subject: Which One Is The Most Excellent Choice For Uncovered Wood Furniture - Pine Vs. Oak [print this page] Which One Is The Most Excellent Choice For Uncovered Wood Furniture - Pine Vs. Oak
The most easily available bare wood furniture is pine, and there are numerous reasons for this. Pine is plentiful and, as a soft wood, is fairly light and easy to work with. It also provides a good balance between appearance and durability, and survives better than many other types of solid wood in high humidity environments. It also takes stains and paints well, which are the most common means of finishing a piece of bare wood furniture.
Rate is another often influential factor. There's really no better value for your money than pine bare wood furniture, and with proper care, a pine piece can last for years. Its easy availability, attractiveness, robustness and price combine to make it an exceptional choice when considering the possession of a piece of unfinished furniture.
If pine is the most readily available type of bare wood furniture, then oak is not a lot behind. While more costly than pine (in part because of its somewhat lesser availability, but also since it's more difficult to use), oak is steeped in nostalgia and custom. Many prominent pieces of oak wood furniture crafted in the Middle Ages are still all over today, a testament to the stability of this type of wood.
Oak is a hardwood, and as such, will typically have more pronounced and interesting grain patterns. Like pine, it takes paints and stains perfectly, but where pine presents good durability for the money, oak offers excellent durability, and generally requires fewer in the way of maintenance and upkeep.
Because of this, while pine wood furniture is absolutely acceptable for numerous purposes, if the piece you're thinking is destined for high traffic and harsh use (a dining table or desk, for example) then spending a bit more and investing in oak is most likely the better choice.
If you don't be bothered mixing wood types in your home decoration, my suggestion would be this:
Make use of pine bare wood furniture for accent tables, book cases and other pieces where traffic and handling will be light to moderate. Also, pine should be considered a top contender in bathrooms and other high moisture environments.
Use oak bare wood furniture for heavy load/high use pieces such as desks and dining tables, where its greater stability will enable it to hold up to the rigors of regular use with relatively minimum in the way of upkeep.
Whatever kind of wood you settle on, with apt care and maintenance, your bare wood furniture should endure for generations and if you finish the piece yourself, it will be filled with a bit of your family's culture.
