Begin at the beginning, they say. And when speaking of the home, there is no better place to start than wood. It is foundational in our built environment. Buildings, furniture, objects, paper can all be reduced to wood.
So many of us have memories of loudly upturning a bucket of wood blocks onto the living room carpet, learning scales on an upright piano, carving our initials into a tree in the yard, recoiling from a splinter as a result, or finding the perfect Y-shaped branch to make a slingshot. It’s no wonder that wood is so ingrained in our sense memories that it is a core element in the broadest of human experiences.
Aspiring furniture makers, too, will likely begin with the wood that’s readily available from a local hardware store. They chip and whittle and saw and glue and sand their way to their masterpieces. Nary is there an interior designer or architect who doesn’t love wood. Transcending stylistic tastes and eras, wood furnishings, floors, walls, and details are ubiquitous in almost any home, making it both essential and specific to the design world.
Adaptable and hardworking, the wood element’s personality is one of many facets: grounded and visionary, historical and lasting, hard and soft, but above all evergreen in relevance.
