Western furniture can best be described as representing the style found in the west and everything that goes along with it. This can be interpreted in many ways, which leads the style of the furniture with many variations. It’s a genre that doesn’t have any defined boundaries, just like the freedom of the Wild West. It’s a look that comes from natural materials and signifies the western attitude.
Western furniture can incorporate many different materials including wood, stone, rawhide steel and leather. While some of the designs are based on a cowboy type of theme, some of the western furniture pieces are based on designs from the Native American. Along with these core materials you may also see buckskin; fur and beads worked into the furniture beautifully.
The attitude of Western furniture
This is a free-spirited type of furniture that inspires a call back to nature. Just think back to the time when western pioneers made their own furniture from the materials that nature provided. It reflects not only the west, but the freedom that is a part of this culture. It is sometimes basic and at other times dramatic, Western furniture has an air about it that cannot be easily translated into simple terms.
Types of Western furniture
There is western furniture that can fit any room in your home. No matter what type of furniture piece you need or whether you want to redecorate the whole house from top to bottom, you’ll be able to find furniture with a western theme that will be able to tie everything together perfectly. It is distinctive original and unique.
This is not like shopping for regular store-bought furniture that is mass-produced in a factory. Most pieces are handmade with the utmost care given to quality and beauty. This furniture type can be found in chairs, sofas, entertainment centers, dining room tables and chairs, benches, pool tables, leather furniture, bedroom sets, and any other type of furniture that you could possibly need both indoors and outside on your patio or in your garden. There are also many different accessories and art pieces that can be purchased to finish off that western spirit and look that you’re trying to create.
Types of wood
Most western furniture is crafted using western woods like juniper, burl and pine.
The history of Western furniture
This type of furniture had a modest beginning in 1931 when a man named Thomas Molesworth opened a furniture company in Wyoming. This was the beginning of the genre and since then new methods, styles and materials have been incorporated into the creation of this furniture type. Although this was the start of commercialization of western furniture, this is not its true beginnings. Western furniture was indeed created by the men and the women of the west that used their pioneering skills to bring furniture into the home. During rough times and good times nature always provided enough materials to make hardy and durable furniture that would last for years. Along with the durability came comfort and beauty by adding accessories like rawhide, fur and other available materials like beads or antlers.
It’s exciting to think that these pioneering spirits were just making do with what materials were available at the time and would never have dreamed that it would still be replicated today. What they were providing to their homes was something that was more than just a piece of furniture. It was a devotion to work with the earth and what was being provided to create something special. Both contemporary and traditional western furniture is available, but they both share the same western flavor. Whether you are purchasing a brand-new home in the middle of the city or have a cottage in the country that you need to furnish, western pieces can fit right in. That’s one of the beauties about this kind of furniture. It can blend into any type of decor as long as you take the time to select pieces to match the setting you’re trying to create.
Outdoors furniture
If you have a patio or garden that needs new furnishings, there is some unique western outdoor furniture available. You don’t need to settle for the same patio furniture that your neighbors are choosing at their local home furnishing store. You can create a western look outside that matches the interior decor of your home. Most of this western garden furniture will also withstand the elements better than your neighbor’s factory-manufactured flimsy outdoor table, chairs or benches. Western furniture often looks bold, distinctive and rugged. It’s not a delicate type of furniture by any stretch of the imagination. Although it can be softened down, one of the things that you won’t be able to accomplish is to make it look delicate. This is the nature at its finest by presenting the rugged look of the west.