Dining and bedroom furniture bring style and practicality to your home. Whether it's a dining set with matching sideboard, an entertainment or display unit, an ornate bedstead or occasional table, it is an important purchase.

The Furniture Company has a whole range of stunning storage and display cabinets and a fantastic range of occasional tables. Every item in our range carries at least our 1 year quality guarantee.

Our highly trained sales consultants will be happy to demonstrate their knowledge of all our products. If what you're looking for isn't on our website, they have extensive supplier catalogues you can be sent to find exactly what you want.

When it comes to choice, we can suit almost every taste and style. Our range includes cabinets in wood, metal, glass and even stone. Our 'material matters' guides sum up the pros and cons of different materials.

Wood

Wood is at the heart of most pieces of furniture. But only in cabinet furniture is its true beauty uncovered.

Every tree species has different characteristics in colour, grain and durability. Like a fingerprint, each tree is unique and this principle applies to your cabinet furniture. If you buy two or more items from the same range, they will be made in a specific style, but have variations in colour and grain. This is part of the unique charm of wooden furniture and only enhances the natural beauty of each item.

Generally, two types of wood are used in cabinet making:

• Softwood from quick growing conifers such as pine. These woods are more susceptible to bruising and marking than hard woods.
• Hardwood from slow growing deciduous trees including oak, ash, maple and teak. These timbers are much denser and have superb grains and lines when made into furniture.

There are a number of species which don't fall into either group, such as beech which is described as a medium hardwood. Its flexibility means it is often used in the production of chairs.

Acacia: A durable hard wood from fast growning trees from the Far East and South America. The thin grain, the flame design and varied colour shades give furniture made from it a warm appearance.

Ash: With a strong grain, this durable hardwood is usually light in weight and colour. It has good flexibility for making tables and chairs.

Beech: A cabinet maker's favourite for making chairs, its benign grain makes it easy to stain or paint. The colour of this medium hardwood ranges from very pale brown to a dark reddish brown.

Birch: With a close grain that varies from straight lines to swirls, this durable hardwood is flexible and often used to imitate other timbers in restorations.

Cedar: An unusual timber to be used in furniture. Technically a softwood, but more durable than pine, this timber lends itself to darker or wenge finishes.

Cherry: A durable hardwood often used as a veneer because it is expensive to produce. Its characteristic red colour often deepens to a richer shade in time. The grain may be enhanced by dark speckles of sap.

Oak: A classic wood, usually with a tight grain. There are two main groups; red oak and white oak. White oak is considered superior as its grain has a finer texture. All oak lends itself to the French polisher's art, accepting a huge spectrum of stains, finishes and colours. Previously used mainly in traditional farmhouse style furniture, many designers are now using oak in cutting edge furniture designs.

Mahogany: Sir Walter Raleigh imported this wood to England, having used it to repair the decks of his ship. During an on board visit Queen Elizabeth I remarked on its beauty. Raleigh immediately ordered the deck to be removed and made into a table for her. Later admirers included Sheraton, Chippendale and Hepplewhite.

A tropical hardwood found across the globe, mahogany has a reddish patina and elaborate grain.

Maple: Mainly used as a veneer, maple is a hardwood with a light swirling grain. Sometimes 'sugaring', an accumulation of sap in the tree's fibres, creates darker lines. The highly decorative bird's-eye maple is produced when grown buds form on the tree's bark but do not penetrate it. When sawn, this produces a grain that resembles 'watered silk'. This is also used as a veneer.

Pine: Several varieties of this fast growing softwood, including Scots pine, Douglas fir and Norway spruce, supply the furniture industry. The trees' sources of origin will dictate rich variation of colours from pale cream through to a red brown. Pine has a close grain caused by the short growing seasons high in the northern hemisphere, and will feature knots, marking the point on a tree trunk where a branch or side shoot once grew

America also produces pine timber from their native species. Called pitch pine, it has a more open grain than its European counterpart.

Sheesham: A particularly durable foliage wood which has long been desirable in our interiors. In particular, the thin grain, the flame design and the varied colour shades provide furniture with a sound and warm appearance.

Teak: This dense tropical hardwood is found mainly in the Far East and tends to be used in outdoor furniture. It ranges from golden yellow to dark brown in colour.

Walnut: Grown across the world, the wood from each producing country has its own peculiarities. American walnut has a distinctive black grain and is often known as 'black walnut'. Wood from Italy is similar. English walnut has strong dark streaks; it is extremely rare and usually only found in antique furniture. French and Turkish walnuts have highly figured grains and are commonly used as veneers.

'Burl' describes wood cut from an overgrown knot or outgrowth from the tree's trunk. This striking effect is mainly used as a decorative veneer.

The 'look' or finish of your wooden furniture and how to maintain it should be key to your buying decision. Care instructions are included with every piece of furniture we sell. Our guide below will help you understand the different finishes on offer:

Bleaching: The colour of any type of wood is lightened

Distressing: The cabinet maker uses various tools to create dents, scratches and even fake worm holes to give a new piece of furniture an aged and used look.

Stain: Natural or synthetic dye is used to colour wood and bring out its best features. Stains may be water, spirit or oil based.

Wash: A paint effect on wooden furniture.

Wenge: Wood that has been stained and finished in a very dark colour, often contrasted with a pale finish for a dramatic look.

Lacquer: A clear, durable, easy care finish that brings out the beauty of the wood in a matt or a gloss finish.

Oiled: A traditional and natural finish that requires repeated applications over time. It causes the wood to harden giving it greater durability and enhances the beauty of the wood grain.

Polyurethane: A transparent plastic coating which protects against general wear and tear. Easy to maintain.

Varnish: A resinous solution with pigments added to produce a coloured opaque waterproof finish. It is very tough and durable.

Wax: Another traditional and natural finish requiring repeated applications to enhance the beauty of the grain. Used on bare or stained wood, a wax finish often covers a lacquer finish for the perfect combination of feel and practicality.

Metal and Glass

If wood is not your thing, browsing our website will give you some stunning alternatives. These include extending and static dining tables in metal and glass with a choice of leather or fabric chairs. We also have metal and/or glass shelving units, and a wide range of small occasional tables and bedsteads.

There are many different finishes and colours in our metals and all glass used in our furniture meets with British Safety Standards BS6202.

Stone

Our stone furniture range includes large and small dining tables, occasional tables, stone topped sideboards and consoles. Stone finishes include travertine, marble and granite.

No two pieces of stone are ever the same. Colour and shade variations are only natural, as are tiny holes or blemishes in the stone surface. A neutral filler is often used to get a smooth finish and disguise marks.

Furniture Terms

Buying furniture can be a minefield of technical terms. Our sales consultants will explain how pieces are made, in layman's terms. They'll answer your questions and happily demonstrate any products on display if you decide to visit a store. Here are some of the terms you are likely to hear when you're talking about furniture:

Breadboard ends: A method of construction often seen on table tops. A board or piece of wood is fixed at right angles to a series of timber lengths. This helps to control movement within the wood by restricting its natural tendency to twist and warp.

Butt joint: One of the simplest ways to join two pieces of wood. This joint is usually held in place by a small corner block or piece of dowel.

Classic Chinese joinery: Usually seen on solid wood items, these traditional techniques hold furniture together without metal pins, nails or screws. Typical joining methods are mortise and tenon, and tongue and groove.

Dovetail joint: The classic way to make a join, with interlocking sections resembling the tails of a line of birds. Most commonly found on drawer fronts.

Finger joint: Another joint often found in drawers. Small 'fingers' or slots are cut into interlinking pieces of wood to 'lock' them together.

Grain: The pattern or direction of the fibrous tissue in wood. It generally marks the end of a year's growth.

Knot: Indicated by an oval shaped darker area in the timber, this is the point at which either a branch or side shoot grew out of the main tree trunk. It is a natural characteristic of wood.

Laminate: A man-made product produced by bonding layers of wood to another material (again often wood based such as MDF, see below.).

MDF: Made by compressing wood fibres, resin and wax under high pressure into panels. This resilient man-made product provides a stable and highly durable base for plywood, particle board and solid timber.

Mitre: A joint made by cutting a 45 degree angle along the end grain of 2 pieces of wood before fixing them together. Most often used on table tops, or in making the frame of a piece of furniture

Mortise and tenon: Used on chairs and table legs, a router tool cuts a cavity in one piece of wood and a corresponding protrusion is inserted in it. This forms a very strong joint.

Particle board: Used to give furniture structure, this man-made product is produced by compressing wood fragments (like shavings and chips) together with resin.

Peg detailing: Fixing wood together by literally placing 'a square peg in a round hole'

Plantation grown: Usually refers to tropical hardwoods where the timber is grown for harvest and replanted.

Plywood: A number of layers of wood (usually three or five) are glued together. The grain in each successive layer is joined at right angles for greater strength and flexibility.

Recycled or reclaimed timber: Timber from old buildings or furniture made into something new.

Solid wood construction: Furniture made from solid wood.

Veneer: A decorative, highly skilled finish where thin layers of wood are overlaid on the surface of a piece of furniture. Some of the finest furniture has intricate veneers cut from many different timbers.