It’s time to get up close and personal with the woods currently showcased in our Chelsea store windows, starting with wonderful, warm, walnut – a strong, dense wood with a beautiful grain.
There are dozens of species of walnut, which can be found in both the Old and New World, but in furniture terms, it’s easiest to speak of American and European walnut.
American walnut trees have a rich, deep chocolate brown heartwood that is easily distinguishable from
the paler, ‘milk chocolate’ brown of European walnut. Matthew Hilton’s Light extending table, top, Nissen
& Gehl’s Corian and walnut sideboard, above, and the elegant Cherner chairs, below, are all made with American walnut.
‘European’ walnut comes from an area that stretches from the south-east corner of Europe to just north
of what was once Persia. The Romans discovered it in the course of their empire building (the tree’s genus, Juglans, means ‘Jove’s acorn’) and introduced it to Italy, France and Britain (the name ‘walnut’ derives from its Old English name meaning ‘foreign nut’). Our brand new Tesa table, seen in our windows below, is made from European walnut sourced from the Balkans…
And the shell of the luxurious white leather Eames lounge chair, below, is clad in European walnut wood veneer. It’s a common mistake to think that veneer is inferior to solid wood. In fact, it comes down to suitability for purpose; some designs – the lounge chair being a case in hand – would be impossible to construct in solid wood.
Veneer is also, by its nature, more affordable than solid wood (although only the finest wood is used
for veneer, as each piece is intended to be seen) and consumes less of the raw material. The tendency
of wood to expand and contract when exposed to fluctuations of temperature and humidity can also
be a deciding factor in the construction of a piece of furniture and so some pieces, such as Terence Conran’s Pavilion shelving, below, have a decorative veneer of walnut wood…
While others, such as the Eames’ turned-wood stools, designed in 1960 for the Rockefeller Center, are made from solid walnut:
And finally, we love walnut’s ability to transform hi-tech equipment into something resembling a rather attractive piece of furniture:
See more walnut furniture and accessories here.
