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What is rustic furniture?
The definition of what constitutes rustic furniture is slightly different in North America to the UK.  The Americans (and presumably Canadians) regard rustic furniture as being furniture made of wood still in an unworked or virtually unworked form.  In other words, furniture made of sticks or sections that can clearly be identified as part of a tree.

In this country rustic furniture would at one time have been taken to mean furniture from a rural area or made by rural craftsmen.  A rustic wardrobe would have been made of pine – as a cheaper alternative to hardwoods – and crafted by the local carpenter rather than an urban-based joiner or cabinet maker.  More recently it includes any furniture that looks, or has been made to look, old or used.  It should perhaps therefore be more properly called distressed furniture – though perhaps this is regarded as a less attractive term for marketing purposes.

How did rustic furniture become so popular?
So how, or why did ‘rustic furniture’ become so popular and give rise to the rustic wardrobe?  Certainly before the 1960s, such furniture would simply have been regarded as tatty or poor quality.  There are perhaps two major factors that influenced the rise of distressed furniture.  The first was the rise in popularity of the concept of the freedom of the individual.  This was a public reaction to the effects of two World Wars when conformity had been required and encouraged to achieve common goals.    

In the sixties it became accepted that an individual should be allowed to pursue their own objectives and do what pleased them.  It was no longer essential for personal taste to be dictated by convention.  If an individual wanted to furnish their property in their own style with, for example a rustic wardrobe, this was now more socially acceptable than it had been in times past.

The second great influence was the effect of changes to the taxation system of Britain.  Voters felt that the sacrifices of the 40s and 50s should be rewarded by a fairer distribution of the country’s wealth.  Landowners and the occupants of large country houses were subject to new taxation levels which made it difficult or sometimes impossible to maintain these properties in the same way as in the past.  Some were gifted to the nation through organisations such as the National Trust, but others simply faded into decline.   

Against this background, it then became fashionable in ‘society circles’ to have interiors furnished with items that had once been elegant but were now decidedly faded or worn.  Ultimately this led to the birth of what is now known as shabby chic.  It was acceptable, even fashionable, to have furniture that was not just patinated like a good quality antique, but positively worn.  

While the term shabby chic is mainly applied to painted furniture, the concept of having worn or faded furniture also applied itself to furniture in wood finishes.  In both cases, original distressed or shabby chic items could not fulfil demand so entrepreneurs began producing new furniture that was made to look distressed or rustic – hence the rustic wardrobe was born.   

The birth of the rustic wardrobe
Early rustic furniture as it has become known, was second hand furniture that was beaten with chains, punctured with darts or even peppered with shotgun pellets to achieve a worn appearance.  Gradually the methods for producing that rustic wardrobe were refined and improved.  Today’s rustic furniture usually has a more convincing ‘patination’ to it, even though this has been acquired in a modern workshop rather than through years of service in a household.

Reclaimed furniture is, strictly-speaking, furniture made from timber that has already been used elsewhere.  Typically this might be furniture made from old railway sleepers or telegraph poles.  But this idea is by no means new, as timber from old ships and other sources – such as monasteries closed during the dissolution under Henry VIII – have always been re-used.  In more recent years, timber from packing cases supplying American forces bases in Britain has been used for furniture making.   

Where the wood is not second hand but has been made to look like such, this furniture is described as reclaimed-style furniture.