Oak Bedroom Furniture

There are many different styles of oak bedroom furniture and what you ultimately choose is a matter of your taste. Some people like to shop around and browse the different bedroom furniture designs available at their nearby bedroom furniture outlets, but others may already have an idea of what they want to get. For example, some people had previously bought a particular bedroom furniture package, and they now want to buy an additional piece of furniture like a dresser or storage chest to supplement what they already have.

Those who like to buy their bedroom furniture online have a big problem. There are thousands of different models on offer by hundreds of manufacturers and bedroom furniture retailers. How can anyone possibly look through so many different bedroom furniture designs even if they have a fast internet connection? At the very least, they need to have an idea of how to classify different styles of oak bedroom furniture.

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Solid wood bedroom furniture designs generally fall into two different groups - the gothic styles and the country styles. Within each group, there are further variations. For example, the two most popular gothic styles are the Victorian style and the Queen Anne style. And the country styles can arguably be divided into the mission style and the rustic style. Of course, different "experts" have their own ideas of all these variations and differentiations. As a shopper, you only need to know how a retailer might classify a certain group of bedroom furniture designs. For example, many manufacturers and retailers use the terms "country bedroom furniture", "mission bedroom furniture" and "rustic bedroom furniture" interchangeably. Americans might also be exposed to the term "Amish bedroom furniture" from time to time.

So what do all these overly clever words used to describe different oak bedroom furniture designs actually mean? Let us start with Queen Anne styled bedroom furniture. This is a type of gothic design, meaning that there are a lot of ornate and elaborate carvings and moldings. This was a design that originated in the early 1700s, during Queen Anne of England's reign. Despite the fanciful design, this style of oak bedroom furniture has graceful and moderate proportions. The furniture legs are usually cabriole-style, and the drawers have batwing handles. While the originals often used dovetail joints, other joints may well be used in modern versions of these fine bedroom furniture designs.

The Victorian-style bedroom furniture is another popular gothic design. It originated in Queen Victoria's reign in the late 1800s and early 1900s. It was in this time that furniture began to be mass-produced. Furniture legs usually had round coiled ball feet or ball-and-claw feet. Unlike the graceful Queen Anne furniture, Victorian furniture feel heavy and ponderous. This weighty feeling can help to anchor a large master bedroom in an old house, but is probably less than ideal if you have a small bedroom in a modern apartment.

Mission bedroom furniture followed from the Victorian style. Mission-style furniture was a backlash against the weight and darkness of the Victorian style, which is why they are comparatively minimalist and spartan. When compared to the gothic designs, there is very little ornamentation. For many people, the first thought that comes to mind is how clean the lines are for this style of furniture. As mentioned earlier, many bedroom furniture retailers alternately use the terms "country-style" and "rustic-style" for this type of furniture. While a purist might dispute the correctness of this lack of distinction between the different types, as usual, the needs of sales and marketing trumps academia.

American Amish bedroom furniture can be argued to be a country-style. They are usually handmade and have to be ordered specially from Amish furniture craftsmen. Amish furniture workshops are often jammed with orders and mostly serve their local communities. They make their quality bedroom furniture out of oak and other woods to which they have ready access, and you need never worry about the use of plywoods, MDF and veneer. Unfortunately, there is the obvious downside of made-to-order custom bedroom furniture - slow delivery.

The best quality oak bedroom furniture are made out of wide quartersawn boards which best show off their grain markings. Furniture of this kind is usually stained to further bring out the beauty of the natural grains and knots, and then either waxed or varnished. Quality of this level is never painted. It would be a terrible waste. Obviously, the simpler and cleaner lines of mission-style and Amish bedroom furniture benefit the most from this kind quality wood. The gothic styles have too much ornamentation which detract from the natural beauty of the oak grain markings. On the other hand, the gothic styles are ideal for oak wood that is still solid but not as naturally beautiful. Their complex designs make up for the lack of naturally beautiful grains, and once painted you cannot tell that they are not made from the highest grade of oak wood.

When shopping for oak bedroom furniture, it helps to have an idea of the different styles of bedroom furniture available in the market. Whether you favor the gothic styles or the country styles largely depends on your taste. On the other hand, if you are buying used bedroom furniture, it is much easier to recondition the simpler lines of country-style furniture designs.