Inside Rustic Designs, A Family Woodworking Business In Inverell

By Georgia Miller

Rustic Designs, trading as Miller Rustic Designs, is a handmade woodworking business based in Inverell, New South Wales. Through its website, the business presents a range of low-tox chopping boards, butcher blocks, utensils and timber kitchenware, all made from Australian hardwood. It is a small family business, run from a shed, with pieces created by woodworker and owner Alwyn Miller.

The work centres on a distinctive approach to the craft. Rustic Designs chopping boards are made from a single solid slab of Australian hardwood, such as camphor laurel, yellow box, ironbark or red gum, with no glues, resins, joins or laminations. Boards and utensils are finished with Organic Certified Jojoba Oil and Organic Certified Beeswax, a food-safe finish free from synthetic coatings. Rustic Designs describes its oiling choices as following the 'low tox movement', positioning them so customers' families are kept safe from unnecessary chemicals.

Material sourcing is part of the story the business tells. Rustic Designs explains that its timber is sustainably sourced, largely cut by the makers from fallen or dead trees, with some timber collected over the past 20 years. The business also markets camphor laurel as naturally antibacterial and a more hygienic food-preparation surface than glass or stainless steel boards.

The range extends well beyond kitchenware. Alongside boards and utensils, Rustic Designs makes burl bowls, coasters, clocks, mirrors, property signs, trophies and other custom woodwork. The business reaches customers beyond its own site too, including a supplier relationship with retailer Funki Munki and an exclusive 'Ourcow' customer collection.

The business also shares its own history. Rustic Designs explains it was previously located in Gilgai, NSW, and was devastated by fires in February 2019, followed by a long drought, before rebuilding and relocating to Inverell. That continuity, from fallen Australian timber to finished kitchenware made in a family shed, sits at the heart of what Rustic Designs offers.