Classic Hardwood

Furniture has been a domestic necessity in all civilisations, ancient to modern - initially simply because ancient man got fed up of sitting on rocks, I presume!  It wasn’t long before people became good at making furniture and it became ovious that the easiest material to work with was wood.

Wooden furniture has been produced in large quantities ever since. Developed from humble beginnings whereby the furniture was constructed out of simple designs, cut straight from a single section of a tree trunk to more advanced multi-piece items that became possible as tools became more advanced promoting the development of woodworking techniques.

Let’s face it, we all need something to sleep in, chairs to sit on, tables and storage devices, the list goes on. This meant that there was a huge market for the ancient entrepreneurs!  There was also the obvious diversities that soon arose.

Chairs and furniture for sitting developed from the very simplest wooden stools, to wooden framed deeply upholstered sofas and settees and highly complex recliners. Even electric chairs were, up until recently, made of solid hard wood!

A wide variety of different tables that can be used for dining or other domestic usage, working, recreation purposes or just for decoration.  Hardwood is by far the most popular material again.  Why?  Not just because it’s easily manipulated, but because it’s easily repaired.  Try removing a scratch from a glass top table with some sand paper and a touch of Danish oil!

Storage Furniture covers a multitude of varieties and uses from chests-of drawers, wardrobes, display cabinets and bookcases - all very popular solid wood furniture due to the strength and durability.  Something you won’t find with MDF or plastic furniture.

When we come to think of it, the wide variety of furniture is never more visible than when we think of the wide variety of construction techniques used and the shape and decoration. These last categories have quite often been more affected by a region or country of origin, the maker and period of manufacture.  This is something we will be looking into in greater detail next time.  Don’t forget to check back soon.