Craft
6 min read
Mara Ellison
The long life of solid wood
Why we build in solid oak and walnut, and what that means for a table you might own for forty years.
Most furniture is designed to look good on the day it arrives. We try to design for the day after that, and the ten thousand days after that.
Why solid wood ages well
A veneered top can only be sanded once, if at all. Solid oak or walnut can be sanded, re-oiled and brought back to life again and again. Scratches become part of the story instead of the end of it.
Wood also moves. It breathes with the seasons, and good joinery — mortise and tenon, dovetails, floating panels — gives it room to do that without cracking.
What we look for at the mill
We buy kiln-dried timber from mills that replant what they harvest, and we choose boards for straight, even grain. The offcuts go into smaller pieces like stools and bowls, so very little is wasted.
The result is furniture that is a little heavier and a little more expensive than flat-pack — and, we think, a great deal cheaper over a lifetime.
