Your Wood Furniture Buying Guide

When it’s time to bring some new life into your home with new furniture, it’s important that you know what you’re getting into. If you’re craving the warmth and style of wood, going custom is a great way to get exactly what you want and a piece that will last for decades, which means significant savings down the road compared to ready-made purchases. These are some of the things you should know about custom furniture before you take the plunge.

Type of Wood

Before you decide, it’s important to understand the different qualities of wood used by a manufacturer and whether or not they will meet your needs. At Woodcraft, we commonly use oak, maple, pine, and vintage cherry on our pieces, each of which has its own special qualities that make it better suited to different purposes.

Oak: A strong material, oak will last for the duration, whatever job it fulfills, making it especially great for high-use pieces like dining tables and chairs.

Maple: Usually a creamy off-white in colour, maple is an excellent and strong hardwood (strong enough to be a common feature of baseball bats, including the one used by Barry Bonds). For those who want more colour and pattern, wormy maple is streaked with knots and veins caused by boring beetles.

Pine: A softer material, you wouldn’t want to turn pine into a chopping block, but it does not shrink or swell as much as other materials as the temperature changes.

Vintage Cherry: As cherry ages, its colour changes, reaching a darker, deeper brown or red over the years to create an enviable complexity. At Woodcraft, we use vintage cherry that has already darkened, so you know whether or not will fit with your home decor.

Stability

Before you buy anything, you should ask about how the piece was constructed and what kind of joints the craftsmen used. Look for pieces that were constructed using either dowel joints or mortise-and-tenon joints as these are more stable and secure than buttered or mitered alternatives. As far as chair legs go, joints should be squared off with diagonal blocks to prevent the chair from shifting when weight and pressure are applied.

Delivery

Many big box furniture stores recoup the costs of big discounts when it comes to delivery since many customers treat it as an afterthought. Don’t neglect it: once you’ve bought something like a sofa or a long dining table, you’re going to have to get it home somehow. Our delivery service is reasonably priced in addition to being guaranteed and insured, so you do not have to worry about anything if it’s damaged during the delivery. It includes setup, placement, and clean up, although you can also economize with warehouse pickup or curbside delivery. We deliver across Toronto 6 days a week, but we also ship across Ontario, Canada, and internationally.

Time

Great wood furniture takes time because it’s made-to-order, using the materials, stains, and dimensions you want, and built to last with solid joints: generally, we take about 8 weeks for most custom orders at Woodcraft. Keep in mind that the furniture you buy from us will last for decades, even generations, and we make it worth the wait.