What kind of materials do you use in your furniture?
Most of our furniture is made from wood veneers over a man made
material called MDF, (medium density fiberboard). MDF is strong,
stable and very smooth, so thin veneers lay perfectly flat and finish
well. Because it's dimensionally stable, we have a great deal of
freedom to design furniture with large panels, both flat and curved.
Sometimes we use plywood covered with veneer when we want to reduce
weight. Plywood is lighter than MDF, but it is not as smooth which
can lower finish quality. Plywood warps more readily than MDF, so
we have to be careful to support doors and panels when we use it.
For large doors on plasma screen cabinets, Smartboard cabinets and
large tabletops, we often use a honeycomb composite both to reduce
weight and to make sure large doors won't warp. Honeycomb materials
are very light, very rigid, very stable and very strong. They are,
as you may have guessed, fairly expensive to work with.
Finally, we use solid wood. Some designs are almost all solid wood.
Some have almost none. Mostly hardwoods are used as trim and as protection
at the edges of tables and desks where it's strength and durability
make it a first choice. We use what's appropriate to the design.
Solid wood is fairly light and very strong, but it is unstable. Wood
expands and contracts constantly in response to changes in humidity.
This movement must be allowed for in designs because it is impossible
to stop. Our frame and panel designs allow for wood movement by trapping
large wood panels in wood frames. The panels can float in the frames
as humidity changes. The frames also hold the panels flat and help
prevent warping. Solid wood construction uses a huge amount of expensive
and sometimes rare hardwoods compared with veneer construction. It
is very expensive.
Why is plastic laminate construction more expensive than wood?
Labor is more expensive than materials. To make custom plastic
laminate furniture, first we build it out of MDF and then each
surface has
to be covered with laminate and then hand trimmed. The extra time
is reflected in the cost.
For simple applications like on table tops or lectern work surfaces,
there is no cost penalty.
What is veneer?
Veneer is wood sliced very thin. Veneer manufacturers
take an entire log and use a giant knife (14+ feet long) to
cut the log into slices
about as thick as a business card. The dried slices are kept together
in order and are referred to as a flitch. The log can be cut different
ways to change the way the wood grain looks when it is glued down
to a panel. We use mostly plain sliced veneer. Some other common
cuts are quarter sawn and rift cut.
What is plastic laminate?
Plastic laminate is a sandwich of different
materials laminated together to produce a sheet of material that
can be glued to a substrate.
The visible layer is often a paper that is printed in a printing
press to look like wood or stone. The top surface layer is a clear
plastic material that protects the layers below. Plastic laminate
comes in hundreds of surfaces and colors. It is best used as work
surfaces because it is very scratch resistant. Laminates are brittle
and can crack if struck.
Why do I have to buy Marshall Furniture products through a dealer?
We depend on our dealers to bring us business and to support our
furniture after the sale. If you need a door adjusted in San Francisco,
we can't fly a cabinetmaker there from Chicago to do it. We have
an agreement with our dealers that all business goes through them
and we have honored that agreement for 16 years.
