Oak Dining Tables

Most people who want the best fine furniture available today insist on having solid wood furniture.  The reasons are obvious: durability, style, elegance.  In addition, solid wood furniture, especially solid oak furniture, appreciates in value over time.  Is all wood furniture, however, created equal?

Depending on the type of wood used, the differences in pieces of furniture can be quite noticeable.  From color and texture to durability and strength, different woods offer a wide range of possible characteristics.

Two types of wood exist: hard and soft.  Depending on your individual needs, the kind you choose should be unique to your own style and taste.

Hardwoods come from deciduous trees with broad leaves.  Trees such as oak, ash, and mahogany are known for their durability, stability, and strength.  Solid wood furniture made from these trees are seldom prone to scratches or dings, and have been known to last several generations.

Softwoods, on the other hand, come from coniferous trees with needles instead of leaves.  These are cedar, spruce and pine.  They are excellent for carving and engraving.

Even though softwoods accumulate a good deal of scratches, marks, and dents, some people find these make the furniture even more endearing, lending them an antique charm and elegance.

Whichever kind of wood you decide to use, if you want the best, solid wood furniture is the only way to go.  As mentioned above, it’s durable, appreciates in value over time, and is second to none in style and elegance.

You love your oak dining table.  Go on, admit it.

You can keep it looking new by following just a few tips.  There’s nothing complicated here, just some common sense things you need to do to keep your oak table looking stylish and elegant.  Here are just a few things you can do to insure it will last a lifetime (maybe even more than one lifetime).

One of the most damaging factors to your oak dining table, or any oak furniture for that matter, is heat and humidity.  The room should stay around 70 degrees, and relative humidity should be around 50%.  Buy a dehumidifier and keep it in the dining room.

Dust at least once a month.  Dust and dirt attract moisture, and moisture is a big killer of oak furniture.  Clean and dry are the keywords here.

When you dust your oak table, your cloth should be dry.  Again, the less moisture that touches your oak dining table, the better.

Never set hot or cold items directly on the table surface.  Few things will damage a finish like extreme temperature.  Always use coaster or place mats.

This should go without saying, but experience tells me otherwise.  Keep anything that resembles alcohol away from your oak dining table.  This includes, but is not limited to nail polish remover, perfumes, and paint thinner.  Nothing will damage your finish faster than these.

Plastic stuff should be kept away from your table also.  Things like tablecloths, toys, or storage containers will leach the surface if exposed over a period of time.

Keep your oak dining table away from direct sunlight. Curtains or drapes are OK to keep over the windows if there are a lot of them, but the sunlight should never touch the surface directly.

OK, so oak furniture wasn’t the first furniture available.  That would most likely have been rock.  Imagine sitting on a stone sofa.  My butt and back hurt just thinking about it.

It probably wasn’t too long before mankind discovered that wood provided much more comfort and style than rock ever could.  Europeans found oak in large supply, making it the obvious choice for early furniture makers.  The first oak furniture was probably pretty crude, consisting little more than carved logs shaped into a chair or a table shape.

These furniture makers favored oak also because, after trying other woods, realized oak was stronger and more durable than almost any other wood.  As an added benefit, they discovered that oak naturally repelled insects and mold, something no other wood did.  Oak furniture became the standard.

Modern science now tells us that oak’s ability to keep insects and mold away is because it contains a chemical called tannin, which is also found in grape peels and walnut hulls.  This is another reason oak furniture is still the best available today.

Eventually, however, since oak was in such extreme demand, early furniture makers and users exhausted the bountiful supplies of oak, driving the price up.  Being rarer meant that oak was harder to find and that more people wanted it.  Oak furniture became wooden gold, as much in demand as gold or diamonds.

Most furniture today is made from plastic and other synthetics, materials that are not in short supply and are less expensive.  Even though they’re cheaper, most lack the style of solid oak furniture.

This means that those who truly want the best furniture available today are willing to pay more.  The oak furniture that society took for granted just 200 years ago has become much sought after.