Antique Dining Room Table

Antique dining room tables are quite beautiful. They come in many different styles and sizes. A piece of furniture is an antique when it is over 20 years old. Many interesting and unique pieces of furniture are still out in circulation all under the antique description.

Antique dining room tables comes in all different kinds of wood. Woods are either hard or soft. If you can press your thumbnail into the wood it is soft, such as pine. Oak is an example of a hardwood. Wood is coarse-grained or close-grained. Some woods are stained. Some woods are more valuable than other woods. Abundant woods are not as expensive as woods that are scarce.

Let me guide you in the different woods that an antique dining room table might come in.
Oak is a course-grained hard wood. There are several varieties including red oak and white oak. Young oak is pale in color but over time it darkens into a dark brown color.

Mahogany is a popular wood for antique dining tables. It is a close-grained hardwood. It is a dark red color sometimes. Mahogany furniture is still popular today.

Rosewood is a close-grained hard wood. Some people confuse rosewood and mahogany antique dining room tables. However when you look closely at rosewood, you will see fine black rings. Rosewood is a very heavy wood. In the 19th century, it was used to construct better quality furniture for fine homes.

Walnut is a close-grained hard wood. The color is anything from a light to a very rich golden brown color. Many folks stain it to look like mahogany wood. You can find walnut antique dining room tables easily.

Pine is a soft knotted wood with a wide straight grain. Pine was often used in antique dining room tables that were intended to be painted. Everyday furniture were often made from pine.

Maple and elm are coarse-grained hard woods. This type of antique dining room furniture was made to be used in the shop or as utilitarian furniture. Later it could be chopped up as firewood.

Veneer is a technique where a very thin sheet of a more expensive wood is glued to a less expensive wood. Veneered antique dining room tables from the 17th century were hand cut so they might be uneven. But by the 19th century, they were machine cut precisely.

Gilding is a technique where gold leaf is applied with gesso to the wood. Antique dining room tables using this technique were very popular during the Italian Renaissance and the Louis period in France.

Maybe by knowing a bit more about the different woods used in antique dining room tables, you can decide which one you like and what it is worth. Many tables are valued based upon their condition. You can still find excellent quality tables circulating around the antique markets. You may also find some old beat up ones that are not worth much. The woods used in these tables will help decide the worth. Do you want to pay good money for something that is not worth much? Do your homework and have your facts ready when you are shopping for antique dining room tables