Customize Woodwork with Wood Veneer

Unfortunately, many manufacturers of stock and mass produced wood products have given veneer a bad name. They've accomplished this feat by using inferior veneers and adhesives on everything from doors, floors, cabinetry, and furniture. The truth is that wood veneer is not a second rate product, and it should not be used deceptively to make lower value products appear to be made of higher quality materials. What good wood veneer does offer, when used correctly, is a wonderful range of beautiful finishes, grades, grains, and wood styles that would not otherwise be available to custom wood builders. In fact, some of the highest quality furniture, floors, doors, and cabinets being built today utilize wood veneer as a top-notch building material.

What is Wood Veneer?
Wood veneer is a very thin cut piece of wood, usually 1/8" thick or less, that is subsequently glued and pressed onto another material. That material can be plywood, particle board, real wood, pressed wood, solid wood, or even plastics and composites. It's cheaper substrate material (like particle board) that has given wood veneer a bad reputation. When glued and pressed over solid wood furniture, cabinets, and flooring, however, it makes for some of the highest quality and attractive materials you can purchase.

Why not Use Solid Wood?
It's a good question, and an easy one to answer. First of all, it's a whole lot cheaper to apply a veneer as a finish than to build an entire piece of furniture out of a rare cut piece of wood. Take birds eye maple, for example. A dining room set made of solid birds eye maple can cost nearly $20,000! A piece of furniture finished in birds eye veneer, however, has all the great looks of that rare wood at a fraction of the price. It's still not going to be cheap, but it might actually be something you can fit into your budget.

The other reason veneers are such an excellent building material is that cutting the wood so thin gives the manufacturers a chance to bring out even more beauty in the wood. They can experiment with angles, thicknesses, and cuts that wouldn't be possible with larger pieces of lumber. In that respect, it's not uncommon for some of the most impressive wood grains in the world to actually come in veneers rather than in larger, solid, pieces of wood.

Talk to a Custom Builder or Veneer Specialist
Because there is a veneer out there in every type of wood imaginable and probably hundreds or thousands you've never heard about, it pays to talk to a custom furniture builder, cabinetmaker, or other craftsman about what your options are before you get started on your project. And if you really want to open your eyes to the possibilities of wood veneer, talk to a retailer or supplier who specializes in different cuts, grades, and styles of veneers, about which will be the best fit for you. Remember, a good wood veneer can literally transform a door, floor, piece of furniture, cabinet, or just about any other wood product, into a beautiful thing to behold.