Buying Wood Furniture
Wood furniture looks wonderful and if looked after will stay that way for many years. It is a natural product and it suits any home. If you select the right piece you can end up with a family heirloom that will be treasured for generations to come.
Choosing good furniture is not that difficult if you know what to look for. At the lower end of the market you will find flat pack furniture which is made to sell at the lowest price point. This type of wooden furniture is OK if you want a temporary fix or if your budget will not stretch any further but you are not going to get a family heirloom here!
Wood veneered furniture is a mixed bag. Some of it is low quality - a thin veneer of wood over weak chipboard, but some of the best furniture available is veneered so remember this when shopping.
Solid wood furniture is built to last. It is durable and strong. It is an excellent choice.
Depending on what colours and patterns you like you will be drawn to woods. If dark colours are your thing you may like mahogany and if pale is more up your street you may like maple. There is a big difference in the price of woods though - more exotic and rare they are the more expensive. You should also be aware of the ethics involved with wood - it’s not all grown and harvested in environmentally friendly ways so you would do well to stick to FSA approved sources.
It is also worth noting that different woods have different natural strength. Oak is well known for strength and oak furniture is a great choice.
If you are purchasing drawers, a mark of good furniture is a dust layer to stop dust from an upper drawer falling into a lower one. Another good sign is the presence of dovetail joints because these are strong. The interlocking joints are what make dove tail so good.
You should also look at the finish of the wood. If it is sealed with a paint or varnish it will take more wear and tear than something with a light wax. Remember to look after it accordingly so find out what you need to do to keep your wood in good condition before you make a purchase.
Obviously when purchasing any furniture you will need to make sure that you can get it into your house once it is out of the shop so make sure you measure correctly…
Wood furniture is superb, so why not start check out your local furniture stores and get shopping today…
How Do You Tell Red Oak And White Oak Apart?
White oak and red oak are both varieties of oak. Although the name implies that they are certain colours, you cannot tell them apart by using this method, especially if the timber has been stained.
Red oak is also known as Quercus rubra. Although this is the true red oak, others such as Water Oak (Quercus Nigra) and Black Oak (Quercus velutina) are broadly grouped as red oak.
Quercus alba is the Latin name for White Oak. It is the true white oak but others such as English Oak and Bur Oak are also considered white oaks.
This means that you are not always purchasing an exact species - more the characteristics of the white or red oak group.
The two groups are not the same and if you know what you are looking for you can easily tell them apart.
If you have the luxury of seeing the leaves still on the wood, they will help you identify which wood you have. The leaves of White Oak usually have rounded lobes, but those of the Red Oak are pointed. This isn’t true in every single case though.
In a lot of cases you won’t have the leaves to assist you so one way to tell the timbers apart is to look at the rays (the dark brown lines in the wood). White oak usually has longer rays - often longer than three quarters of an inch, but Red oak usually has short rays.
You can also look at the endgrain (if the timber has not been painted, rough-sawn or sealed). Ensure that the wood is free from dust then take a closer look. If you are looking at heartwood, the endgrain of red oak will show open pores. White oak heartwood pores are filled with what are known as tyloses - a bubble-like formation. An exception to this is Chestnut Oak, a white oak that has large and open pores.
The quickest and perhaps most reliable method of working out if timber is red or white oak is to use a 10% solution of sodium nitrite on the heartwood. Brush it onto the wood and wait for a colour change. Red oak will only change slightly (sometimes with a greenish hue) but white oak will change colour very noticeably in only a few minute, showing a dark reddish brown and then finally an inky black.
When you can tell the timbers apart you can make sure that you use the right wood for the right things. White oak is good for outdoor furniture and boat building because it is resistant to water (because of the tyloses). It is also more resistant to rot and therefore a little more expensive.
Red oak is great for indoor furniture and has the benefit of being lighter than its cousin. Oak furniture looks so elegant in the home so it is a great choice, although other solid wood furniture also looks good because each variety of tree has its own characteristics.
Both are amazing timbers that will look beautiful for years.
Terms You May Come Across When Shopping For Solid Oak Furniture
When you are choosing oak furniture you may come across a few terms that you’re not sure about. The purpose of this article is to explain some of them so that you can make an informed choice on the best oak furniture for your purposes.
Some of the terms are specific to oak, others to certain groups of wood and some are more general wood terms.
Quercus: This is the Latin name for oak. Quercus is also a subgenus of the genus Quercus.
White oak: The common name for Quercus Alba. The bark of the tree is most commonly grey, despite the name. White oak is also a group of Quercus trees, including Quercus Alba. The pores on the growth rings are blocked.
Red oak: The common name for Quercus Rubra. Red oak is also the name of a group of Quercus trees, including Quercus Rubra. The pores on the growth rings are open and therfore allow water in.
Hardwood: All oaks are hardwoods. A hardwood is simply the wood from a deciduous tree. It doesn’t mean that the wood is physically hard, although oak actually is.
Medullary rays: Ribbons extending vertically through the wood, perpendicularly to the growth rings. Not all woods show these but oak does. Plane trees also show them well. They show up on the wood as flecks.
Quarter sawn: Wood has been cut at right angles to the growth rings. The grain will be in straight lines. This sort of cut is the one used to show the medullary rays. It is structurally more sound than wood sawn in other ways but more difficult to cut and therefore more expensive.
Plain sawn: The wood has the growth rings of the tree parallel to the board’s broad face. It is also known as ‘slabbed lumber’.
Grain: The texture produced by wood fibres. You can get interesting grain patterns with red oak.
Unfinished: The furniture will not be coloured with any stains and it will not have any sort of top coat. It is cheaper to buy unfinished oak but it will then need some sort of finishing to be applied to it.
French polish: Lots of very thin layers of shellac are rubbed onto the furniture to produce a very high shine surface with a deep colour.
Shellac: A resin created by the female lac bug which is processed and dissolved in ethyl alcohol to make a liquid to glaze the wood.
Seasoned: Seasoned wood has had the moisture content reduced to make it stronger and more reliable. It can be air dried or kiln dried.
Buying oak furniture can be good fun but in order to get the right piece for you it helps if you understand the terminology you may come across.
Ways To Finish Solid Oak Furniture
Oak is a stunning wood. Depending on the actual look you want to achieve with it there are different finishes that can be applied, both in terms of colours and top coats.
Some people choose a natural colour to their oak furniture whereas others prefer to add a stain or ammonia fume it.
Whatever you choose, the preparation of the wood is very important because it changes the quality of the finish. The first stage is called preparation sanding which can be done with power tools. You don’t want to use a paper of more than #120 grit. Once this is done you can wipe the furniture with a damp cloth, leave for 30 minutes and then do the final sanding. This should be done by hand and with a paper no finer than #180 grit. If you sand too much it will make it difficult for stain to penetrate the timber. Note that end grains may need more sanding than along the grain - keep an eye on this to keep the colour absorption of the timber uniform. The timber should now be smooth and devoid of dust, dirt and oils.
The variety of oak that you have will affect how well a stain takes. White oak will absorb more stain than red oak therefore you will need more of it. Quarter sawn oak will also take up more stain than timber cut along the grain.
You will need to mix the stain in the tin before applying and also read how long you have to apply it. Oil based stains give you more time than water based ones. Use a lint free cloth and apply generous amounts in the direction of the grain, wiping off the excess. Aim to get the coverage as even as possible. Remember, the more stain you add, the stronger the effect.
Ammonia fuming is a traditional way to darken and enrich the colour of oak. It changes the chemistry of the pigments in the timber by oxidising the tannins. Sapwood doesn’t have much tannin so the process won’t work with this type of wood and it doesn’t work as well on red oak either because it can end up with a green tinge. It is great for white oak. Fuming only changes exposed wood but it will also have an effect on metal so keep it away from metal tools and remove metal finishings on the furniture.
You will need to place the furniture outside in a tent and expose it to the fumes of ammonia. You can use domestic cleaning ammonia, but avoid anhydrous ammonia. After about half an hour minutes you will see a colour change. For the best effects, leave it for 2 days.
Of course you can always have painted oak furniture. Simply choose a colour and build up the paint in layers. Make sure the paint is suitable for wood and that it will suit the room it will be going in.
Once the furniture is the required colour you can apply the top coat. The final look that you want will usually either be a wax finish or a lacquered (varnished) finish. These are applied over any colouring.
The benefit of having a wax finish is that the oak can mellow naturally. It will need to be regularly waxed though to keep the furniture in good condition.
The benefits of having a lacquer finish are that the moisture will be sealed into the timber and a high-gloss finish can be achieved. That helps to stop the wood getting stains. It will however show up finger marks and can be easily scratched. If scratched, it will need to be sanded back and re-laquered. Polyurethane can be used in the same way but it is not good to use because it is prone to damage from ultra-violet light exposure which can crack the finish leaving white marks that can never be removed. This means that furniture with this finish has to be kept out of sunlight which is not possible in the majority of situations.
Beeswax and Danish oil give what is known as an unsealed wood finish, so chemical cleaners shouldn’t be used.
Whatever colour and top coat you go for, make sure it really is the right choice for your furniture.
What is Quercus Furniture?
Quercus furniture is a range of contemporary furniture designed from solid oak. Although you may think that oak is just one type of tree, you may be surprised to find out that this is not the case.
The name Quercus is Latin for oak and there are around 600 species of this tree, ranging from deciduous (trees lose leaves in winter) to evergreen and semi evergreen.
For classification purposes, the genus oak/Quercus is actually divided into two subgenera (the taxonomic rank below genus and above section) which are Quercus and Cyclobalanopsis. The Quercus subgenus is divided again into 5 sections – Quercus (white oaks), Mesobalanus (Hungarian oak), Cerris (Turkey oak), Protobalanus (Canyon live oak) and Lobatae (red oaks).
Oak is an amazing wood for use in furniture because it is strong, beautiful and even better than that – it improves with age if treated with care. It is also resistant to fungal attack because of the natural tannins it contains. The natural grain means that furniture is beautiful and each piece is unique.
Whilst Quercus furniture could possibly describe any oak furniture, there is actually a range of furniture that has Quercus Furniture as a brand name.
The Quercus furniture range was designed by Dean Robbins (present owner of Con-Tempo Furniture). The pieces are crafted from European white oak for a clean, natural appearance. Designs are focused on perfect proportions to give timeless appeal. Contemporary lines and innovative design detailing are characteristic of the collection.
Dean created the original Quercus range in 2001 after deciding to take the big step from simply manufacturing pine furniture. The rest of the country was still busy producing pine furniture but Dean branched off in a risky new direction and launched The Quercus range in 2001 at the NEC Furniture Show. The launch featured a bedroom range, designed (as now) by hand. The following year Quercus dining was added to the collection.
All current Quercus pieces are based on a design that has evolved over the last decade. The furniture comes in a choice of oil and lacquer finishes, maximising the oak’s natural appearance and protecting the wood.
Solid oak furniture needs proper care to keep it looking good. With regular polishing and by keeping it away from extreme heat and humidity, oak should look good for hundreds of years.
It’s an amazing timber, both in terms of looks and durability. This is why Quercus wood is used in furniture and why it is a firm favourite with home owners all over the world.
Oak Furniture Care
Oak furniture is beautiful and elegant and tends to look better and better the longer you have it. However, for this to be the case, looking after it properly is essential. Although oak is very durable, if your hardwood furniture is not cared for adequately it can get ruined and end up scratched, split, warped, faded or stained.
Caring for your oak furniture is actually simple. Advice falls into two categories - what to do and what to try and avoid.
When you bring a new piece of furniture into your home, it needs to acclimatise to the moisture levels. To help it do this it needs to be waxed with a hardwood polish immediately and repeated every few months. This nourishes the wood and at the same time creates a protective seal. Apply in the direction of the grain and then rub it off gently. You should also dust it regularly with a clean duster.
When purchasing cleaning products, make sure they are suitable for hardwood - general household cleaners can do more damage than good.
The positioning of your furniture is important - keep it away from direct sunlight or bright electric lights to stop it fading and position it away from radiators to stop it drying out and cracking. If you find it has cracked only on the surface it is probably just the shellac in the polish and you can try to remedy this by brushing on some wood alcohol thinner.
Wood needs to be in a fairly dry environment so ensure that your room has proper ventilation to stop the moisture levels rising too high.
If you drop any liquid on the wood, make sure it is wiped up immediately with a soft, lightly moist cloth. Attempt to blot the liquid rather than spreading it around further. If you use place mats and coasters it will minimise the risk of spills getting to the furniture in the first place.
Sometime you will have an item of furniture that has sections that aren’t always on display such as with an extending table. If you want to keep the wood looking the same throughout, you will need to make sure that you get the extending sections out quite often so that the colour changes are even throughout. If you have an oak desk or shelving it is also a good idea to move items on them occasionally to avoid leaving marks and to ensure even colour changes.
Moving your treasured furniture should be done carefully. If pieces are simply dragged on the floor it may put stress on the joints. If you need to put it into storage at any point you will need a unit that is climate controlled and free from damp.
Solid oak furniture can last for many years and with only a small amount of effort you can keep your investment looking great.
———————————————————————————
For oak furniture Southampton, Salisbury, Blandford or Poole, try A World of Furniture - they have an online shop too and deliver mainly to the South of England.
Oak Furniture for the Home
Hardwood is gorgeous in the house and perfect for your furniture. It gives style and elegance and it comes from renewable sources. There are many different hardwoods to use in the home but the most popular in the United Kingdom is oak which has been used for hundreds of years because of its beautiful looks, the wonderful properties it possesses to make it a useful construction and craft wood, and the fact that it is grown locally. It resists insect and fungal attack as well so it is easy to see why oak furniture is so popular.
So what does it mean to be a ‘hardwood’? The term ‘hardwood’ doesn’t actually mean that the wood is hard. Balsa is a hardwood but it is actually softer than the softwoods. There is great variance in the physical hardness of both hardwoods and softwoods. What the term actually means is that the wood comes from trees that reproduce in a certain way. Hardwoods come from angiosperm trees where the seeds have some sort of covering. Oak is a hardwood because its acorns are covered seeds.
The physical hardness of a timber is measured on what is called the Janka scale. At the upper end of the scale are woods such as Patagonian Rosewood and Brazilian Ebony and at the bottom end you tend to find many of the softwoods such as Western Juniper and Eastern White Pine. The scale measures hardeness in pounds-force (lbf) and it records the force required to embed a 0.444 inch steel ball into wood to the point where it halves the ball’s diameter. Guayacan wood at the very top of the scale is rated at 4500 lbf, and Balsa at the bottom end is rated at 100 lbf.
Oak is available in several different types, each with distinct characteristics. The types are Natural, Tiger, Pippy and Bog. Natural is the most common and is pale brown with normal grain, Tiger is more stripey, Pippy has a cats-paw appearance, and Bog is dark because it has absorbed colour from peat bogs. Bog oak is pretty rare so you aren’t likely to find much furniture made from it, although it is around.
When buying oak furniture, make sure that everything is crafted from solid oak including the backs and bases of drawers because solid wood furniture will last longer. Veneers look pretty good but they don’t have the same strength and durability. Handles, knobs and other extras should reflect the quality of the wood and complement the piece. Aim for great design and craftsmanship.
You will find that there are different styles of oak furniture available, both modern and traditional, but oak crafted to any design looks stunning and will be a lovely addition to any home. Check out your local furniture stores and see what takes your fancy.
Why You Should Use Cedar Hangers For Your Clothes
Your wardrobe contains your best clothes and you love wearing them, but how long will they remain in good condition? Just because your hang your clothes nicely so that they don’t crease, they aren’t automatically safe.
The threat to your garments is the clothes moth, Tineola Bisselliella. It will chomp its way through natural fabrics leaving unsightly holes. In some cases the damage can be extensive. It’s not the moth itself that actually does the damage, it’s the caterpillars. The moth leaves eggs on your clothing and when they hatch, the young eat the fabric.
A great non-chemical way to get rid of or prevent clothes moths is to use cedar. The oil in the wood kills small larvae and so your clothes are protected.
Buy cedar hangers to put your clothes on, and when you find the strength of the oil diminishing (usually at between 6 and 12 months), lightly sand back the wood to release more. Another plus point of the wood is that it helps prevent mildew too.
Wooden hangers look a lot nicer than the plastic ones that High Street clothes come with. They are also more durable because they are made of solid wood, not thin plastic.
Of course cedar hangers come at a price, compared to High Street hangers which are free, but if you want to protect the garments you have just bought and keep them looking nice for years to come, cedar hangers are definitely worth thinking about.
As well as hangers, you can also buy blocks of cedar to put in your chest of drawers, and cedar discs on ribbon to hang on your wardrobe rail.
Using cedar as a moth repellent is preferable to using chemical moth balls if you want to keep things as natural as possible and the cedar smells much more pleasant too - a lovely woody smell.
Of course avoiding infestation in the first place is the goal, so if you are lucky enough to be moth free at the moment, try to keep things that way. Look over second hand clothing to make sure there are no silvery looking threads (about an inch long), and only put clean clothes in wardrobes or drawers. Of course you can also buy clothing covers which provide an extra layer of protection to your clothing and they have the added bonus of keeping dust off too. Of course you can also buy clothing covers which provide an extra layer of protection to your clothing and they have the added bonus of keeping dust off too. A quality wardrobe is also a good idea - it should be made to a high standard so that it is difficult for the moths to get inside. Quality oak wardrobes are a good idea because they look good and if made properly are worth the money. One I like is from the Con-tempo Furniture Quercus furniture range which has contemporary style. They have some beautiful solid oak bedroom furniture but it’s up to you who you buy from - just make sure that’s it’s good quality furniture. It can even be made from cedar if you want!
If you do discover moths, don’t panic. Put new cedar wood in with your clothes to kill off the small larvae and regularly take your clothes into the light and shake them. The larvae do not like the sunlight and will drop off. You can also wash clothes in a hot wash to kill the larvae. Anything that can’t be hot washed might be able to be frozen - wrap the items carefully in plastic and pop in the freezer for a day.
With a bit of care, all of your gorgeous clothes should stay looking in good condition and your wardrobe will be a safe place to house them.
Wonderful Oak Trees
The oak tree is an iconic tree and a particular favourite of the English. There are more than 300 species and they live happily all over the world. The best known British oak is the Common Oak (Quercus Robur) which is also known as the English Oak. This beautiful tree is deciduous, broad leafed and grows to an average height of 15-25 metres.
Some oaks are actually evergreen such as the Golden Oak (native to Cyprus) and the Coast Live Oak (native to California).
We have made use of oak trees for many years. It has housed us, helped feed us, clothed us, kept us warm, helped us travel the seas and decorated our homes.
Oak has always been a highly prized timber and it was used a lot in the days of timber ship building and is still used today in house building because it is very strong. It also has high levels of tannin which protect it from insect attack or fungal attack. As well as the timber, other parts of the tree are also useful to us. The acorns have been used for pig food to help fatten them up and the bark has been used in the leather tanning process. It has also been used ceremonially and as an emblem (such as the National Trust emblem of an oak sprig complete with acorns).
These days you are most likely to find oak in the form of gorgeous furniture. The grain looks stunning and oak furniture will last for many years which is why it is so popular, although not as prevalent as the cheaper pine furniture options. Because of the inherent sturdiness of the wood, sizeable items of furniture can be made such as beds, desks and tables.
If you are thinking of purchasing oak furniture yourself, make sure that it is solid wood because an oak veneer will give you some of the beauty of the oak but not the strength and added to this the long term value will also not be as good.
If you visit any stately homes it is likely that you will come across oak panelling as well as furniture. Panelling was popular in notable buildings and showed wealth and class.
Oak is a tree that we have loved and made use of for many years and a tree that we continue to be closely linked with. It is a tree that we really wouldn’t want to be without.
Tips For Purchasing Solid Oak Furniture
Oak furniture looks elegant and beautiful and adds a bit of class to any home. It will look good for many years but getting the best piece is important.
The cost of a piece of furniture won’t actually tell you very much about it. Sometimes a price is fair but sometimes it is extremely over inflated so an expensive tag doesn’t necessarily equate to a well made piece or value for money.
Oak is expensive to purchase but because it is durable and looks so good, it is worth buying so make sure you buy wisely.
Solid oak furniture is what you should be going after. A plywood piece covered in oak veneer has nothing like the strength and durability of solid wood and it won’t retain value. To find out if the piece you are looking at is solid or veneer, knock on it and try to assess the weight.
Solid wood is a good start but the piece also needs to be put together well. To test this, check the drawers and doors open and close nicely with a smooth action. Hinges should all be attached properly and they should operate smoothly too. Also look inside of drawers to make sure they are well sanded and finished. A quality piece of furniture will be finished well all over, even in the sections that are not on show.
Because the grain of the wood is unique you should look at a few similar pieces of furniture to see which one like the look of most.
Obviously the time of year that you shop is also important because it can affect the price you pay. January for example is known for furniture sales so if you want a bargain and you can hang on for the right piece, find out when the furniture shops you like go on sale.
When buying large pieces of oak furniture, remember to check that you will be able to transport any purchases back home OK. Some furniture vendors offer complimentary delivery within a certain radius but if you are at a shop that does not, don’t forget to factor this in when comparing their prices with other shops. Also don’t forget to check if your furniture is insured whilst in transit.
If you are shopping on the web you obviously can’t inspect individual pieces of oak furniture. Photo’s will be a help, but there’s no real substitute for seeing the exact piece you are buying with your own eyes prior to purchase. If you can pop in to an actual shop, it is a good idea, but researching the furniture you are after, prices and stock levels could all be done online.
Oak furniture is a fantastic addition to any home and with a bit of background knowledge you can get the ideal piece for you at a fair price and take pleasure from it it for years to come.
