WOODCARVING & ACCESSORIES

Reasons to choose solid wood furniture instead of veneer alternatives

Solid wood furniture is stunning and classic. No matter if you love fashionable or old-fashioned designs, a solid wood furniture piece will look fantastic for years.

Oak furniture is probably the most common and has been adored for centuries.

Although it undoubtedly looks superb, are there any other benefits of using solid wood? Well of course, there are.

Solid wood is more expensive than particle board adorned in a wood veneer but there’s good reason for that – the product quality is much higher. Solid wood is structurally stronger and will not bow like a veneer furniture piece can – this is obviously important should you be looking for a bookcase.

Another positive point for wood is the fact that it can be mended reasonably easily if it gets damaged. The broken parts can be filled and finished with wood treatments. Particleboard by contrast is very difficult to mend. This is often due to structural failure and this type of thing is just too major a fault to fix.

Moving particleboard furniture can be a problem because it ideally needs to be dismantled first to protect it from knocks.

Solid furniture will last for many years and can be seen as an investment. A good looking piece also makes a great family heirloom and it could give happiness to your relatives long after you haven’t any more requirement for it.

For those who have no-one to pass your household furniture on to, solid wood will have a substantially higher resale value than particleboard (which often has no real value whatsoever).

There are lots of kinds of wood including pine, ash and oak so you can choose something that suits your needs. All of these woods have their own characteristics and attraction so make sure you find a shop to view a good selection and you’ll find that you are attracted to one wood over all of the others.

It can also be finished with a natural wax or a tinted wax. Stains and paints could also be applied but wood is so attractive anyway that you should consider adjusting the colour very carefully, however it can still be sanded back and given a natural wax or varnish at a later date (something you can’t do with veneer).

On balance, wood by far outweighs veneered particleboard as the sensible option for any home. So long as you are able to afford it, invest in solid wood – you won’t regret it. If perhaps the price is initially off-putting, bear in mind that in the long run it could even work out cheaper because you are not likely to ever need to replace it.
Woodcarving A Boot Out Of Wood Part 1