specific design for a fitout project?

Yes. We regularly work with interior designers and lodge owners who need new pieces to complement or replace existing furniture. Provided a design falls within our brand scope and can be executed in our hardwood materials and construction methods, we are happy to work from photographs, drawings, or detailed briefs to produce pieces that align with your existing aesthetic. Get in touch with our team to discuss your specific requirements.

Custom Projects

Project Showcase

For over 30 years, The African Touch has designed and manufactured custom hardwood furniture and architectural elements for safari lodges, hotels and private developments across Africa.

Working closely with owners, architects, interior designers and decorators, we create distinctive, durable pieces, from complete furniture collections to bespoke feature items, made to perform in demanding hospitality environments.

We invite you to work with us as your trusted hardwood design and manufacturing partner, helping bring together the furniture, joinery and feature elements that define your project.

Custom commercial

Room Accessories

Over the years, The African Touch has designed and manufactured a wide range of custom hardwood room accessories for lodges,

Hardwood Bars & Lodge Pubs

We design and manufacture custom hardwood bars and lodge pub installations, including freestanding bars, bar countertops, back bars and bottle

Guest Living Spaces

Thoughtfully designed furniture helps transform shared guest areas into welcoming, memorable spaces. Our custom hardwood elements for lounges, libraries, reception

Feature Doors

Our feature doors are custom designed and handcrafted from quality hardwood to become a defining architectural element within a space.

Custom Wardrobes

We custom-make freestanding and fitted wardrobes in a wide variety of sizes, configurations and finishes to suit each client’s individual

Samanzi Luxury Cabanas Custom Headboard in Cleoziana

Custom Headboards

We custom-make freestanding and fitted headboards in a wide variety of sizes, styles and finishes to suit each client’s individual

Custom Bedroom Furniture

We design and manufacture custom hardwood bedroom furniture for lodges, hotels, guesthouses and larger residential or hospitality developments. Our capabilities

Custom Bathroom Vanities

We manufacture custom hardwood vanities for lodges, hotels, private homes and commercial developments. Each vanity is made to suit the

Counter tops & shelves

We manufacture custom hardwood countertops and shelving for tables, bathroom vanities, side servers, kitchens and a wide range of other

past projects

Custom wood and steel bathroom vanity unit for Muddy Teak safari lodge

Muddy Teak Custom Furniture

Muddy Teak is a newly launched tented camp in the heart of Hwange National Park. Part of the Camp Hwange

View Project

Wild Horizons Waterfalls Lodge

Waterfalls Lodge has a fresh and relaxed look, and the furniture they commissioned needed to support that style without feeling

View Project

Samanzi Luxury Cabanas

We are proud to announce our latest bespoke project for Samanzi Luxury Cabanas. A newly launched addition to The Shongwe

View Project

Pamarah Lodge guest suite with custom lodge furniture

Pamarah Lodge Custom Furniture

At Pamarah Lodge in Victoria Falls we walked into a project that pushed our team in all the right ways.

View Project

Wilderness Destinations

Over the years we have supplied a many number of Wilderness Destinations camps and lodges with a wide variety of

View Project

Time+Tide Luwi

TIME+TIDE Luwi is a remote and authentic camp set deep in the heart of South Luangwa, with no other camps

View Project

Machaba Mana River Camp

Mana River Camp, owned and managed by Machaba Safaris, offers a comfortable, authentic safari experience where guests are welcomed with

View Project

Hwange Safari Lodge

Hwange Safari Lodge has recently undergone a long-await refurb managed by Turner & Townsend. The African Touch provided most of

View Project

Gmundner Lodge Namibia

Last year, Melanie van der Merwe from Women Unleashed Design in Namibia reached out to us to see if we

View Project

The River Brewery

The River Brewing Company is the first micro-brewery in the resort town of Victoria Falls. Designer Mike Danes commissioned us

View Project

The Wine Cellar

We have built a number of wine cellars over the years, but never seem to get pictures once the commission

View Project

Batonka Lodge

Batonka Lodge has managed to combine a modern, light atmosphere with old Colonial buildings. The African Touch were commissioned to

View Project

Testimonials

Good to see you earlier and just wanted to say how fantastic it is to deal with your business and your staff. The fact that the broken Roorkee was fixed and returned to me while enjoying a cup of coffee in your showroom demonstrates a level of customer service and engagement that one simply does not find in many businesses and all with a helpful smile. Thank you for that and I would honestly have no hesitation in recommending you guys for the quality of your products, the excellent pricing and to top it all great service. Look forward to seeing you include the Abelana story and your products in a promotional piece.

Just to let you know that the furniture delivery arrived on Saturday morning. Thank you very much for all your assistance and we are very grateful for your excellent customer service – the furniture looks great and we look forward to enjoying it for many years to come…

Our consignment of Zambezi Teak furniture is now safely in our oak-framed house in Wiltshire. It is stunning. The Ngwezi table top was a six man lift an now I have oiled it, it is just fabulous.

We are still on a high from the Rhino Without borders function. It was a huge success and as always we will not be able to host such an event without the support from our suppliers and for that we would like to say thank you… This year we hosted 290 guest from Botswana, Zimbabwe as well as South Africa which gave our auction sponsors more exposure. The lot list went to the guests before the event with information of each item and the company who donated the item which allowed the guest to do research before the actual auction so they could pick their favourites they wanted to bid on. Your trunk was a favourite amongst the guest and our local Midas owner was the proud owner of the trunk at the end of the night.

Richard, The Bridge Table has been safely erected and is damage free. We are absolutely delighted, very many thanks. See you in November/December.

My beautiful purchase has survived 3 international moves, 6 house moves, and is still looking perfect! Such good quality. Thank you!

Such a quality product delivered in a blink. Excellent service – best online experience I’ve had so far.

Absolutely awesome, wow, wow our pub is looking incredible! thank you for all.

I wanted to drop a short note to thank you for the table I bought. The table is outstanding and the quality well exceeded my expectations. The service received from Kerry and Graham with the delivery was excellent. Thanks again and will be back soon!

Thanks, Sindy. The tables arrived last night and Nawa assembled them expertly. They are beautiful! Thanks very much for the good work….

The coffee table exceeded my expectations, it was excellent. Thank you very much. I am certain you will hear from me with another order.

Thank you for the follow up call, sorry the signal is so bad here. I do love the directors chairs and drinks trays, they are absolutely perfect. Thank you for your kind offer of a table to go with the chairs, that is really over and above.

Thanks for following up – I’m pleased to say we love the dining table and are very happy with it indeed. It’s exactly what we asked for, great quality and looks lovely too. Thank you for all the trouble you took to arrange the manufacture and delivery for us.

Custom Projects

Project Showcase

Custom commercial

Room Accessories

Hardwood Bars & Lodge Pubs

Guest Living Spaces

Feature Doors

Custom Wardrobes

Custom Headboards

Custom Bedroom Furniture

Custom Bathroom Vanities

Counter tops & shelves

past projects

Muddy Teak Custom Furniture

Wild Horizons Waterfalls Lodge

Samanzi Luxury Cabanas

Pamarah Lodge Custom Furniture

Wilderness Destinations

Time+Tide Luwi

Machaba Mana River Camp

Hwange Safari Lodge

Gmundner Lodge Namibia

The River Brewery

The Wine Cellar

Batonka Lodge

Testimonials

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