Trends in wood veneers for use in furniture come and go. Since 1960 we have had: sapele, teak, elm, ash, maple, yew, cherry and wenge but now is the age of walnut.

The common walnut and the black walnut and its allies, are important for their attractive timber, which is hard, dense, tight-grained and polishes to a very smooth finish. The colour ranges from creamy white in the sapwood to a dark chocolate colour in the heartwood. When kiln-dried, walnut wood tends toward a dull brown colour, but when air-dried can become a rich purplish-brown. Because of its colour, hardness and grain it is a prized furniture and carving wood. Walnut burls (or ‘burrs’ in Europe) are commonly used to create bowls and other turned pieces. Veneer sliced from walnut burl is one of the most valuable and highly prized by cabinet makers and prestige car manufacturers. Walnut wood has been the timber of choice for gun makers for centuries, including the Gewehr 98 and Lee Enfield rifles of the First World War. It remains one the most popular choices for rifle and shotgun stocks, and is generally considered to be the premium – as well as the most traditional – wood for gun stocks, due to its resilience to compression along the grain. Walnut is also used in lutherie, i.e. making stringed musical instruments. The wood of the Butternut and related Asian species is of much lower value, softer, coarser, less strong and heavy, and paler in colour.

In some areas of the US black walnut is the most valuable commercial timber species. In Europe, various EU-led scientific programs have studied walnut growing for timber.

Although often associated with antique furniture of the 17th and 18th centuries and laterly in Art Nouveau and Art Deco, the rich colour and grain of this beautiful wood works wonderfully well with today’s uncluttered, minimalist designs where the natural elegance of the grain needs no further embellishment.

When the Utility furniture scheme was abolished in 1952 and as we emerged from post war austerity, furniture makers looked around for new cabinet making woods to tempt a new generation of home owners with.

An early entrant was sapele, an African hardwood closely resembling mahogany. A new trend in interior design, contemporary, proved very popular with the post war generation, anxious to move on from the heavy and fussy oak and walnut bedroom and dining room suites of their parents. Much contemporary furniture began to be finished with sapele veneer, often complemented with black detail on the legs of dressing tables and living room furniture and sometimes black glass for shelves.

Very little furniture of the time was made from solid wood, chipboard was yet to arrive, so the constructural substrates were principally blockboard and plywood. Precious European hardwoods and expensively imported African timbers were valued for their beauty but were  far too valuable to be used for construction; so the ancient cabinet making craft if veneering became predominant.

‘Veneer is obtained either by “peeling” the trunk of a tree or by slicing large rectangular blocks of wood known as flitches. The appearance of the grainfigure in wood comes from slicing through the growth rings of a tree and depends upon the angle at which the wood is sliced. There are three main types of veneer-making equipment used commercially: and

• A rotary lathe in which the wood is turned against a very sharp blade and peeled off in one continuous or semi-continuous roll. Rotary-cut veneer is mainly used for plywood, as the appearance is not desirable because the veneer is cut concentric to the growth rings.
• A slicing machine in which the flitch or piece of log is raised and lowered against the blade and slices of the log are made. This yields veneer which looks like sawn pieces of wood, cut across the growth rings.
• A half-round lathe in which the log or piece of log can be turned and moved in such a way to expose the most interesting parts of the grain.

Each slicing processes gives a very distinctive type of grain, depending upon the tree species. In any of the veneer slicing methods, when the veneer is sliced, a distortion of the grain occurs. As it hits the wood, the knife blade creates a “loose” side where the cells have been opened up by the blade, and a “tight” side.

Traditionally, veneers were also sawn, but this is more wasteful of wood. Veneering is an ancient art, dating back to the ancient Egyptians who used veneers on their furniture and sarcophagi.’ (Wikipedia)

Veneering overcomes the tendency of solid hardwoods to expand, contract and distort, particularly in centrally heated environments, it reduces costs as decorative hardwoods become ever more expensive and environmentaly helpful in conserving  stocks of diminishing resources.

Meanwhile the Scandinavians were developing their own ideas in modern furniture design and teak was about to take the furniture market by storm.

I love the fact that when I open the solid oak front door of my ordinary 1930s house, I see a pine panelled staircase with an oak handrail, original pine interior doors (not stripped pine, they never were painted) and the pitch pine close boarded floor. The original wooden detail was a major factor in our choice of thes house 25 years ago.

I wish that most of my posessions were made from real wood; not my mobile phone or my car of course, although those half-timbered Morris Minors from the 50s are rather sweet.

Wouldn’t I love to furnish my house with with real wood furniture thoughout, but unfortunately, it is largely beyond my means.  However, I do enjoy designing real wood fitted furniture for Options’ clients and delight in seeing some of it in situ.

These photographs are just a small selection from some recent photo shoots and will soon contribute to extra pages in our photo gallery. They include wardrobes with solid walnut framed Edenbridge doors, a study with a sumtpuous walnut veneered desk that makes the most of this beautiful grain and incorporates an unusual range of walnut veneered doored cupboards and white laquered bookshelves and my f avourite, a stunning range of oak veneered bedroom furniture, with veneered interiors, bow fronted wardrobe doors and drawers, bow topped pass doors and door linings and, best of all, the detail on the doors and drawer fronts is of inset panels of pippy oak veneer.

Don’t ask the price but these three clients certainly feel that they have got real value for money. This is cabinet making of the highest order and this furniture will fulfill the adage the ‘a thing of beauty is a joy forever’.

If you are in the market for some craftsman built, bespoke, real wood furniture take a look at what options has to offer or talk to an options designer.