Wood is the first decision on almost every custom furniture project, and it is also the one most often left vague. A quote that simply says ‘oak’ can mean solid oak, oak veneer over plywood, or a reconstituted board with an oak-print foil — three different products at three different costs. For importers, specifying the wood correctly is what keeps the showroom sample and the container load looking like the same product. This guide covers what to put in the spec.
1. The common hardwoods
Oak (white and red) is the workhorse of European and US casegoods: strong, open-grained, and forgiving to finish. Ash is lighter and has a straight, clean grain that takes stain evenly — a favourite for Scandinavian looks. Walnut is the premium choice: dark, tight-grained, and expensive, usually reserved for hero pieces rather than whole collections. Maple and beech sit in the middle as stable, pale utility woods. Naming the species in the spec is step one; leaving it open is how cost creeps up or quality slips.
2. Solid wood versus veneer
Solid wood is what buyers imagine, but it moves with humidity and can warp or crack across a wide panel if the moisture content is wrong. Veneer — a thin slice of real wood glued over an engineered panel — gives the same face with far more stability on large surfaces like tabletops and door fronts, and it uses expensive species far more efficiently. The right answer is usually mixed: solid for legs and edges where you want mass, veneer for broad flat fields where stability matters. Specifying ‘veneer over birch ply’ rather than ‘solid oak throughout’ can save real money without changing the look.
3. Engineered panels and where they belong
Plywood, MDF, and particle board are not cheap cheats — they are the structural backbone of most flat-pack and casegood furniture. The grade matters: furniture-grade ply with void-free cores is a different animal from construction ply. For painted or fully upholstered pieces where the substrate is never seen, a well-specified engineered panel is the sensible, stable choice. The trap is when a substrate is implied to be solid but is actually low-grade board; the spec should say what is inside, not just what is on the surface.
4. Moisture content: the number that prevents complaints
Kiln-dried wood should leave the factory at roughly 8–12% moisture content for export to heated Northern-European or North-American homes. Too high and the piece cracks or joints open after a month in a dry apartment; too low and it can swell when it meets coastal humidity. This is one of the most common, least-visible causes of ‘the sample was fine but the container was not’ problems. A wood spec should name a target moisture range, and a good factory will have kiln records to back it.
5. FSC and compliance
For the EU and increasingly for US retailers, FSC or equivalent chain-of-custody certification is not optional for many buyers. It adds a paperwork trail and a small premium, but it keeps goods moving through customs and off certain ‘questionable source’ lists. Specify FSC where the customer requires it, and expect to pay for the certificate and the segregated stock. Vashone can supply FSC-certified wood on request and provides the documentation, not just the claim.
6. What to write in the spec
A complete wood spec names the species, the construction (solid / veneer / panel and where each is used), the target moisture content, the finish chemistry, and any certification. Buyers who send that level of detail get quotes that are actually comparable across factories — and samples that match the production run. Vashone quotes wood transparently by species and construction, so the number you see reflects the build you approved.