What is most cheap furniture made of?

How to Tell If Furniture is Laminate, Veneer or Solid Wood (and why do I care??)

When looking for a new-to-you piece of furniture, sometimes it can be hard to tell the difference between laminate, veneer and solid wood construction. Depending on your reason for buying a piece of furniture, you might want to brush up on the differences to help you decide what is right for you and your home.

Because I like to paint my furniture, it is really important to know what I am picking up because it will affect whether I can paint it, re-stain it or pass on it completely. So let’s talk about the difference between laminate, veneer and solid wood as well as the pros and cons for each one.

FURNITURE INSPECTION TIP: If you are considering buying used furniture pieces to paint, be aware that there are many pieces out there that are a combination of all three. Sometimes the top of a dresser will be solid wood but the sides veneer and the drawers laminate. It is really important when buying used furniture to check out the entire piece from top to bottom.

What is Laminate?

Laminate furniture is made of synthetic materials to make a thin layer that looks like wood. Since it’s not actually made from wood, laminate pieces often look a little fake. That laminate layer actually gets its wood look through a printed process. These wood-look sheets are then attached to the top of another manufactured material called MDF — medium-density fiber or particle board. You can usually tell a laminate piece because it usually has a pretty shiny finish.

A lot of cabinets that you can purchase at big box stores are laminate pieces. The picture below is the perfect example to show laminate on particle board.

Pros of Laminate

Cost: Generally the least expensive compared to veneer or solid wood furniture. With laminate, you get what you pay for, so it’s not necessarily an investment piece.

Easy cleaning: Super easy to clean. Laminate is durable, you can wipe it really down easily with a damp cloth.

Durability: Laminate is relatively durable.

Low Maintenance: Little to no maintenance.

Greater Colour Options: With laminate being made from synthetic materials, there can be a lot of colour and wood-look grain options.

Cons of Laminate

Lower Quality: Laminate is lower quality than either veneer or solid wood because it is made of synthetic materials. When you’re looking for a solid, heirloom piece to last decades, laminate is not the best option.

Limited Refinishing Options: Since laminate contains no real wood, you can’t stain it. You can paint it if you prep the piece properly first. Painting laminate furniture involves priming and making sure you are using the best tools to get a smooth paint finish.

Lack of Natural Variations: Since the wood grain image is printed onto the laminate, you don’t get a true wood look. Higher-end laminate pieces have a bit more of a realistic look but it still not the same as real wood.

What is Veneer?

Similar to the synthetic layer of laminate, veneer is a thin layer of real hardwood, usually less than 1/8 inch thick. This thin hardwood layer covers a lower quality wood base (cheaper wood, MDF or particleboard).

The picture below is the start of a side table makeover I did a couple years ago. The veneer had already started to peel off the top and was beyond repairing. Here you can see the thickness of the veneer that was glued on top of the solid wood table.

Pros of Veneer

Moderate Price Point: Costs more than laminate furniture but less than solid wood furniture.

Authentic Look: The thin layer of real wood gives the furniture piece a higher-quality look.

Refinishing Options: The outer layer of veneer furniture is made from real wood, so you have the option to refinish it like a solid wood piece. Paint or stain are great options for veneer. Like any furniture piece, proper prep work needs to be finished first to help the paint stick properly. Be careful when sanding though because the veneer is really thin. If you use an electric sander, be sure to not sand to heavily in one place – you may sand right through the veneer.

To learn more about working with veneer be sure to read my Garage Sale Side Table Makeover article.

Greater variety: Because the thin layers require so much less real wood, you may have an easier time finding exotic wood pieces in veneer.

Cons of Veneer

Scratches Easily:  Even though veneer is durable overall you need to be a little more careful with this furniture than you would with laminate or solid wood. Veneer furniture isn’t for great high-traffic use areas like tables.

Repair Difficulty: It’s not always easy to repair damaged veneer. You may be able to sand out some light scratches and refinish the piece. If pieces of veneer break off, you can use wood filler to cover it up. Your piece will need to be painted afterwards though. The other option is to pull all the veneer off and replace it. This last option is definitely not for a beginner DIY but for an experience furniture repair person.

Solid Wood Basics

Solid wood furniture is made completely of solid wood pieces. The type of wood can range from soft wood to hardwood varieties, each with distinct characteristics and features.

This garage sale find is a great example of a solid wood piece. To see the complete makeover head over to 1950’s Garage Sale Cabinet Makeover.

Pros of Solid Wood

Classic Look: Solid wood is a classic furniture option. It works well with any décor and offers natural beauty appealing to people with a wide range of styles.

Versatility: Solid wood pieces come in a variety of wood types with many different finish options. No matter what wood and finish you choose, solid wood pieces offer so many more options to work with your existing furniture and décor pieces.

Restoration Potential: A furniture piece made from wood has the potential to be restored. Scratches, dings and other minor damage can be fixed easily by sanding them out. Painting and staining options are endless when working with solid wood.

Increased Value. Solid wood pieces often retain their value or even increase in value over the years. Even if you don’t want to keep the furniture forever, you can sell solid wood pieces at a premium. Veneer and laminate pieces tend to decrease in value.

Longevity:  Solid wood furniture is durable and long-lasting furniture. You can buy a solid wood piece and still have it decades from now. Many people pass solid wood furniture down through generations because of its longevity.

Cons of Solid Wood

Soft Wood vs Hardwood:  If you purchase furniture made of a soft wood (like pine), the pieces have a greater chance of getting damaged over time, especially along the edges or at the corners. You will know if the piece is soft wood fairly easily. Take a pin or paper clip and try to push it into the wood. If it goes in very easily, you have a soft wood. Hardwood doesn’t dent or scratch as easily.

Cost: Solid wood furniture costs more than laminate or veneer, but when you buy solid wood, you’re making an investment in a quality piece.

Knowing if your piece is laminate, veneer or solid wood can be tricky. But with a little bit of knowledge of knowing the difference between the three will help you decide whether that new-to-you piece is the right one.

The most ubiquitous and well-known engineered wood used to make furniture. Plywood is used for all types of interior applications and is not only limited to furniture.

There are several qualities that contribute towards plywoods’ merit and an equal number that don’t. To understand these, we must understand exactly how they’re made and their composition.

Plywood is made by gluing and layering thin sheets of veneer or “ply” that are laid out in alternate directions. This technique is called cross lamination and it’s founded on the same physics principle as Jenga stacks.

The wood veneers are typically made from hardwood species that are ditched by solid wood furniture manufacturers (as extremely hardwood species tend to split at the grain), this results in a lower cost and a studied ply.

The veneers are kiln-dried, which basically means lightly baked in a large oven.

The quality of glue used to layer the ply sheets make a significant difference in the quality of the plywood.

If you’re wondering why plywood is less expensive than solid wood furniture while at the same time involving more processing steps, you have a very legitimate reason for thinking so.

You see, using thin veneers and layering them with commercial-grade adhesives is a process that ends up using a lot less natural wood as a significant portion of the cross-section is composed of, well, glue.

Secondly, solid wood species that are generally not used for manufacturing solid wood furniture due to the extreme hardness and stiffness that can cause the wood the rupture or split while processing are the ones that are used to make plywood, if such wood species are available in abundance, there’ll be virtually no demand for them from the natural wood furniture industry, so they also tend to be quite cheaper

For example, Gurgan wood, a species found in South East Asia has a weight density of 900 KG/m3 and is heavily used on plywood.

Watch out for manufacturers that claim to use a hardwood species like teakwood ply for the veneers but the core layers of the ply are substituted with cheaper and less effective alternatives.