Solid Oak Sideboards for Your Home
There are many ways to make use of a solid oak sideboard in one’s home. While traditionally, the oak sideboard was a feature of the formal dining room, these days they are also used as living room furniture as well. Sideboards were originally used to store china and silverware and as an extra surface on which to place food before it was served at the dining table. They became popular in the houses of the newly affluent and thus also served as a sort of status symbol. Many people choose an antique oak sideboard for their dining room as they wish to bring some of that feeling into their homes. These people feel that the formal dining room should still serve to impress, and thus choose the furniture that will have that effect. However, those who want a sideboard for storage or for use as part of a mellow decor can find good modern oak sideboard choices as well. These can include small oak sideboards as well as light oak sideboards, which have less of the ponderous feeling that large, impressive sideboards so often have.
One popular style that can be considered an antique, but can also suit modern tastes, is that of the mission oak sideboard. Mission furniture was mostly made with white oak that was stained with ammonia fumes, and this plus the craftsman designs yielded a product with sensible lines and an elegant look. These are dark without being too dark, and can potentially be used both for rooms that look more serious as well as ones which are more casual. This is one design where solid oak was the rule, though it may take a bit of searching to find mission sideboards for which this is still true.
Solid oak is still treasured by woodworkers and furniture buyers alike. Throughout the ages, it has been valued for its strength and beauty, which is why servers made of oak are still popular today. In contrast to oak veneer, solid oak will tend to have a more substantial feel to it if a lighter wood has been used with the veneer. Some of the more exotic or flamboyant looking grains may be more readily available in veneers, however, as they are hard to get and veneering allows a relatively small amount of wood to be usable for visual effects.
