Hi everyone:
I love the Arts and Crafts/Mission style furniture and have made most of my furniture in my living room out of it with quarter sawn oak. I’m ready to move into my bedroom now and while my wife and I still love the style, we’d like a different kind of wood.
Has anyone made Arts and Crafts or Mission style furniture out of something other than oak? If so, could you post a picture? Any woods not okay for this style? We’d just like a little variety if possible, but I don’t want to put in all that work for something that would look “off.” Thanks in advance for your advice. I love this forum because you all have helped me avoid many costly and time consuming mistakes.
Replies
Several other woods were traditional, cherry being among the top alternates. Here's a cherry A&C sideboard I made a couple of years ago.
View Image
Found a sweet 22" wide cherry board at my sawyer's that had nice markings from a piece of barbed wire that ran through it near one edge. So I bought it and made up a sideboard to fit under it! ;-)
The accents (on the doors & pegs) are either walnut or cocobolo -- can't remember which now.
Mike Hennessy
Pittsburgh, PA
Everything fits, until you put glue on it.
sure, I use cherry. I am currently working on a bed to go with the dresser I built awhile back.
https://www.finewoodworking.com/item/9311/cherry-dresser
and
http://forums.taunton.com/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=fw-knots&msg=47406.1
I haven't worked with a lot of oak, but what oak i have worked with machined beautifully, unlike the cherry i have which is partially figured and was dried improperly and has a tendency to tear out on the planer or jointer no matter how sharp the blades are. I have had no problems with "store bought" plain flatsawn cherry however. I have taken to using an abrasive planer to deal with tearout.
Personally, I'm tired of looking at oak (and I got a real deal on the cherry)
Something to consider anyway.
Edited 8/13/2009 2:01 pm ET by Michael666
Cherry translates really well to mission and A&C furniture, as do a number of nice looking wood species. I think it depends on your personal tastes and if you want a busy looking piece or something with less grain.
My bedroom is mostely ebanized oak in a mission style with a thin laquer finish, which shows a lot of grain--I like it a lot.
I've also seen some good looking bleached oak and bleached oak with a pickled stain in A&C furniture.
To be honest if you use something that's not real traditional on an A&C piece most people would simply think of it as a more contemporary design. Painted white many pieces instantly become country style. Fill the pores of oak and add a glossy painted finish and it can be almost modernish.
Beer was created so carpenters wouldn't rule the world.
While quarter sawn white oak was popular, there was plenty of classic Mission style furniture made in other species.
Today, stickley offers their entire collection in cherry. Classic Roycroft pieces can be found made from Maple, and Before Greene & Greene hooked up with the Hall brothers, they have a bunch of work made from Ash.
What ever woods you like will most likley work- Just keep in mind that expansion properties of certain woods could be double that of quarter sawn white oak, and if you're working from plans, you may need to take that in to consideration
Gregory Paolini
http://www.GregoryPaolini.com
Custom Furniture, Cabinetry, and Woodworking Instruction
Cherry with Black Walnut as a contrasting wood is very fitting even if you only use it as pegs and such .
regards from Oregon dusty
There were a few Arts and Crafts pieces in maple early on. If the Greene Brothers taught us anything it's that Qtr Sawn WO doesn't have to be the default wood, since they used Mahogany for the majority of their pieces. Also some early Redwood A&C pieces showed up too. It really depends on your preference and imagination. Be sure to post pics!
Fine Furniture and Antique Restoration
I have made several pieces out of walnut and they look good. Look at the current Sticley catalog and see the different woods they use.]Domer
The philosophy of the Arts and Crafts movement was to use locally available wood. Stickley had oak available, and since they were the ones that made well-built furniture available at the time, that's what you see a lot of.
---mike...
I've used walnut and red cedar.
Wayne
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