© rhyslud
Solid wood furniture has a natural look and many people are choosing natural materials these days due to growing environmental awareness. Furnishing with solid wood furniture represents healthy living and sustainability.
Numerous providers only offer options for furnishing with solid wood furniture, such as the DeLife GmbH online shopmoebel-massiv.com. The company ensures that all materials are obtained, processed and used in an ecologically sensible manner. The focus here is on the principle of sustainability, so that those interested in the environment are offered a large selection of solid wood furniture.
The quality concept of solid wood
© Hans
The quality term “solid wood” is subject to a strict standard (DIN 68871), because pieces of furniture made from wood are not necessarily “solid”. This binding declaration explains that furniture may only be described as solid wood furniture if all parts (exception: back wall/drawer bottoms) are made of solid wood and are not veneered. For example, “solid beech” means that a piece of furniture is made entirely of beech wood except for the back wall and the drawer bottoms. For construction wood, i.e. wood that is not visible, such as that used for the central rail and the support slats in a beech bed, softwood may be used to ensure a good price-performance ratio. The stability is not affected.
The starting product for solid wood furniture are panels made of glued slats or grown wood. First, the wood is subjected to long storage and drying. It is then cut into lamellas in the sawmill, cut accordingly and then planed. A glued wood panel is then created by connecting all slats with the same type of wood, cross section and length using glue and a panel press. This structure comes closest to natural wood. In addition, the wood can continue to breathe.
The advantages of solid wood furniture
© Rainer Lippert
Using solid wood furniture can ensure an optimal and pleasant indoor climate because the wood is open-pored. This also reduces electrostatic dust charging, which in turn has an antibacterial effect.
One of the biggest advantages of solid wood furniture is its stability and robustness. This means you can live intensively with this furniture without worrying that it won't hold up under heavy use.
The most important solid woods and their properties
© enbodenumer
The most important and best-known solid woods include:
– Beech
– Oak
– Birch
– Teak
– Cherry
– Larch
– Ramin
Beech is probably one of the best-known solid woods. This very hard wood is particularly suitable for heavily used furniture. In particularly valuable beech trees, the heartwood often turns reddish. Oak is just as durable. In addition, the valuable wood is strong, wear-resistant, elastic and weather-resistant. This type of wood was even considered sacred by the Germanic peoples and the ancient Greeks.
Birch is primarily used for furniture and interior design, as well as as veneer and plywood. In addition, this type of wood is suitable for imitating precious woods. Teak wood is also one of these precious woods. Teak was originally native to Thailand and Burma, although today the most important type of teak is grown in various tropical countries, such as Java. This precious wood is traditionally used for furniture and shipbuilding.
Cherry wood is also very popular because of its golden brown, reddish darkening wood. The bird and wild cherry is a native species of sweet cherry varieties, which is a natural part of mixed forests in Germany. However, the stock has not yet recovered from the fact that the wood was preferentially felled in the 19th century during the Biedermeier period. Nowadays, however, more is being planted again, so that the stock is increasing in volume again.
Larch wood is known for its hardness and is generally used for windows. Ramin wood is also used for moldings, picture frames, doors and furniture. This type of wood is the dominant tree in the swamp forests of Malaysia and Indonesia.
