Updated: Aug 12, 2022
A table perfectly aligned with the style and ambience of your house, and a table that gives the aesthetic and rustic feel you need around you. Farmhouse tables can be customized with different kinds of woods, and even marbles as the tabletop to give the tailor-made and personalized feeling to your furniture.
There is a vast variety of woods to choose from, woods that give the rustic, worn, and weathered feel, woods that have small nail holes, and saw blade signs that show reflect the past era of farmhouses.
There are many factors when it comes to choosing the best wood for your tabletop, as certain woods are made to last longer, and resist the damages they receive. Certain woods are made which require you to be extra careful while using them. Below are a few factors that can be considered when choosing the best wood for your casual farmhouse tabletop.
Hard Tabletop or Soft Tabletop:
Whenever you're buying a table for either your kitchen or the dining room, the first factor to consider is whether it should be a hard tabletop or a soft tabletop. Certain hardwood variants such as mahogany, walnut, and oak are a better choice if you want resilience, they have a stronger grain structure which is beneficial for them to survive from the work done on them.
Softwood such as Pine which is mostly featured in farmhouses, and dining room furniture is a good choice as well because of its elegance and the aesthetic feel it gives but be aware that while choosing softwood you need to get it treated properly to increase the durability.
Traditional or Modern Design:
When choosing woods for the tabletop, you must choose between the traditional types of woods or the modern ones. Most woods can be used in a very different way for tables, and dining tables. But some woods have their specialty. For example, Walnut is a wood that is amazing during the current era, but it had not been there in the traditional and original farmhouse designs. Similarly, Oak and Hard Maple can be used as both modern and traditional styles of wood due to their evergreen specialty.
Types of Woods:
Each wood has its characteristics, reflection, and specialty. But some woods are made to last and are durable, while on the other hand some woods are not that durable but have different characteristics. Durability and hardness of woods are the most important characteristics for important furniture like dining tables, and kitchen tables. The factor of humidity and denseness also affect woods, as certain types of woods can be cracked in high humidity. Softwoods allow for more and easier working; the nails and screws are easy to be installed and hence you can make stronger joints in them.
Depending on whether you want the weathered, worn, and rustic look in your dining area, or a modern and glossy finished wood look, below are the best options you can choose from:
Walnut Wood
There are many varieties of walnut trees around the world. One of the varieties is the Eastern Black Walnut. This Walnut tree is well known for its unique pattern of the grain, it gives your kitchen or dining room a unique, and aesthetic feel. This wood is famous for its color variations and contrasts and is mostly used in contemporary types of furniture. Due to the high contrast abilities of this wood, you can use it in modern types of furniture to stand out as well.
Walnut is considered a hardwood that is made to last longer, but also it is more expensive because of its unique characteristics and durability.
Color: Walnut mostly has a chocolate to creamy white colors; the variations are bold and rich perfect to fit the look of your dining room. Walnut can also be seen with darker tone colors in some places being used on modern types of furniture.
Durability: Walnut is a very durable wood, but it is very lightly exposed to denting as well.
Maple Wood
Maple Wood is a domestic variety available in North America and is a very light-grained wood. Maple Wood gives a very silky look and smooth finish; these characteristics make you fall in love with it. Hard Maple and Soft Maple are two of its types. Soft maple is mostly known for its durability while Hard maple is known for its soft structure and clean lines. Soft maple is less expensive and durable wood than other woods that are considered durable. The prices are mostly moderate to least expensive.
Color: It has creamy white colors to dark brown grain or dark golden shades with a silky texture.
Durability: this wood is highly durable due to the patterns of grain.
Cherry Wood
Cherry wood is a very durable and widely available type of wood. It is mostly used for dining tabletops, in formal dining table setups to be specific. It is a solid wood used on dining tables. The unique factor of change in cheery wood is that it changes color over time and heat and light can affect its color in terms of depth over a term of years. Cherry wood mostly has a very warm texture different than the ones found in the farmhouse furniture. While selecting Cherry wood, make sure the color tone doesn't clash with grey or other similar colors.
Color: It has a brown color with a more reddish effect, and a smooth texture. It also has a very soft grain pattern and contrasts, unlike Walnut.
Durability: It is durable as compared to woods like pine but is exposed to scratches and dents if used roughly.
Oak Wood
Oak is considered one of the most durable hardtop woods. It is mostly used in kitchens. It is also used in many farmhouses style table-tops in red oak colors and a better grain texture. It is considerably hard to get a smooth texture on Oak wood because of the unique grain pattern and texture it has. You may not get smooth a texture as maple wood, but the durability and the strong surface of Oak wood are better than most woods. White Oak is a type of Oak wood that is red and darker in color than normal Oakwood. White Oak can offer you fewer grain patterns than normal Oak, however. A dining table will look smoother and uniform if made with White Oak than normal Oak. Oak wood is more expensive than Pinewood but is mostly cheaper than the other hard and durable woods.
Color: it has a highly grained texture with red, pink, and golden light colors.
Durability: It is an extremely durable wood and the best choice to make for dining table and kitchen furniture.
There are a variety of options you can choose from while making your perfect farmhouse-style furniture. From tabletops to legs, you can customize each part according to your preferences and the best fits that will deem perfectly with the interior of your house to give it the best weather, worn, rustic, or a modern, and aesthetic feel; whichever you prefer.