Chinese Oak & Ash Furniture

Ash furniture is not as widely known as oak furniture yet this remarkable hardwood, which is noted for its properties of toughness and shock resistance, also produces an attractive grain for furniture making.

Most of our ranges are of solid ash, so whether choosing ash bedroom furniture or ash dining furniture, you can be sure the quality - from companies such as Devonshire Oak and ASL - will be of a good standard.

Ash furniture ranges and suppliers
Ash is not a popular furniture timber but this is largely due to it being outshadowed by the traditional hardwood choice of oak.  There is nothing intrinsically wrong with the timber and it produces furniture with a clean grain and an attractive light colouring.

From Suffolk comes the Oakhampton range of bedroom, dining and living room furniture from Direct Forest Products or DFP (dfpl.co.uk).  These are made from a combination of ash and oak.  The quality of materials and construction when taken into account with the price make this another excellent value for money range of hardwood furniture.  

Exeter-based ASL found a (slightly) more creative name for its ash furniture and has come up with the Ashley ranges of bedroom, dining and living room furniture.  This is smart, contemporary-style furniture that looks much better first-hand than in its photographs. Country Pine Warehouse is an expert in pine furniture (!) but also supplies some excellent ranges in oak and, as mentioned here, ash.   

There are occasions when it is difficult to distinguish between oak and ash furniture, such is the quality of the timber, and the Contemporary range from Kettle Containers (kettle-containers.co.uk) is a case in point.  This was originally sold as oak furniture until the error was discovered and the word oak dropped from the range name.  Kettle Interiors as the company is also known supplies a diverse collection of furniture ranges, all of which offer excellent quality and competitive prices.   

Concluding our selection of ash furniture ranges is the very smart contemporary-style Sherwood range of bedroom furniture from Core Products Ltd.  Core is our specialist supplier of self assembly furniture and this solid ash range offers not only excellent quality and value but, due to its flat pack nature, it can be delivered within days rather than weeks.

More about ash furniture
Making ash furniture is almost unknown before the 20th Century, although ash burrs and black ash were used as decorative veneers on furniture made of other hardwoods.  There are perhaps two reasons for this: oak was still the predominant native hardwood for furniture making until the heavy demands of the First World War (for wagons, pit props, shoring for trenches etc.) decimated national stocks.  Secondly, the shock resistant properties of ash made it the timber of choice for wheel spokes, tool handles and similar uses until developments in materials technology found replacements for these uses. With oak stocks in short supply and the traditional uses of ash disappearing, it made sense to use it for producing ash furniture.  Ash occurs naturally and grows extremely well in many parts of the UK, although it is fair to say that much of the ash furniture on sale is produced overseas.