Wood Guide: 4 Top Woods for Custom Furniture

With 100,000 wood species out there, it’s difficult to know which one to choose for your custom furniture. Without knowing the properties and characteristics of each species, you could end up picking one that doesn’t suit your needs.

Here are four popular wood options for your custom furniture:

1. White Oak

Saturday Stool by BUCKSHEE woodshop

A favourite for custom wood for furniture, white oak is beautiful, dense and water resistant. It has a mostly-consistent cappucino brown colour and beautiful cathedral shaped grain. The dense grain provides water resistance which makes it a great choice in kitchens + bathrooms. White oak is generally on the mid-high end of the price scale here in Vancouver, BC. As a bonus, it often contains beautiful medullary rays that shimmer in the sunlight.

Here’s what the Wood Database says: Strong, beautiful, rot-resistant, easy to work, and economical: white oak represents an exceptional value to woodworkers. It’s no wonder that the wood is so widely used in cabinet and furniture making.

2. Ash

Ash Bench by BUCKSHEE woodshop

With a grain pattern similar to oak, this lightweight + durable hardwood is a less expensive alternative to white oak here in Vancouver. Ash is mostly a pale yellow colour with some darker brown areas; the colour of ash can vary in consistency. This wood has been a top choice for furniture for some time but recently skyrocketed in popularity. 

Here’s what the Wood Database says: White Ash has excellent shock resistance, and along with hickory (Carya spp.), it is one of the most commonly used hardwoods for tool handles in North America—particularly in shovels and hammers where toughness and impact resistance is important.

When stained, ash can look very similar to oak (Quercus spp.), although oaks have much wider rays, which are visible on all wood surfaces—even on flatsawn surfaces, where they appear as short, thin brown lines between the growth rings. Ashes lack these conspicuous rays.

3. Black Walnut

Walnut Dining Table No. 435 by Elko Hardwoods

A prized hardwood, black walnut is a great choice for a high-end, upscale look and its price reflects that here in Vancouver. This wood typically has a straight grain, is slightly porous and has a bit of texture. Its colour is a dark chocolate brown (sometimes purple-ish) and can vary slightly with some lighter streaks.

Here’s what the Wood Database says: It would be hard to overstate Black Walnut’s popularity among woodworkers in the United States. Its cooperative working characteristics, coupled with its rich brown coloration puts the wood in a class by itself among temperate-zone hardwoods. To cap it off, the wood also has good dimensional stability, shock resistance, and strength properties.

4. Hard Maple

Sable Rock Maple Table by Lowen Design Studios

Also known as Eastern maple or sugar maple, this is truly one hard wood. It is super dense + smooth with a straight but sometimes wavy grain. The colour is mostly a pale white/golden yellow but can contain some reddish pink streaks, even some light brown. In Vancouver, BC, it is usually priced somewhere between ash and white oak. Maple is a solid choice for furniture.

Here’s what the Wood Database has to say: Also called rock maple, its wood may be fairly considered as the king of the Acer genus. Its wood is stronger, stiffer, harder, and denser than all of the other species of maple commercially available in lumber form.

Choosing the wood for your custom furniture is a big decision so it’s essential to consider the aspects that are most important to you. Be sure to factor durability, colour and cost when making your choice. Remember, custom furniture is a long-term investment so you’ll want to choose a wood that you’ll be comfortable living with for years to come.

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