Solid Wood Furniture - Our guide to Acacia

Those of us who know a little bit about furniture (or just have expensive taste) know that there is no comparison between solid wooden furniture and veneer. Wood effect and veneer neither look or feel like the real thing are are cerainly nothing like as strong.

But opting for a solid wooden nest of tables over a standard set can be an expensive decision. And nowadays many people disapprove of the use of solid wood in furniture production.  Are their concerns valid? And how do you avoid costly mistakes when buying solid wood furniture online. This guide will help.

I have concentrated on acacia furniture because this is what we specialise in. Our eBay store sells solid acacia coffee tables, solid acacia TV cabinets, solid acacia sideboards, solid acacia bedside tables and lots more solid acacia items!. I have spent a lot of time researching this type of wood and now feel qualifiied to write a guide to buying this particular type of furniture.

Acacia is one of the most beautiful and practical materials for creating high quality furniture. It is native to the North and North West of India and grown by farmers who often grow the trees on their own land. The timber is used in villages to produce furniture, doors, agricultural tools and accessories. The acacia tree grows very slowly which makes the wood incredibly hard and durable. The furniture and tools are used for years and passed down from generation to generation.

We should all be concerned about deforestation. It is easy to understand why some people disapprove of the use of solid wood in furniture production. However one should rememeber that the energy ulilised in the production of furniture from other industrial materials vastly outweighs the energy used to covert raw wood into a finshed product. The energy utislised in solid wooden furniture production is miniscule in compariosn to other production methods and can therefore be said to have the same affect on the environment

Since receiving several enquiries into the sustainability of the acacia wood we provide, I received reassurance from my supplier that all the furniture supplied is produced by reputable, indigenous tradesman who are themselves active in the conservation of the world woods. The supply of shesham furniture was halted recently by our suppliert due to a shorage in India. Plantations must be replenished before it will be available again.

A few interesting facts about Acacia Wood

Acacia wood comes from pod-bearing trees and is known for it's spectacular grain and rich contrasting colours. Not only environmentaly friendly and almost indesructable, this superior wood has another unique characteristic - which is the ability to change colour and luster in different lighting conditions (this phenonomen is called "chatoyancy" (you learn something new everyday). Take a look at the images of our solid wood log coffee table taken within approximately two minutes of each other. With a little cloud cover the table takes on a different colour in the fourth image. The same can be seen when comparing images of our solid wooden sideboard and solid wooden bedside tables. The sideboard was photographed in the morning sunshine whereas the bedsides were captured in the afternoon. They are the same colour and yet...not. It's amazing.

This chatoyancy can be incredibly frustrating to eBay sellers such as myself but is actually very beneficial to the buyer. Buying online is the one way to significantly reduce the cost of your solid wooden furniture set and yet so many sellers fail to accurately represent the colour and grain of the wood in question. The wonderfully blending multicoloured quality of acacia wood makes it ideal for any home decor. It compliments all interiors due to it's lovely natural tones. Not only this, acacia is naturally resinous which makes it resistant to stains and odours. You can clean acacia with soapy water! It truly is a wonderful material.

I hope I have managed to explain why Mark and I at Laura and Ashley's Next Door Furniture sell acacia furniture.

And please remember who to thank when 'chatoyancy' pops up in a pub quiz.

Thanks for reading. 

Jenny @ Laura & Ashley's Next Door Furniture