Why I Build Furniture from Solid Wood

Wherever possible, I choose to build my furniture using solid wood construction. Whether I am making a bespoke record player stand, vinyl storage, or a walnut desk for a home office, the decision to work in solid timber is a considered one. It is rooted in longevity, material honesty, and a belief that furniture should improve with age rather than decline.

Each piece starts with a visit to a beautiful timber yard like this one

Solid wooden furniture ages gracefully. When a piece is made from board material with a veneered surface, an inevitable knock or scratch will usually break through the thin veneer. Once damaged, veneer is extremely difficult to repair convincingly; the underlying substrate is exposed and the illusion of solid timber is lost. In most cases the damage is simply tolerated rather than repaired, and over time these marks accumulate until the piece is visually compromised and eventually discarded.

In contrast, when a piece of bespoke furniture made from solid wood is knocked, it gains a dent rather than a failure. The first marks can be frustrating to the attentive owner, but they do not undermine the integrity of the piece. As time goes on, these marks actually begin to form a patina that reflects use and care; the furniture develops character rather than looking tired. When properly maintained, solid wood furniture does not deteriorate aesthetically. It matures.

A wax finish is particularly well suited to this approach; it can be renewed indefinitely and improves with age as thin layers are built up. When I build a piece, whether it is bespoke living room furniture or solid walnut furniture for everyday use, I do so with the intention that it will last and be cared for over many decades.

That said, veneered and engineered materials do have their place. They are more economical, more dimensionally stable, and allow wide panels to be produced efficiently without the risk of movement. For fitted cabinetry, large architectural surfaces, or cost-sensitive projects, these materials can be entirely appropriate. They have enabled good design to be more accessible, and when used honestly and well, can perform effectively.

The difficulty arises when veneered furniture is presented as a long-term product. Once the surface is compromised, the material has little capacity for repair, renewal, or graceful ageing. Unlike solid wood, it cannot be refinished repeatedly or adapted as it wears. For furniture intended to be kept, used, and passed on, this limitation becomes significant.

I have often wondered what the heirlooms of the future will be. In a digital world, we will not be passing down old phones or computers. Yet the furniture and objects I inherited from my grandparents offer a tangible connection to them and to a way of life that preceded my own. As a bespoke furniture maker, I consider it important to continue this tradition by making custom wood furniture today that will still have value in the future. Solid wood construction is one of the most reliable ways to achieve that.

The Practical Challenges of Solid Wood

Working with solid wood does come with challenges; it costs more initially and requires greater care in design and construction. However, the principle remains simple: buy quality and buy once. Bespoke furniture, when properly made, becomes more cost effective over its lifetime than cheaper alternatives that require replacement. One of my favourite phrases, printed on a Vitsoe tote bag I own, captures this succinctly: “Living better, with less, that lasts longer.”

For those unfamiliar with woodworking, the primary technical challenge of solid wood is its response to changes in moisture content. Timber expands and contracts as humidity fluctuates, and if this movement is not properly accounted for, a piece of furniture can distort or fail over time.

The implications of this movement are complex and highly specific to each piece. A significant portion of a furniture maker’s work is therefore devoted to understanding, predicting, and accommodating this behaviour through careful design and construction.

When wood dries from above fibre saturation point to a kiln-dried state, the shrinkage in the radial and tangential directions can be as high as 7 and 14 per cent respectively. This can be accounted for by working with wood that has already been kiln dried and, in an ideal world, adjusting the climate of the workshop to match the destination of the piece of furniture so that the moisture levels can normalise and reduce future shrinkage.

There is also a second group of dimensional changes relating to varying moisture content of timber which is referred to as movement. These are not the same as shrinkage on drying but instead relate to diurnal or seasonal changes in relative humidity. The values for shrinkage generally follow those for seasonal movement and again vary significantly by species. One notable exception is oak, which has high shrinkage but only medium movement. Some commonly used commercial timbers with small movement include mahogany, iroko, teak and Douglas fir. Medium movement timbers include ash, elm, lime, maple, oak, sapele, sycamore, utile, walnut and Scots pine. Large movement timbers include beech, birch and holly.

To fully arrest seasonal movement it is possible to impregnate the cell walls with chemicals which hold them in a swollen state even after the removal of water, thereby minimising further dimensional movement. Both phenol formaldehyde and polyethylene glycol can be used, the latter being widely used in the conservation of previously waterlogged wooden items. This is only really practicable in very particular circumstances, however[1]

Timbers with low movement values are always in demand, particularly for high-quality joinery, panelling and domestic flooring. This is because movement of timbers with higher values results in loosening of joints and the development of unsightly gaps. The variation in humidity and associated movement is reduced in an insulated, centrally heated home but must not be ignored.

Furthermore, warm centrally heated homes are far removed from the colder, damper workshops where furniture is made. The most critical moment is therefore moving furniture from the workshop - where it has acclimatised to higher humidity - into a dry home, where rapid moisture loss can cause joints to open up if the design has not allowed for movement.

Designing for Movement in Practice

Despite these challenges, working with solid wood remains both viable and rewarding when its behaviour is properly understood. It is impossible to permanently restrain wood fibres against their natural tendencies; simple glued joints will eventually fail. The correct response is not resistance but accommodation.

Movement can be reduced by selecting timber with a moisture content that sits midway within the expected service range. A further essential step is a two-stage machining process: components are first machined slightly oversize and then allowed to rest. Cutting timber releases internal stresses, and allowing these to resolve before final machining is one of the reasons well-made solid wood furniture takes time.

I will outline three practical design approaches used in my own work.

Sliding dovetails: These allow shelves or panels to be mechanically locked into place while still permitting seasonal movement. In my bespoke HiFi cabinets and record player cabinets, as shown below, shelves are housed in sliding dovetail grooves. They are driven home tightly, yet remain free to move fractionally as humidity changes. The dovetail profile also helps restrain cupping, keeping the wood of the carcasses flat over time.

Aligned grain direction: Another effective strategy is to ensure grain direction runs consistently between connected components. When tangential and radial movement is aligned, rather than working at cross purposes, adjacent parts expand and contract by similar amounts. This approach is used in my bespoke record player stands and vinyl storage furniture to maintain stability while allowing natural movement.

Fixing solid wood tops correctly: When securing solid wood tops, such as on a wooden desk or walnut desk or attaching a HiFi cabinet to the legs, rigid fixing will eventually cause failure. Most shrinkage occurs across the width of the timber. The majority of the shrinkage occurs across the width and so the correct approach is to screw the top to the front rail and then slot screw at the back, so that the table top is held down but can also slide forwards and backwards[2]. The centres can be held down by wooden buttons than work in a similar manner.

Material Connection

The final reason I continue to work with solid wood is personal. I enjoy the joinery, the physicality of the material, and the connection between the finished piece and the tree it came from. That connection is difficult to replicate with veneered or composite materials.

Planing along the grain and watching it change as you work deeper into the timber creates an understanding that directly informs design and making. Being true to the material matters. Whether I am building a bespoke office desk, a custom record player stand, or bespoke living room furniture in solid walnut, my aim remains the same: to make furniture that respects the nature of the material and rewards use over time.

Learn more about me and my work here.

[1] Desch, H.E. (1981) Timber: Its Structure, Properties and Utilisation. 6th edn. London: Macmillan Press.

[2] Joyce, E. (2000) The Technique of Furniture Making. 4th edn. London: The Furniture Industry Research Association.