Solid Pine Furniture

In British history, living conditions for the ordinary man and woman began to steadily improve from the 17th Century onwards. One of the consequences was that even people of relatively humble status began to want their own furniture. Furniture was traditionally made of hardwoods, especially oak and beech, but the woodland from which it was sourced was owned either by the Crown or wealthy landowners.

Given that much of this wood was earmarked for shipbuilding (for trade and defence) someone hit upon the novel idea of using pine; hence solid pine furniture came into being. Solid Pine furniture was the furniture equivalent of the Ford Model T. It may have been made in small workshops up and down the country, rather than being mass-produced, but it increasingly became the way for ordinary people to become furniture owners.

The only pine species native to Britain is the Scots Pine, but with over 100 species of pine found worldwide, supplies could be readily imported to fulfil the growing demand. Being a softwood it cannot be carved as easily or intricately as hardwoods, so while furniture makers such as Chippendale produced highly decorated hardwood furniture, pine furniture was relatively simple and designed to be functional.

Those with a desire to emulate oak or mahogany experimented with various methods of staining or simply painting their pine furniture. Today pine furniture is enjoyed universally. It is still sometimes stained or painted to resemble hardwood furniture, but its own status has surely been elevated in that particle board furniture is now covered with wood (or even plastic) veneers to give the impression that it is pine furniture.