Oak is an historic hardwood which traces its furnishing ancestry through generations of craftsmen and styles. When you buy a piece of oak furniture you are buying a slice of history. Craftsmen and nobles of the Middle Ages enjoyed oak Gothic furniture made from plentiful oak forests of England and Northern Europe. Wainscoats
(quarter cut oak boards) were shipped throughout Northern Europe as early as the 14th century. Oak was famously chosen for building Englands first merchant and Navy vessels - including the Mary Rose and all of Sir Walter Raleigh’s ships of discovery.
Oak trees grow for hundreds of years and the timeless ageing of this fabulous wood entrusts you with a piece of furniture you can pass on generation after generation.

Heavy, very strong and comfortingly robust, oak is commonly available as a light coloured hardwood. However there are more than sixty species of oak and black oak (named after its bark ) is also a popular red wood. Its prominent grain and large pores complement the medullary rays which can be distinctively seen as flakes in larger pieces.

The natural grain and beauty of the oak is enhanced to your taste by choice of four different finishes – light oak, French, bright light oak in silk, and walnut. All are distress finished and then polished and waxed by hand.

All our pieces are solid hardwood examples of this wonderful wood – please enjoy a browse through our catalogue – there is a careful selection of dining tables, chairs, wardrobes, dressers and bookcases for you to choose from. We have a range of oak finishes .All the items listed on the catalogue are on display for you to view at the York and Carlton Minniott sites.