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Brilliance in Craftsmanship
Brilliance in Craftsmanship
Livingstyle Furniture is hand-crafted from fine quality woods and often incorporates other quality construction materials such as aluminium, steel, glass, leather and marble. Since wood is the main component we’ll focus on how it’s used to make fine quality furniture.
TYPES OF WOOD
Hardwood
The term refers to all leaf-bearing trees rather than any degree of hardness. Those most often used in furniture construction include ash, birch, cherry, gum, mahogany, maple, oak, rosewood, teak and walnut
Softwood
Trees with needles or foliage that remains green year round. These include cedar, fir and pine.
HOW THE WOOD IS USED
Woods for Frame Construction
Pine, Podocarp and salusalu are often used in frame construction and other interior areas for their strength, stability and shock absorption qualities.
Woods for Exterior Surface
Cabinet woods are those used on exterior surfaces and must be carefully worked, carved, finished and polished. Cabinet woods include New Zealand Rimu, NZ beech, Kauri, cherry, mahogany, maple, oak and walnut.
Wood Preparation
Wood contains natural moisture which accounts for as much as one-third of the total weight of lumber when it is first received. The curing of lumber requires tremendous care and expertise.
The wood is air dried three to six months, depending on the thickness and type of the wood. It is then placed in a dry kiln for two to eight weeks. A moisture content of eight to ten percent assures the stability of the finished furniture, in either humid or desert climates.
After the lumber is properly dried, it is planed and cut to various widths and lengths and then matched for colour. Even within the same tree, colour varies greatly.
SOLID VS. VENEERED WOOD CONSTRUCTION
The word "solid" as used in the furniture industry may be confusing because both types - solid and veneered - are of solid wood construction.
Solid Wood Furniture
Solid is used to describe furniture with drawer fronts, tops, panels and other like surfaces made of whole wood, or of one piece, without plies of veneer.
Solid wood surfaces are composed of narrow solid wood planks, bonded permanently together, side by side. These planks serve to prevent splitting and warping when temperatures change and when the wood naturally expands and contracts. They also provide decorative variation.
Veneered Wood Furniture
In veneer construction, layers of woods are permanently bonded to a centre core on a solid wood or custom wood board. Veneering permits matching and repeating grain patterns that are impossible in solid lumber.
Veneering is used in about 80 percent of wood furniture, from the least to the some expensive one.
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