Humble origins for pine furniture
In Britain at least, the pine bedside cabinet or nightstand was originally intended for the poorer end of the furniture buying spectrum. People of affluence commissioned their furniture from cabinet makers and would usually have it made in hardwood, such as oak or, if they could afford it, mahogany. Sometimes it would be a hardwood bedside cabinet with veneers of the more expensive woods such as walnut or mahogany laid over the top.
Pine was imported in large quantities and sometimes any items of furniture made from this timber would be referred to as deal (such as ‘a bedside cabinet in deal’). This term originally referred to the quantity of timber being traded, the dimensions of a ‘deal’ being 7ins wide, 3ins thick and 6 feet long. A deal was usually pine but could also apply to fir trees, which are also fast growing coniferous trees found in many of the same regions as pines.
Deal or pine bedside cabinets might have been bought by the upper working, or lower middle classes in Victorian Britain but the very poorest would have found the price of even a pine bedside cabinet unachievable and, with almost nothing to put in it, pointless. The wealthiest sections of society might have purchased pine bedside cabinets, not for their own use, but for the use of their army of household servants.
The new age for pine furniture
Two World Wars all but obliterated the Victorian social order as well as, in many of Britain’s industrial towns, much of the furniture. By the 1950s everyone, it was agreed, should have decent housing, either privately-owned or provided by the state. The dark, gloomy, slums of the Victorian era were swept away and replaced with modern blocks of flats in the urge to live in clean, light conditions. Heavy ornate Victorian furniture became unfashionable and pine began its rise in popularity.
Pine was light and fresh and fitted perfectly with the desire for a new style of living. Towards the end of the 1960s it was realised that much of the dark Victorian furniture from farmhouse and country cottage sales was actually pine furniture hiding under layers of dirt and wax polish. When this furniture, including many pine bedside cabinets, was cleaned back to the bare wood it had an attractive light colour, which had been mellowed by age. The age of stripped pine furniture had arrived.
Stripped pine
Many businesses, including our supplier CPW or Country Pine Warehouse, were established in response to the new demand for stripped pine.. They would find antique or Victorian pine furniture, dip it in acid to clean it and then sell it on. This explains CPW’s expertise today in manufacturing traditional styles of solid pine furniture.
An aspect of pine furniture that sometimes confuses purchasers is the fact that it changes colour as it ages. Brand new pine furniture is almost white but as time passes, atmospheric conditions cause the wood to darken and yellow. It is an inevitable process and all wax, lacquer and other finishes will exacerbate this effect to a greater or lesser degree.
The colour of a pine bedside cabinet
Problems may arise when, for example, a pine bedside cabinet is purchased, followed some years later by another item of pine bedroom furniture from exactly the same range. When the new item is delivered there will be, to the consternation of the householder, a difference in colour between the two as they will not have noticed the gradual change in colour during their years of ownership. Fortunately, within a short time of perhaps a few months to a year, the contrast between the two colours will reduce significantly.