Bedroom furniture made from wood substitutes like fiberboard are cheap and affordable, especially when bought as a set. But they have one big flaw – they do not last long. But bedroom furniture made from solid, wooden planks are a different matter. While more expensive, they easily last decades. Two woods that are well-known in the market today are pine and oak.
Solid pine wood bedroom furniture is made from pine boards, as its name suggests. Obvious, right? Unfortunately not. Pine furniture sells for a high price, so unscrupulous furniture manufacturers commonly stick a pine veneer on top of their cheap fiberboard furniture and pass it off as real pine furniture. Another trick they use is to make their furniture from cheap plywood with a pine veneer. When buying pine bedroom furniture, you need to be careful of being ripped off.
While pine is technically a softwood, it is still hard enough to break your head if someone swings a pine 2×4 at you. When we say that pine is easy to work with, we mean in relation to a hardwood. Like all softwoods, pine grows fast. Coupled with its relative popularity, some companies have started planting pine in plantations. This makes pine furniture very environmentally-friendly.
Why is pine popular for making bedroom furniture? Well, for one thing, pine is beautiful with its natural markings. These naturally occurring grains and knots can be made even more beautiful by highlighting them with a stain. With a layer of wax or varnish applied, pine furniture can last many decades as long as there is proper maintenance.
However, not all pine furniture is finished. Some people prefer their pine beds and wardrobes without any wax or varnish. They like the natural fragrance released by their pine furniture and are even willing to pay more for it. The downside is that this type of unfinished furniture is very susceptible to attacks from insects and fungus unless the furniture is left in a cool and dry environment, e.g. a completely air-conditioned room. Unfinished pine furniture is not a good idea in places with four seasons, places with extremes of heat and cold like deserts, or places that are always humid and damp.
How about furniture made from oak? Like pine furniture, quality oak bedroom furniture should also be made from solid boards of oak wood. But because oak sells for an even higher price than pine, furniture makers are even more tempted to pass off furniture using oak veneer as the real thing. When buying oak bedroom furniture, you have to be even more careful of being ripped off.
Oak is a hardwood. It is very heavy and very hard, as you will know if you have ever had the misfortune of accidentally dropping an oak board on your foot. Unlike pine, oak is very resistant to the environment and attacks from fungus and insects. It is such a tough and durable wood that it was used to build even warships in the Middle Ages up to the mid 1600s when it became over-logged. This is one reason why oak furniture is not often found today – many of the old oak forests have disappeared.
Modern oak furniture mainly uses different species of oak than the old shipbuilders and furniture makers of the long ago past. Not all of these species are as resistant to fungal attacks, which is why it is better to buy oak furniture which is waxed or varnished. But regardless of species, oak is still a hardwood. Furniture made from oak will not only outlive you, but your children and grandchildren as well.
Like pine, oak is a beautiful wood. But unlike pine, the nature of its grains means that it needs to be quarter-sawn to bring out its natural beauty. Oak furniture today is made from either white oak or red oak. This is just a layman’s categorization of many hundreds of species of oak. White oak is lighter in color, while red oak is darker in color with a reddish tint.
Both pine bedroom furniture and oak bedroom furniture are fine choices for your bedroom, especially if you have reached a point in your career where you have spare cash for luxuries. Solid wood furniture makes a statement that cheap fiberboard furniture just cannot measure up to.
