It is always a joy to walk into someone’s house and smell wooden furniture. My own dining room has never lost the wonderful aroma of my light oak sideboard which sits behind the equally light oak dining set. I used to have a scandinavian rubberwood set of even larger dimensions than my much loved current set but although it was impressively proportioned and easy to extend to seat 12, there was not the satisfaction of seeing the deep glow, or the warmth of oak.
When choosing furniture you must take into account budget and who’s going to use it. Care must be given to wooden furniture to ensure it doesn’t sit too near any source of heat, a radiator or open fire or wood burning stove would dry it out so much if not treated with a good beeswax polish product – this feeds the wood and moisturises it. I recall the oak ffurnishings in a church I used to have connections with. The ‘new pews’ are of old oak and have been in exactly those positions since 1642 when they were provided to replace the originals that were damaged. These pews were never quite big enough for the crowds from yesteryear and so one additional seat was added at the aisle end of each pew, with very crude fixings and then later, wire was added to hold them in more securely. You should see the look on faces of visitors who are invited to take a seat on one! They are very very old but so much loved by the same families, but many generations later.