Forest to Home’s bespoke timber furniture doesn’t just look good – it makes us feel good too.
Have you ever noticed how you’re drawn to solid timber furniture? Unlike manmade materials, we often instinctively reach out to run our hands over a wooden table or chair. In comparison to plastic or metal, it’s tactile, textured and tempting to touch.
Given that craftsmen have been harnessing nature’s bounty for thousands of years, it’s perhaps no surprise that we have a deep-rooted affinity for timber. But this isn’t just because it looks good. Solid timber furniture makes us feel good too.
Timber is simply great for our wellbeing, and there’s plenty of research to prove it. Studies suggest children are more relaxed and perform better in timber classrooms, while workers immersed in wooden interiors seem to have lower stress levels.
In our homes, timber furniture looks inviting – and it has a deeply calming effect too. Soft and warm to the touch, wood gives us a sense of security and allows us to embrace our age-old connection to the natural world. Interior designers even credit it with increasing creativity and decreasing stress, something we’d all probably welcome in our lives.
And the benefits don’t stop there. Factories and smog-filled cities might spring to mind when we think about air pollution, but it can be closer to home than we realise. If we don’t ventilate our houses, damp, dust and gases can build up over time, possibly causing coughs, wheezes and itchy noses.
Yet timber has an amazing ability to improve our air quality. It’s less likely to attract dust and it naturally regulates humidity levels too – in damp conditions it absorbs moisture, and in dry conditions it releases that moisture back into the air. The upshot? A soothing, family-friendly space.
Here at Forest to Home, we’re no stranger to timber’s many benefits. In fact, we experience them every day in our workshop, deep in the heart of Wiltshire’s forested countryside. Every table, desk and sideboard we create is handcrafted from slabs of sustainably-sourced and grown ash, walnut and oak. Beautiful and durable, our furniture enables our clients – and us – to embrace nature’s incredible powers into our hearts and homes.
So, the next time you find yourself standing next to an oak dining table or sinking into a long-loved wooden chair, stop for a second to think about how it makes you feel. As you run your fingers over its mellow surface, tracing the knots and grains, we think you’ll understand just how good it is for the soul.
