Most people associate comfortable furniture with soft cushions and pillows, but there is another dimension to comfort that involves emotional comfort as well as physical solace. Look around some beautiful houses. Other than the upholstered furniture – sofas, love seats, chairs, and ottomans – most of the furniture will be direct, firm, softened only by a seat cushion or a pad on a wooden arm.
But the beauty of the wood provides its own kind of comfort, with its appealing silhouettes and gentle links to nature and, if you own antiques, to the past.
You need wood furniture pieces to balance the softness of fabric-covered furniture. Chairs, stools, benches, tables, desks, chests of drawers, cabinets, jelly cabinets (two-door hutches or high pieces), or credenzas, whether painted or stained – these are the pieces that will give your room personality and character.
One of the reasons a lot of people are so attracted to country furniture is the down-to-earth honesty and charm of wood, but most of the people are equally comfortable in finely decorated rooms with elegantly proportioned eighteenth-century antiques from England, France, and Italy. You can love the unpretentiousness of pine with its light, simple appearance, and also appreciate the beauty of delicate marquetry where three or four different fruitwoods are intricately inlaid.
Different woods have different looks as well as feelings. Fruitwood and oak are both medium-colored woods, yet I prefer the character and grain of fruitwood to oak in furniture because fruitwood has a softer, more refined and delicate texture, and tones of yellow, brown, and dark brown that add to its warmth. Dark woods such as mahogany, valued for its hard reddish-brown character and appearance, tend to look more formal and serious.
Cabinetmakers used mahogany when they intended to carve intricate designs in the wood. If you choose dark wood furniture, you should also consider having a dark wood floor. Dark objects on a light floor can be unsettling, though some people like this dramatic contrast. If your furniture is not ideal, blend wood tones, so the eye is not drawn to particular pieces. If you want a light-toned room, be sure to select furniture to enhance your scheme, remembering that dark colors absorb light. There has never been more furniture available to the public than today. If you can’t afford an antique, manufacturers give you the flavor of the classical past in well-made reproductions.
Choosing one of these furniture pieces is a way to really make your room something special. It the time to bring back the value of decorative furniture. We have all gotten caught up in specific furniture that is only used for its purposes and serves no purpose in making the space more attractive. Since each piece that is put inside of the space affects the way the other pieces and the space itself looks, one should really consider the impact that each and every piece can have on the environment of your home.
