Types of Wood Commonly Used to Make Furniture

For more than 30 years, GBS Enterprises has provided the mattress, pest control, and hospitality industries with furniture warranty coverage through its GBS Warranty plans. These warranties are fully underwritten by Starr Companies and CNA Insurance and cover a huge range of accidental damage. With a GBS warranty, consumers receive protection for all types of furniture, including wood furniture.

The following are a few common types of wood used to make furniture:

- Ash: This tough hardwood is very flexible and is often used for bent furniture parts or veneers. Despite its name, ash wood comes in a huge range of colors, including gray, cream, and reddish-brown. The cost of ash is moderate compared to many other types of wood.

- Cherry: Another hardwood, cherry has a fine grain and is easily shaped and polished. Most cherry woods range from reddish-brown to blond and the color may darken as the wood ages. Unfortunately, cherry is expensive and difficult to work with by hand.

- Pine: An inexpensive and light wood, pine is available in whitish and yellowish tints and is typically used to make Colonial furniture and farmhouse-style furniture. Pine is also ideal for children's furniture since it takes paint well. However, since pine is a softwood, it more susceptible to dents and scratches.

What Do Furniture Manufacturers Mean by Bonded Leather?

GBS Enterprises, a company based in Sutton, Nebraska, has offered warranty protection for mattresses and other furnishings for more than three decades. A GBS warranty is a great way to protect an investment in a nice piece of furniture, such as a leather couch.

When purchasing leather furniture, it is important to learn some of the lingo used by salespeople, who may try to sell you bonded leather as a cheaper option. The problem is that bonded leather can hardly be called leather at all. According to industry standards, this material only needs to consist of 17 percent leather to get the name. The rest of the composition comes from extensive processing.

When a hide comes into the factory, shapes are cut from it for use in making furniture, but scraps always remain. These scraps enter a machine that grinds them into tiny pieces. Manufacturers set those pieces in a thin layer and adhere them together with polyurethane.

Because of this final step, bonded leather tends to feel more like plastic than leather. Furthermore, the product does not wear like normal leather; it will simply show wear instead of acquiring a patina over time.

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