Office: Aylesbury 01296 437476
Mobile: Alan Cooper 0755 000 2345
.uk
Email: alancooper@bucksbedrooms.co.uk
.uk
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News:
May 2012 Recently completed: all hand painted! kitchen and bedroom furniture. We are small enough to cater for special requests at reasonable cost. Ring or email today for a no-obligation quotation and latest lead time.
Bench-space available. Click for info.
Serving a 25 mile radius of Aylesbury
We use many kinds of timber, veneers or medium density fibreboard for painting. Oak is our most popular choice for bedroom furniture. We prefer to select from sustainable sources where available.
Most popular hardwoods are:
- English Oak, normally Quercus Robur [Pedunculate Oak] Fairly light in colour. Open grained. Also Brown and Tiger oak, which is the same but has a prized natural brown colour due to a fungus while the tree is still growing. It can vary from slight to pronounced, and a plank can be partly affected, creating a decorative contrast. English oak is well known for medullary rays on Quarter sawn planks.
- European Oak, French or elsewhere in Europe, can be Quercus Robur or Quercus Petraea or Quercus Sessilis
- American White Oak, Quercus Alba
- Ash, English, European or American. Pale coloured with strong open grain pattern. Can have contrasting darker ‘olive’ markings, especially on thick pieces.
- American Maple. Similar to Sycamore. Pale coloured, close-grained. The usual choice for light wood colour. Finely textured compared to the pronounced grain of Ash.
- American Cherry. Close grained, pinker in colour than maple.
- Mahogany. We try to avoid this for sustainability reasons. FSC accredited Sapele and Utile are our preferred alternatives unless we are able to use recycled material.
Others:
- English Wild Cherry. More interesting variation of grain and colour than American. Tends to have more regular branches up the trunk so long lengths can be a challenge.
- American Black Walnut. The obvious choice for a natural dark colour. This is quite a high cost timber, the price has been volatile in recent years. Close grained. English walnut is also sometimes available.
- Elm. Common and Wych elm planks and also American Red Elm are sometimes available. Very pronounced wild grain pattern, varied colour. Can warp but beautiful, resistant to splitting. ‘Olde worlde’ wood, full of character.
- Beech. European. Steamed gives a pink hue to the naturally pale colour. Close grained, bland.
- Sweet chestnut. Similar to oak without the rays. (Horse chestnut is unsuitable for woodwork.
- Poplar. Pale with green and occasional dark areas. Soft for a hardwood. Often used for painting. Also called Tulip Wood, not to be confused with the exotic version.
- Cedar. This is a softwood, traditional for drawers, aromatic, insect repellent.
- Southern Yellow Pine. A softwood from America and Canada with few knots, superior in many ways to most pine.
- Yew. A very hard softwood. Profusion of branches and splits cause huge wastage and presents a challenge to obtain large useable boards. Best for secondary detail.
- Veneers. For special effects there is a vast variety of woods available in veneer form for decoration. The majority of our work however is in solid. There are also advantages for stability where wide boards are required, especially if near heaters or where temperature and humidity varies.
- Please see our links page to some of our suppliers, where you can also find out more about specific timbers and veneers.