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Camlen
country furniture is made entirely of solid wood. There
are no wood by-products, such as MDF, presswood or veneers
to be found anywhere in our furniture; not even in the
drawer bottoms or furniture backing.
The cabinet furniture, including television cupboards,
step-back buffets & hutches and all bedroom furniture
is made of solid Canadian white pine which is kiln-dried
to the acceptable furniture industry standard of 6 %
to 8 % humidity. The wood thickness is either 3/4”
thick of 4/4” (1 inch) thick depending on the
piece and the parameters used in our designs. Most furniture
backing is either 5/8” tongue-in-groove spruce
or red pine. The cabinet pieces are also made full length
( to the floor) and then decorative bracket feet are
applied.
The furniture is built mainly using splines and wood
glue to hold door frames, facades and panels together.
Drawer faces are made with a mortised joint and the
drawer bottoms have a ‘floating’ panel mortised
into the four sides of the drawer box. Great attention
is paid so that our drawers glide almost as effortlessly
on wooden runners as they would on metal drawer glides.
On pieces where it applies, our adjustable shelves are
made with breadboard ends to prevent twisting and the
shelf height adjustments are done with pegs.
Glazed door furniture has the glass inserted separately
in the panes and is held in place by wooden straps.
The harvest table bases have mortise-and-tenon joints
to the apron and the harvest table legs are turned from
a 4” block of maple. The paysanne & ladderback
chairs and stools are made of maple also, for maple’s
inherent strength and durability. All of the vertical
pieces on the windsor chairs are made with maple but
the seats are pine and the bowed back is made of ash.
Finally, on all this finely built furniture, we apply
a hand finish to mimic the look of a genuine antique.
Our finishes are hand-painted and distressed by hand
so that no two pieces are identical. Each piece is protected
by at least two coats of polyurethane varnish and a
coat of furniture wax which requires no maintenance.
This finish protects against water marks and can be
cleaned with a clean, damp cloth.
Wood; environment, care &
cleaning
Solid wood furniture is built to become heirlooms to
future generations, but how it is cared for will affect
its longevity.
Our furniture is built with kiln-dried wood, which means
that it is ‘cooked’ in a large oven to dry
out the sap and other moisture. Some moisture
must be left in the wood, otherwise it will absorb all
of the ambient moisture around it once it has been turned
into furniture and it will expand. There is also a chance
that some sap will seep out of the wood even after it
has been converted to furniture and finished. The beads
of sap can be removed with soap and water.
When solid wood furniture is placed in a damp environment,
it can swell slightly; conversely, when it is placed
in a dry environment, the parts will shrink. Obviously
then, very damp or very dry environments should be avoided.
Some shrinkage will most likely occur during the first
heating season that the furniture is in a home. Great
care has been take in the design and construction of
your furniture to allow for the natural expansion and
contraction of the wood over the course of a year, but
avoid placing your furniture directly in front of direct
heat. Balancing the moisture level of your house is
important to your furniture.
With wood, it is wise to avoid extremes. Changes in
temperature, such as those found in unheated garages,
sheds, etc (cool at night, warmer during the day) can
cause small cracks to occur in the finish. Hot
air, such as comes from a central heating, should be
avoided, because they cause extreme localized drying
of the wood.
It is the nature of solid pine to twist and torque slightly
because it grows in rings. This is not a flaw of the
furniture product nor of the wood but simply a characteristic
of solid pine, something to be aware of as part of pine’s
natural charm. Our furniture designs have taken
this into account, but some mild twisting is unavoidable
on doors, tops and table panels particularly. We always
stand behind the quality of our cabinetry but some normal
wood character is not always a warranty issue. When
twisting or shrinkage is excessive, compared to standard
wood behaviour, then we repair or replace the piece
at our discretion.
Direct sunlight has a bleaching effect on wood and finishes
but it can be prevented with the use of blinds or drapes.
Camlen Furniture is finished with a minimum of two coats
of satin finish polyurethane and a light coat of liquid
furniture wax. This finish is impervious to water and
needs minimal maintenance. Your furniture can
be cleaned with a soapy cloth and then wiped with a
dry cloth. Cleaning products can mark the surface of
our finished furniture.
Finish definitions
All of our furniture is made of solid wood. All cabinet
pieces are pine. Chair bodies, some seats and table
legs are hardwood.
Top Options:
Stained pine: refers to our default
tops. These are solid pine and available at this price
in any of our 5 stain colours; Natural, Puritan Pine,
Black Cherry, Espresso or Walnut. If not otherwise
specified, the default stain will be natural.
Hand-planed: These tops are planed
to open the wood grain and groove the wood. The result
is a more rustic looking finish, which is slightly uneven
and usually results in the stain looking a little darker.
Aged Finish: The aged finish is a multi-step
process, which involves adding pigments and patinas
to the wood in stages to achieve a ‘layered finish’,
which resembles old barn boards. Because
of the process and the way it was developed, aged finish
is its own colour and is only available as shown.
To match chair seats to aged finish, order the seats
in Walnut stain.
Birch: is a hardwood so this option
is available for those clients who find pine too soft.
Birch looks, feels and finishes like maple but is not
as costly as maple.
Vintage Pine: This is our title for
old wood. Our vintage pine comes from the insides
of century old log cabins and other settler homes. It
is generally 1 1/8” to 1 1/4” thick, but
we do not guarantee either size. We are aware that customers
like it thick and we do not stock anything less than
1” thick. We do not use barn wood and we do not
make ‘plank’ style tops. The vintage pine
is laminated together the same way that our new tops
are put together.
VERY IMPORTANT: VINTAGE PINE
WILL NEVER BE IDENTICAL TWICE.
If you see a vintage top on the floor, please make sure
that you understand that it is unique and that the one
you might order will not look identical. There are variations
in the wood even on the same table, although we do our
best to match the boards. Some tables have more filler
than others, some have saw marks and some have more
wood grain showing, etc. Vintage pine, by it’s
nature; is limited in supply, therefore we cannot guarantee
that it will always be in stock, but we do our best
to inventory it as much as possible. In order to prepare
it for use in furniture, it must be removed from a house,
it must be de-nailed, it is stripped of old paint and
it is planed on one side so that it sits fairly level.
Vintage pine is beautiful and unique. Both “hand-planed”
and “aged finish” were designed to mimic
the natural look of old pine. However, some clients
are not prepared for the unique qualities of “vintage
pine”. If yo uare concerned about the inconsistency,
steer away from it toward something more consistent,
such as the other ‘new wood’ finishes.
Body Options:
Crackle: ‘Crackling’ is an extra layer of
distressing which can be applied to the body of all
pieces. It can only be applied on a painted finish.
The colour underneath the top coat is the colour that
will show through the crackle. For example, black will
be the colour that shows through on either Barn Red,
Forest Green, Sage or Midnight. Crackle finish is not
available on chairs.
Glaze: Glazing furniture is another
level of finish, which is applied to the body of pieces.
It is much more noticeable on light colours than dark,
to the point that I would not even suggest using it
on dark colours. Glazing darkens the finish. The
liquid adheres to the paint, making the finish look
older and dirtier.
Custom Benjamin Moore: It is not always
possible to carry enough colours to please everyone,
so we can finish furniture in any Benjamin Moore colour
that is available to us. There is an upcharge for buying
and finishing in Benjamin Moore paint. Please note that
we use flat finish paint and then put a polyurethane
finish over the paint. Therefore the colour may vary
slightly from the samples provided by Benjamin Moore.
Painted Interiors: All painted finishes
are normally done 2-tone, as shown in the catalogue.
We can paint the interiors of bookcases and hutches
for an up charge. Please call us for exact cost
on the piece you are ordering.
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