How to buy furniture online

It can be a very expensive and time consuming business trying to get your home into top condition. You may be doing some extensive restoration or rebuilding work or perhaps you are just trying to breathe some new life into familiar surroundings? Whichever of these applies to you it always makes sense to spend some time thinking about the sort of furnishings you want at home to relax in. Buying online is an ideal opportunity as you can browse a wide range of styles in different woods. As long as you stick with a reputable retailer with a good background in online sales, then you can make your purchase with complete confidence, assured that the goods may be returned if unsuitable and often with perks such as free delivery.

However, when you are looking to buy furniture online, it helps to understand some of the differences in construction and types of wood. For now, we'll concentrate on the types of wood as this probably has the largest bearing on how your new furniture will look and feel.

Most people do not understand the difference between hardwood and softwood. Both are used in furniture. They do similar things and both are types of solid timber.

Softwood

Softwoods are defined as timber from conifer trees. Most of them have needles instead of leaves. Everyone has memories of sharp pine needles, not leaves, falling from a real Christmas tree. These softwood trees grow in the colder temperature zones of the world such as Scotland and the Scandinavian countries. Some of the most popular softwoods used in furniture are pine, whitewood (spruce), red deal, redwood, cedar and Douglas fir.

England’s native woodland is broad-leaved trees but many conifers have been introduced because they grow quickly and so are also useful for paper production. Not all softwoods are soft. One example of a hard softwood timber is parana pine. It was used for solid wooden doors in Victorian and Edwardian homes and is difficult to work. Indeed, it is harder than many hardwoods.

Hardwood

Hardwood comes from trees that grow nuts or fruit. Some come from temperate zones and others from the tropics. The ones from cooler areas are deciduous which means that they lose their broad leaves in winter. Some examples of this type of tree are walnut, oak, ash and beech. The hardwood trees from tropical regions do not experience a winter. This means that they do not tend to lose their leaves as tropical areas just have hot and dry and hot and wet seasons. Examples of hardwoods from the hot regions are teak and mahogany.

Why are they called hardwoods? Hardwoods are very often, but not always, harder than softwoods but the definition is that a hardwood bears fruit, not cones. Therefore balsawood which is very soft indeed, is a hardwood. Some of the harder examples are iroko and ebony.

One must also consider the difference in cost. The length of time it takes to grow to a full-sized tree which is ready to cut down to make into furniture varies between hardwoods and softwoods. Softwoods can be mature and full-sized in 30 years. Deciduous hardwoods will take around 100 years to achieve the same level of maturity. Something that takes over three times as long to be useful explains why that lovely oak sideboard is so much more expensive than the same design in pine. How easy or difficult it is to “work” the material is another aspect that affects the purchase price. Harder timber takes more effort and therefore higher labour costs. I mentioned earlier that the hardness is not necessarily a reliable indicator and cited balsa as a very soft hardwood. 

Armed with the knowledge in this article, you will now be able to understand why certain types of timber cost more than others, and have more confidence in making a decision about the type of furniture which is right for your home.