While shopping for wood furniture, you might wonder what type you should be shopping for. Different types of wood provide different kinds of characteristics for your furniture, including color, grain and density of wood. Your furniture will also require special care once it is in your home.
Qualities of Wood Varieties
Ash: Very tough and heavy hardwood, not easily damaged. Brown ash has a strong grain character and is commonly used for veneers or bentwood chairs.
Beech: Beech is a hardwood with great strength and good shock resistance. The wood grains are large and easy to notice, and the wood pores are small and virtually invisible.
Birch: A heavy wood that is average in stiffness and hardness but above average in strength. Birch has is fine-grained with an even texture, easy to work with, and is adaptable to fine finishes.
Cherry: With moderate hardness, cherry has strength and durability and a rich color. The grain is straight with small pores.
Maple: A premium wood, maple has fine grain patterns and is more susceptible to light or moisture damage than oak or ash. The grain is straight with some wavy patterns that are valuable for veneers.
Oak: A very tough, heavy hardwood, oak is not sensitive to damage. Hard to work with, oak is typically used for simpler designs.
Pine: A white or pale yellow softwood, pine is easy to work with and holds varnish well. Because it dries easily, pine is not affected much by changes in humidity, although it can dent easily.
Teak: Teak wood is heavy weight, expensive, and of greater strength and toughness. Teak, with a straight grain and colors that enrich with age, is often used for paneling and solid furniture.
Walnut: Beautiful for decorative furniture, walnut is a light brown to a chocolate brown color and has a soft and pleasing grain. Suited to carving, walnut is often expensive, heavy, and is used for paneling and solid furniture.
Protecting Your Dining Room Table and Chairs
No Scratches: Be sure to keep a table cloth, placemats, or coasters on the table. While dusting, be sure to wet a soft cloth with a dusting product, because a dry cloth can scratch the surface. Also while dusting, be sure to pick up items, rather than drag them across the table to move them.
No Stains: Use a table mat and plastic over the seams of it underneath the table cloth to prevent spills from reaching the wood. Do not use rubber or plastic mats, unless they are marked safe for wood, in case they stain the wood. Keep your table out of excessive sunlight to prevent bleaching. Wipe up spills immediately to prevent stains from forming.
Protect: To protect the wood finish, you may apply a wax or polish the table every six to twelve months. Do not apply a wax if your table has a polyurethane finish because, in that case, the wax will cause more build-up than prevent it.
To find the best way to protect your dining table, refer to its product manual, or ask the company or salesman who you bought it from. One of these resources should be able to give you more information about protecting your furniture.
