Unfinished Wood Furniture Desk

An unfinished wood furniture desk is one of the more common ready-to-finish furniture available for purchase that gives you a wide range of options so you can match your new piece with the color and finish of your existing furniture. Most unfinished furniture is made of pine or oak. Although I have seen some that is constructed of plywood with a thin veneer of the more expensive woods.

Solid wood means that all of the exposed parts of the furniture are made of solid boards. They can be made of any kind of either softwood or hardwood lumber. No plywood, veneers or particle boards are used. When solid boards are used in furniture construction, they are glued together side by side along the edges. Usually a number of less wide boards are used to make the wood surface more stable and reduce the chance of warping due to excessive moisture. By following a seam to the end you can always identify a solid board because you will find the "end" grain. Many veneers are glued over the edges to look like solid wood, but they will always be faced on the end and show no end grain.

Just keep in mind that apiece of furniture that is advertised as "all-wood furniture" is not necessarily solid wood. A veneer can help you achieve the look you desire at a cost lower than solid lumber. In fact, some of the more exotic woods such as roble are only available as veneers.

Artificial veneers can be overlaid on plywood or particleboard and can provide an inexpensive way to get a more expensive look for your unfinished wood furniture desk. A plywood core is lighter, less expensive and more forgiving if damaged, but it can swell if it gets wet. If damaged, particleboard, which is made from a mixture of glue and sawdust that is shaped into boards and then baked, will often break off because the material is so hard it cannot absorb a shock. .
Veneer is a thin layer of wood that is applied in sheets over underlying layers of plywood or particleboard. Plywood is made of thin layers of solid wood glued over each other with grains running at 90-degree angles to produce a strong core. A "real wood" veneer is often glued on top.

Drawer construction is generally a good indication of overall furniture quality. Some drawers have no guides. The lack of guides allows more "play" and can cause the drawer to bind when it is opened and closed. Others have wood-to-wood center guides, nylon-to-wood center guides, side-mounted roller guides or center-mounted metal guides. Roller guides and center-mounted metal guides normally have built-in drawer stops, and some have lifetime warranties for drawer operation.

So always look for good construction because the quality unfinished wood furniture desk you purchase today can be used for a lifetime.