Four woods, four characters
The choice of wood decides the look, the price, and what your furniture will look like in twenty years. Here’s what we know about it from the workshop. Honestly, even when it argues against the more expensive wood.
What we build with most
The surfaces below are real photos of the wood. The best way to see what it really looks like is in our timber store. The workshop is open on Fridays from 13:00 to 17:00.
Oak
Hard, heavy, tough. Strong grain with pronounced pores. Oak can take dents, splashes and children. If you can’t decide, oak is rarely the wrong choice.
Oak darkens noticeably over the first five years and gets warmer in tone. Most people like that, but it’s worth knowing if you want to add a piece later. The new one will be lighter and needs a few years before it matches.
Walnut
Dark, elegant, with a grain you can’t mistake. Walnut turns a sideboard into a piece your guests talk about. It’s a bit softer than oak, so we use it less on surfaces that take a lot of wear.
Unlike most woods, walnut doesn’t get darker over the years. It gets a little lighter and calmer. Direct sun speeds that up. For a kitchen in walnut, expect a clear premium over oak.
Ash
Almost as hard as oak, but lighter and with a livelier grain. Good for small or dark rooms because it reflects light. It can be oiled white without the grain disappearing.
Ash is our best-value tip. If you want a light kitchen and have to watch the budget, oiled ash gets you a long way. Not everyone likes the lively grain, so we give you a sample board to take home first.
Maple
A very light, almost even surface without strong grain. The right choice when the furniture should step back and let the room speak. We like using it for walk-in wardrobes and drawer interiors.
There’s one thing you should know about maple. It reacts to sunlight and turns yellowish. Where a picture hangs on the wall or a vase stands, you’ll find a lighter patch after two years. In a room with a big south-facing window, we’d rather point you to ash.
What else we work with
Not every piece of furniture needs a fine hardwood. Sometimes the simpler wood is the right one, because it suits the house or because it stands outside.
Larch
Naturally resistant to moisture, which makes it our wood for front doors, shutters and balconies. Left untreated it weathers to a silvery gray. That’s intended and does no harm. Our larch comes from the valley.
Spruce and stone pine
Soft, light, inexpensive. Spruce for shop fittings, attic conversions and anything that can look a bit workshop. Stone pine for bedrooms, because of the scent. Both dent easily. That’s part of it.
Cherry and pear
Warm, reddish tones with a very fine grain. Cherry darkens a lot and after ten years is almost reddish brown. We only get it in small amounts, so it’s usually enough for a single piece, not a whole kitchen.
Panels and linoleum
Not everything has to be solid. We often build carcasses from multiplex or veneered board, which moves less. Work surfaces in workshops and cafés often get linoleum, because you can wipe it down every day.
Oiled, waxed or lacquered
The finish matters almost as much as the wood itself. It decides how the furniture feels and what happens when a glass of red wine tips over.
Oiled
The oil soaks in instead of forming a layer. The wood stays open-pored and feels like wood. Scratches can be re-oiled in patches without redoing the whole surface. Care oil once a year and it lasts for decades.
Waxed
Oil-based wax gives extra protection against water and grease. We like it for kitchen worktops and dining tables. The surface looks a little silkier. It needs touching up every six to twelve months, which takes half an hour.
Lacquered
Lacquer lies over the wood as a film. It’s the most stain-resistant, but damage can’t be repaired in one spot, only across the whole surface. A good choice for children’s rooms, practices and shop fittings.
White oiled and stained
White oil keeps light woods light and slows down yellowing. Stain colors the wood more deeply, for example when oak needs to match an old floorboard. We show you both beforehand on a sample board made from your wood, not on a catalog page.
How much the material adds to the price
A rough guide, based on a medium-sized kitchen with eight fronts and one worktop. The rest is hardware, cutting, fitting and our working time.
These ranges are based on experience, not a promise. Timber prices go up and down, and with walnut a lot depends on whether we can get matching boards from one trunk. The quote always shows a fixed price, never a rough guess.
A money-saving tip we give everyone. Use the expensive wood where it’s seen and a cheaper one where it isn’t. Walnut fronts on carcasses made of veneered board cost a lot less than a kitchen that’s solid all the way through, and in the room they look exactly the same.
How to get the most out of it for years
Daily
Wipe with a barely damp cloth, not a wet one. Standing water leaves a ring on oiled surfaces.
If there’s a stain
Wipe it up straight away. Red wine and oil soak into open-pored surfaces. By the next day it’s real work.
Once a year
Apply a thin coat of care oil, wait twenty minutes, wipe off with a cloth. We give you the first bottle.
After some years
If a worktop has gone dull, we sand it lightly and oil it again. Usually done at your place in a morning.
What customers ask us
Where does your wood come from?
We buy larch, spruce and some of the oak from sawmills in the region, mostly from the valley and the surrounding area. Walnut and maple come through a dealer in Upper Bavaria, mostly from European forests. We don’t work with tropical woods.
Can I choose my own wood?
Yes, and we really recommend it. You come to our timber store, we lay out the boards, and you tell us which grain goes on the front and which can go inside. It takes an hour and makes a visible difference.
Can you use wood from my own garden?
Sometimes. The trunk has to have grown straight and been stored properly, and drying takes one to two years per centimeter depending on thickness. Send us photos and we’ll tell you honestly whether there’s anything usable in it. More often than we’d like, we advise against it.
What’s the difference between solid wood and veneer?
Solid wood is the same wood all the way through. Veneer is a thin layer of real wood on a stable backing board. Veneer isn’t the cheap substitute many people take it for. Large surfaces move less and stay flat. We combine the two on purpose.
Do I get a sample of every wood?
Yes. We give you a board of the actual wood with the actual finish to take home. Put it in the room for a few days and look at it in daylight and lamplight. Colors look different at home than in the workshop.
Which wood do you think is right for a family with small children?
Oak or ash, oiled. Both are hard enough, and if something does happen, the spot can be re-oiled. We’d steer you away from high-gloss lacquered fronts there, because every fingerprint shows and every scratch stays visible.
Come and see the wood
On Fridays from 13:00 to 17:00 you can come to the workshop without an appointment. Or send us an enquiry and we’ll set out suitable boards for your visit.