Faux Wood vs Real Wood Furniture – 3 Tell-Tale Signs Your Secondhand Furniture is Real Wood
Intro to Real Wood Furniture VS Faux Wood
When buying secondhand furniture, or even if you’re just determining how to give new life to that piece of furniture you’ve had forever, the first step is to determine if you are working with real wood, with MDF, or with solid wood with Formica veneer.
The answer will let you know which type of furniture makeover makes sense for your piece of furniture. Whether you want to paint wood furniture, stain, or strip and seal for a raw wood look.
This article explains the telltale signs that indicate your furniture is made of real wood. If it doesn’t fall into the real wood category, you can find some other identifiers in this list to guide you as you plan your furniture project. First, let’s define what type of furniture each means.
Definition of Real Wood Furniture and Faux Wood Furniture
- Real Wood Furniture – Made completely of quality wood. You should see no use of veneer on top or on the drawer faces. Since real wood furniture is safe to sand, it is ideal for staining, painting, or sealing to get a raw wood look, depending on the condition of the furniture. Refinishing real wood can bring new life to a dingy old piece of real wood furniture.
- MDF furniture – MDF stands for medium density fiberboard. This is a sturdy board made of recycled wood and held together with a strong resin. This is a VERY common type of furniture. MDF is likely what your kitchen cabinets are made of. It’s lightweight, pressed wood material that is easily painted.
Most furniture from Walmart, Amazon, Target, Ikea, etc., will be made of MDF wood. This type of furniture is perfect for a makeover with paint. Staining MDF is not an option, since staining requires sanding. MFD cannot be sanded down without being destroyed. - Solid Wood with Veneer – Furniture is oftentimes built with a solid wood frame (generally pine or oak, and sometimes even MDF), and then finished with a thin veneer strip. The veneer is a thin piece of wood with adhesive, designed for finishing exposed wood edges.
Solid wood with veneer falls into the faux wood category, and therefore cannot be sanded and stained. While you can lightly sand the veneer to rough it up a bit before painting, as a rule, you don’t want to sand the veneer furniture too heavily or else you can risk sanding through the veneer and ruining the surface.
Here is a photo example of each instance.
Indicators of Real Wood Furniture
Drawers
With real wood, one of the first tell-tale signs is the dovetail drawers. I’m sure you’ve heard of this before, as it is the most talked about. Dovetail drawers are a sign of a true, solid wood piece of furniture, as well as quality woodworking craftsmanship. This photo is a great example of dovetail drawers.
If you see drawers that look like this instead, you’re probably dealing with MDF. That’s not to say you can’t still makeover the furniture, or that it isn’t good quality. Most furniture you purchase brand new today will have drawers made of MDF. However, it’s helpful to identify this early so that you’ll know how to plan your furniture project accordingly.
Weight
Weight is one of the key factors in determining if you are dealing with real wood, MDF, or solid wood with veneer.
If your furniture is SUPER heavy, it’s likely that it is either real wood or solid wood with veneer.
Solid wood with veneer top generally has a heavy wood frame, which can mislead some to believe they have a solid, real wood furniture piece. Although wood-framed furniture can be heavy, the veneer on the outside will prevent you from being able to sand and restain. It is necessary to know the difference.
On the other hand, MDF or pressboard wood is much lighter than real wood furniture. If you can pick up a big piece of furniture no problem, you are most likely dealing with MDF or pressboard faux wood.
WoodGrain
Woodgrain is a good indication of real wood.
The exception to that rule, of course, is the fake grain on a piece of veneer. You can determine real grain from veneer by looking at the edges of the furniture. Can you see a line where the veneer wraps? That means the grain was applied with veneer adhesive.
MDF will never have a natural woodgrain.
Real Wood Furniture and Faux Wood Furniture
Figuring out what your furniture is made of is the most foundational piece of information before you start your furniture makeover project. The material that you are working with determines what type of furniture makeover you can give, whether it’s paint, stain, or even just protecting the furniture in its current condition.
The ability to sand your piece of wood furniture down opens the door to a lot more opportunities for refinishing. For example, you may find you were hoping to bleach your dresser, and you find out that it’s a veneer top, and now you must get new materials and find a new process to get your desired look.
I hope this article helps you to distinguish which type of furniture projects you can do. Save this page for later as I will be adding a gallery of each type of furniture as I go along. 🙂