TV Cabinets – A Guide

April 7, 2010

Article Category: Guides, living room furniture > Tags: furniture, mahogany, mango, oak, Television Stands, tv cabinets

Newark Solid Oak TV Cabinet

Consierations When Buying a Television Cabinet

When one is buying a television, there are various considerations – is it plasma, LCD or OLED? Is it HD ready? Does it have enough inputs for all the games consoles, DVD player and Sky box? The list goes on, but the main consideration has to be the size, and this in turn will determine the size of your TV cabinet.

Measuring a Television

The method by which the size of a television is measured can be confusing, and it’s easy to get caught out if you’re not careful. The size advertised by television retailers is not the width, but, in fact, the length of the screen diagonally from corner to corner (not including the surround). This measurement is always going to be longer than the width of a TV.

The ratio of a widescreen TV’s width to height is 16:9, but to save you working it out I have included a short list of the most popular screen sizes and their widths below. †

Size of Widescreen TV (inches)	Width (cm)	Height (cm)
32	70.84	39.85
34	75.23	42.34
36	79.69	44.82
38	84.12	47.32
40	88.55	49.81
42	92.98	52.30
50	110.69	62.26

† All dimensions are approximate and do not include screen surrounds.

Now you know the approximate width of your TV you can make a more informed choice of TV cabinet for your home.

Oakdale Solid Oak TV Cabinet

Robust and Stylish TV Cabinets

Televisions are very expensive and heavy, and therefore should always be housed on a sturdy, high quality TV stand to ensure their safety. The obvious choice is solid hardwood furniture (beware of furniture retailers that sell veneered wooden furniture, as it is going to have poor quality wood under the veneer and the weight of the TV will soon crack it!).

Wooden television cabinets are ideal because they take away the modern harshness of modern technology, softening the impact of the new high gloss centre of attention in your living room.

Other Considerations When Buying a TV Cabinet

The other considerations when shopping for TV cabinets include the provision of shelves for DVD players, freeview boxes etc. and drawers or cupboards for storage.

Solid Hardwood TV Cabinets at Oak Furniture Land

At Oak Furniture Land we have a wide choice of solid hardwood TV cabinets and other living room furniture in oak, mango and mahogany. Various sizes, styles and options are available across the ranges. All TV stands are hand crafted to the highest standards, and are more than strong enough to hold even the largest televisions.

Majestic Mahogany 1

March 25, 2010

Article Category: Bedroom Furniture, living room furniture > Tags: furniture, Louis Philippe, mahogany, sleigh

Sleigh Mahogany Bedroom Suite

Mahogany Furniture – A Gift From France

In the first part of this two-part blog special we will be looking at how French mahogany furniture took Europe by storm before being snuffed out in its prime. Then, in the second part, we will look at its revival and longevity.

The deep reddish tones and regal lines of traditional mahogany furniture will forever hold a certain place in furniture history. There’s nothing quite like the grandiose of a Sleigh bed to bring a sense of opulence to your home.

In fact, opulence is a perfect word to describe the distinctive style of the sleigh bed and the related furniture that sits alongside it as they both originate from France! The word literally means wealth through work, again drawing uncanny parallels to the furniture.

Mahogany Furniture – In a Class of Its Own

Mahogany furniture became popular with the aristocracy of France in the middle of the 18th century. Furniture design had recently swung away from intricate patterns so common in walnut furniture towards using bold flowing lines. Mahogany leant itself ideally to this new styling. The grain of mahogany was easier to work and carve into these designs than walnut, and the simpler, wide grain structure of mahogany took stain far more evenly.

Mahogany and Flowing Lines

Mahogany Furniture – Not Just Sleigh Beds

This era saw mahogany furniture throughout the home, but most notably as bedroom furniture. The instantly recognisable sleigh bed was accompanied by matching mahogany wardrobes, mahogany chests of drawers, and mahogany dressing tables, etc.

Mahogany Furniture & The Revolution

It’s a crying shame that much of the original French mahogany furniture from this time was destroyed in the French revolution, when the French common men destroyed the aristocracy and everything that went with it.

However, the irony of mahogany furniture is that its major revival was brought about by a French king, some fifty years later! We will look into the lasting influence Duke Louis Philippe had on the world of furniture in our next blog post.

Wood Finishing

April 7, 2009

Article Category: General > Tags: beeswax, danish oil, furniture, mango, oak, wood care

Oak Finished with Danish Oil

Finishing is probably one of the most important elements of an attractive piece of wood furniture. There is a vast array of different finishes available on the wooden furniture retail market today. It can be quite daunting to make sense of all the various finishes and their comparative benefits and downfalls. Below are some of the most common finishes of hardwood furniture with a little information regarding the pros and cons of each. Danish Oil

Many people think that Danish Oil is a finish which penetrates deeply into the wood. This, however, is not true. The oil does penetrate slightly deeper than other finishes but not to the extent many people believe it does. It is vital that Danish Oil is able to penetrate the wood effectively in order to produce an excellent quality of finish. This means that if your hardwood furniture has been previously finished with either lacquer or paint, Danish Oil will not be an effective method of finishing that item. Danish Oil is the best product for giving an attractive natural finish to your wood furniture. It has a soft sheen to it, rather than the high gloss that lacquers produce. This has several advantages, in that it doesn’t show up fingerprints or dust, and should the wood furniture be damaged it is easy to repair for novices and experts alike, as all that’s required is a light sanding and reapplication. A lacquered finish, by contrast, will need the whole piece stripping and refinishing – a very expensive job that should only be undertaken by a trained professional.

Mango Finished with Beeswax

Beeswax

Beeswax is a natural way of finishing wood furniture. It can be used on virtually every type of wood used for furniture, but is most effective on hardwood furniture, such as mango. It will create a perfect, highly attractive finish which also serves as a protective layer which will help to keep your furniture looking its best no matter what. Beeswax is a great product for people concerned about the environment as it is completely natural and free from any nasty chemicals which can often be found in household products, such as polishes. Beeswax can be used very economically as only a small amount is needed to gain the desired effect. It is also excellent at revitalising distressed wood. Beeswax brings out the fine grain of the wooden furniture and achieves a beautifully tactile silky smooth finish. The finish that both beeswax and Danish oil produce is known as an unsealed wood finish. Therefore it is not recommended that chemical cleaning products are used, as these will permeate the wood, drying it out and causing irreparable cracking. Feather dusting or the use of a damp cloth is all that should be needed to care for your wooden furniture.

Sprayed Lacquer Sprayed lacquer achieves 100% adhesion with underlying layers meaning that it seals the wooden furniture and produces a high gloss finish. At first this sounds very desirable, it does have its downsides though: it can be quiet easily scratched and the slightest marks or fingerprints will be very obvious, making it a high maintenance finish. This can be guarded against by protecting it with mats, cloths, etc., but what’s the point of having beautiful hardwood furniture if you have to cover it up? Polyurethane Polyurethane is a common film finish for wooden furniture. This is another finish that seals the wood. It is relatively inexpensive and easy for manufacturers to apply. For this reason it is often used on cheap, inferior quality wooden furniture, such as pine furniture. There are many disadvantages in using polyurethane to finish wood furniture. It shares many qualities of lacquered furniture, but it is also susceptible to damage from ultra-violet light exposure. This can crack the finish leaving white marks that are impossible to remove. Because of this, polyurethane finished furniture should not be kept in natural sunlight – a serious disadvantage unless you are furnishing a room without windows! In summary By far the best finishes for high quality wood furniture are either Danish oil or beeswax. They bring out the stunning beauty of wooden furniture grains and leave wood satisfying to the touch. Steer well clear of varnish and polyurethane if you are after a luxurious piece of quality furniture. For more information on wooden furniture care, please see our guide to treating hardwood furniture.

How a hall table says hello

August 22, 2008

Article Category: General > Tags: furniture, oak, quality

The hall, through history, has gone through many different incarnations. Coming from the Old Teutonic word Halla, it originally meant any large building, but it soon moved on to become a byword for any important building, city hall, town hall etc. Then it became, and continues to be, the name for university accommodation and is also used as we most commonly understand it today. That is, the name for the entrance corridor of your home, more often than not linked to the front door. In this way it is often the first place a person entering your home sees, and as such it is prudent if you want to give a welcoming atmosphere that this area be outfitted and decorated as such. A hallway is often a relatively narrow room, and as such there is not a great scope for putting furniture in. However, a hall table can give a practical and welcoming ambience to your hallway. Of course, size is always a concern, but nowadays you can find good furniture, such as hall tables, in all manner of sizes and styles. This article presumes oak furniture primarily as the qualities of oak, it’s strength and colouring as well as it’s more emblematic use as a symbol for strength and endurance, makes for excellent pieces of furniture. There are many companies, online and otherwise, that produce and stock this type of oak furniture, hall tables in particular. However you should always, where you can, research prices and companies across the internet as you might find that some companies produce greater quality furniture for better value prices than others. In any case, a small hall table can complement a hallway, and can be used practically, for the storage of keys and somewhere to base your telephone. Alternatively a hall table can be used in a more decorative way, such as having a welcoming vase of flowers on the table top. Of course, this is just the beginning, and there are other types of oak furniture that can offer more practicality. Other, larger pieces boast a larger table top area, which could take advantage of any of the ideas above. Furthermore, the larger pieces of oak furniture often feature dovetailed, solid drawers, which can be used to store phonebooks or notepads for taking phone messages as just one example. In general larger table top pieces can help provide a basic but stylish storage option in your home. The largest hall table pieces often seek to double their utility by including something extra in with their design that might come with other, standalone pieces of oak furniture. For instance, some designs often feature a large tabletop surface, but underneath there is shelving, which can be used to store books, CDs or DVDs, giving an elegant storage method. Along this line, some designs also feature special shelves that allow for baskets to be slid into, again offering a storage option for newspapers, magazines or anything else you need to store away. Finally, it should be noted that a fine piece of oak furniture, purely by virtue of being well made and constructed from oak wood, is very easy on the eye and beautifies any space. This is a separate attribute that can be filed alongside the hall table’s utility. In short, oak furniture is a stylish way to accentuate your home, but ensure you check on companies and the quality of their product before you buy from them to avoid any disappointment.

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