Understanding Wood: A Guide to Furniture Timbers

Wood is the material most of us grew up with in furniture without thinking much about it. But not all wood is the same, and the differences matter — not just aesthetically, but in how a piece behaves over time, how it ages, and how it fits different uses and spaces. Choosing a solid oak dining chair is a different decision to choosing one in beech or teak, even if they look similar in a product image. Understanding why helps you choose better.

What follows is a practical guide to the timbers most commonly used in quality furniture — what they look like, how they behave, where they work best, and what to expect from them over the years.

Oak

Oak is the most widely used hardwood in European furniture, and for good reason. It's dense, durable and exceptionally stable — it doesn't warp or crack easily with changes in temperature and humidity. Its grain is distinctive: pronounced, with characteristic ray flecks that catch light differently depending on how the wood has been cut.

Oak ages well, developing a warm golden tone over time that most people find more appealing than the raw wood. It takes finishes well — oil, wax, lacquer — and can be stained effectively if a different tone is required. For dining chairs and tables that will see years of daily use, oak is a very sound choice.

Beech

Beech is lighter in colour than oak — a pale, even cream — with a finer, more uniform grain. It's extremely hard and resists impact well, which makes it particularly suitable for chair legs and frames that take regular stress. Bentwood furniture — chairs with steamed, curved forms — is almost always made from beech, because it bends without breaking.

Beech can be stained to resemble other timbers, and is often finished in a grey wash that gives it a cooler, more contemporary tone. It doesn't have the visual character of oak, but its strength and workability make it one of the most practical timbers for seating.

Teak

Teak is exceptional. Its natural oil content makes it highly resistant to moisture, insects and rot — which is why it's been used in outdoor furniture and boat-building for centuries. Left untreated outside, it weathers to a silvery grey. Maintained with teak oil, it holds its warm golden-brown tone. Indoors, it brings a richness and depth that few other timbers match.

For outdoor dining chairs and tables that will genuinely be left outside through variable UK weather, teak is the most reliable choice. For indoor use, its density and character make it a compelling option for pieces you want to last a very long time.

Mango

Mango is a fast-growing hardwood with a striking grain — wide, varied, often with darker streaks running through a warm honey base. Because mango trees are abundant (they're primarily grown for fruit), the timber is relatively sustainable and affordable compared to slower-growing hardwoods.

It's softer than oak or teak, which means it can mark more easily, but many people consider that part of its character — the evidence of use. It takes oil finishes particularly well. For dining tables and sideboards where its broad grain can be displayed to good effect, mango is a genuinely beautiful choice.

Elm

Elm has a wild, irregular grain that gives it a distinctive visual energy. It's a tough, interlocking hardwood — the fibres run in multiple directions, which makes it difficult to split, historically valuable for chair seats that needed to accept spindles from different angles. Elm was the traditional wood of Windsor chairs for exactly this reason.

Today it's used in contemporary furniture for the character its grain brings — no two elm pieces are identical. Combined with metal frames, as in some of the dining chairs in our collection, it creates an interesting tension between industrial and natural that works well in contemporary interiors.

A note on solid vs engineered wood

Solid wood furniture is made from planks cut directly from a log. Engineered wood — MDF, chipboard, plywood — is made from processed wood fibres or veneers bonded with adhesive. Both have legitimate uses, but they behave very differently. Solid wood can be refinished, repaired and will last for generations with appropriate care. Engineered wood is more dimensionally stable in some respects but cannot be repaired in the same way and doesn't age in the same manner.

For furniture you want to live with for a long time — particularly seating and tables — solid wood is almost always the better investment.