KJ Creations NZ is a small family business based in Geraldine, South Canterbury, creating original homeware, gifts and garden pieces with a distinctly New Zealand character.

Like many good stories, ours didn’t begin with a grand business plan. It began with curiosity, a willingness to experiment and an enduring inability to leave an interesting idea alone.

Then came the rimu—although not just any old rimu.

Following the Canterbury earthquakes, a central Christchurch building was destined for demolition. Through a rather fortunate turn of events, we rescued its beautiful rimu display shelving, thought to be around 80–90 years old. The first load arrived home strapped to the roof racks, with no real indication of just how important it would become.

The timber was far too special to waste. It gave our early experiments in laser design a direction and became the foundation of KJ Creations NZ as it is today.

We now work with reclaimed native timber, slate and other carefully chosen materials, creating pieces inspired by the birds, landscapes, humour and everyday character of Aotearoa New Zealand. We believe materials should be part of the story, and there is something particularly satisfying about giving old timber a new purpose while preserving the history it carries.

We don’t follow trends particularly well, and mass production isn’t really our style. We would much rather experiment, solve a difficult design problem and create something useful, beautiful or just a little unexpected.

We also welcome commissions. From awards and presentation pieces to meaningful gifts and ideas that need bringing to life, we enjoy working with our clients to create something original for a particular person, place or purpose.

Everything is designed and made by us in our Geraldine workshop, with invaluable behind-the-scenes IT expertise supplied by the next generation. No anonymous factory and no grand production line—just an ever-evolving collection of ideas, plenty of sawdust and a family rarely short of another project.

If you would like a custom project, please drop us a message and we can see what we can do to help.

Kylie, Karl and Hannah Thompson