Posts Tagged ‘wooden beds’

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Choosing the best bedroom furniture for you

Friday, May 7th, 2010

A bed room is the peaceful area of your dwelling to have your privacy and be totally relaxed. Everyone loves to sleep in a lovely and cozy bed room, just like they want to have quality in any other rooms in your home. Picking the correct furniture to go in the rooms should be critical. Developing a fine bed room gives a type of security and multiplies your comfort. When you are married then you will have better times together if you could have a comfortable double or king size bed and beautiful home furniture such as dressing tables, bed side tables, cabinets, chests and wardrobes. Bedroom furniture can come in numerous styles of designs. Here i will discuss various good tips on how to choose the most suitable bedroom furniture which will offer you the lovely sleeping experience.

1. Must haves and Desires. Get to know the things you would like and what you might need from the bedroom. It is really better if you talk about it with your husband or wife to get good designs ideas. You have to prioritize on things that you need as opposed to want, when you cater for your needs then is the time to start to think about what which you may desire.

2. Styles and Concepts. Study your bedroom’s structure and dimension and envisage what kind of pieces of furniture would suit it. Why not use our free planner that can be found on the homepage?

3. Decide on Appropriate bedroom furniture. Whenever you’re getting your furniture ensure that it’s hard-wearing, of high quality, and well engineered. You don’t want to waste your cash on poor quality pieces of furniture that can only survive for some months before it falls apart. AKKA furniture only produces timeless bedroom furniture in oak and walnut that will stand the test of time.

4. Deciding on your right website. There are numerous shops and warehouses that retail pieces of furniture but you will need to select the best one. Use the world-wide-web and locate one that supplies the types of furnishings you desire but after that be certain that they have got good credibility and good buyer satisfaction. Why not come down and visit our showroom in Colchester?

5. Enjoy your good quality bedroom furniture. The bedroom is required to be your sanctuary, finish it off with quality furnishings and insure that it is an area you may love sleeping in.

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Posted in American woods, Furniture Advice, Furniture finishes, beds, dressing tables, wooden bedroom furniture, wooden wardrobes | No Comments »

Dodgy Divans Part II

Monday, April 19th, 2010

Dodgy Divans Part II
So, seeing as we’re on the subject of divans I might as well get the rest of the moans out of the way. In for a penny, in for a pound I suppose!
The flaw in the plan
Once, as a child, my parents bought me a brand-new bed, yes, a divan. It was a divan with a difference, the top section lifted open on some sort of sprung mechanism which meant that the entire bottom half of the bed could be used as storage. This was just great, providing you were happy for your ten-year-old son to empty his mattress and bedclothes over the floor every time he wanted to get something out!
A major ‘drawer’ back (groan)
So, we learnt from the flip-top bed experience and moved on. The next step was a more sedate approach involving drawers in a divan base, no more mattress slippage! This time, we found that, not only was the space severely limited, but also, the drawer bottoms were flimsy and generally collapsed once a few blankets had been put in – then they were impossible to open, even when you had managed to claw you way through the fabric hell-hole known as a valance (though I think I’ve already bemoaned valances in a previous post)
Let’s take a look at what we could have done (say in the style of Jim Bowen)
Let’s imagine what life would have been like with a lovely wooden bed. Firstly, we could have done away with any need for flip-top or sliding drawer contraptions. As a child, under the bed would have been a great place to stash a giant bag of lego (which I’m reliably told happens every night at legoland, Windsor). But secondly, there is also a great  ‘grown-up’ solution for neat freaks like me. A couple of beautiful wooden underbed drawers on castors would have been perfect. The bottoms are made out of decent timber, which means they don’t sag and collapse. They slide out easily avoiding the flip-top/drawer collapse/valance issues, and finally, they look great. Not only that, if you ever decide to change your bed and if you buy an akka wooden bed, we don’t see why you’d want to) you don’t have to change your storage at the same time. Simples.
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Wooden Bedslats

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010

Bed slats may need to be replaced after a few years of using a bed. When bed slats are not purchased from a bedding store, they may be cut from lumber available at most local home centers. It is less expensive to cut new bed slats from inexpensive lumber than to purchase bed slats from a bedding store.

 

1.                 Bed slats may be cut from ¾ inches by 3 ½ inches lumber , which is available from most major home center stores. Do not use wood that is thinner than ¾ inches since it will not be thick enough to provide the support required for the box spring. Wood that is thicker than ¾ inches may be used for beds that require additional support based on the weight of the occupant of the bed. Wood that is less than 3 ½ inches wide may be used for bed slats. However, position the bed slats so there is ½ inches less room between the slats than the slats are wide. For example, 3 ½-inch bed slats should be spaced no more than 3 inches apart for proper support of the box spring. Measure the width of the bed and choose wood that is longer than the width of the bed and cut to size.

Species

2.                 Pine, cherry, mahogany or any species of wood can be used for bed slats. Pine is the least expensive. However, the species of wood chosen for bed slats may be chosen to match the wood the bed is made from.

Finish

3.                 Select wood that has been sanded or sand the wood to reduce splinters. The splinters may cut the fabric lining on the bottom of the box spring which can allow dust mites, fleas or other undesirable pests access to the inside of the box spring. The wood that is used for bed slats does not have to be stained or sealed buy you may finish the wood to match the bed. Be sure the finish is thoroughly dry before installing the new bed slats.

Placement

4.                 If the wood chosen for bed slats has a bow, or curve, place the curve so the high side is up. The weight of the box spring and mattress will help to push the curve down. If the curve is placed so the new slat dips, there will be less support and more strain on the box spring.

 

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Wooden Dowels Used By Cabinet Makers

Sunday, January 3rd, 2010

Wood dowels are cylindrical pieces of wood that can be used in woodworking, crafts and other pursuits as pegs, axles and support rods. Available in a variety of diameters and length, dowels can be bought ready-made, or you may make them yourself.
Shapes and Sizes
1. Wooden dowels are not tapered; rather, they are the same diameter along their entire length, although the ends may receive special treatment. Dowels range from as much as 3 inches in diameter down to an eighth of an inch. Thicker dowels are more expensive than thin ones.

Dowels usually are sold in 3-foot lengths at hardware stores and home centers, although manufacturers produce longer dowels, up to 12 feet in length.
Common dowel diameters are a quarter inch, three-eighths of an inch, and a half inch.
Dowels in Joinery
2. Dowels are often used as pegs to join two pieces of wood. After selecting a dowel of the appropriate diameter, the woodworker drills two holes of a similar size, one in each of the wood pieces to be joined. After checking for fit, the woodworker puts glue on the dowel and inserts it into one hole. Then, after applying glue to the other end of the dowel, the woodworker slides the dowel into the corresponding hole on the other wooden piece. Any excess glue is wiped off.
Dowels provide strong joints between wooden pieces without the use of screws or nails. When used by a skillful woodworker, dowels can help create an apparently solid slab of wood out of many individual pieces.
Other Uses
3. Besides joinery, dowels can also be used for trim, either by being cut in half and attached or by being laid in a groove cut by a special jig.
Outside the wood shop, dowels are used in crafts. They can serve as axles in wooden toys or be turned into knitting needles. They may serve as the blanks out of which an artisan carves chess pieces. Inserted through the layers, dowels provide internal support for multitier cakes.
What Are Dowels Made Of?
4. Just about any kind of wood can be used to make a dowel. Hardwood dowels—made of walnut, oak, or maple—are common, because hardwoods are stronger and less apt to snap than a softwood, such as pine or spruce. You can buy dowels made of poplar, hickory, ash, beech and even mahogany.
Some manufacturers offer custom-made dowels created from exotic woods, such as olive, plum, rosewood or holly.
Special Treatments
5. Dowels may be sold as simple cylinders, known as square cut dowels. However, special treatments are available. You may purchase a dowel with rounded, tapered or pointed ends. A chamfered end is similar to a square cut, only the edges of the dowel’s end have been sanded so they are angled. End-bored dowels have a hole bored in the end. A tenoned dowel has a tenon at one end and a mortise on the other, allowing them to be fit together.
Short dowels intended to be used in joinery may be either spiral grooved or fluted (grooved from end to end) to provide extra surface area for the glue.
Making Dowels
6. Some woodworkers choose to make their own dowels. To cut a long dowel rod, they would place a piece of wood stock into a lathe and use a chisel or a router to trim the stock to the proper diameter.
Another way to make short dowels to is use a tool called a dowel plate. The woodworker roughs out a piece of stock and then pounds it through the chosen hole in the plate. The sharp edges of the hole cut the dowel to the precise diameter. This allows the woodworker to use short pieces of wood that might otherwise be wasted.
However, industrial dowel-making machines are more suited for producing a lot of dowels. A dowel-making machine uses cutting heads of various sizes, depending on the diameter of the dowel being produced. The cutting heads can be switched out when a different sized dowel is to be cut.
To cut very large numbers of dowels, manufacturers use machines called wood shapers. Wood shapers are similar to routers, but instead of one bit they use cutting heads above and below the wood. Each head forms half the dowel.

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History of wooden furniture

Monday, December 21st, 2009

For many people, the warmth and beauty of solid wooden furniture is inviting and reassuring; as if a touch of nature were still present in our modern, everyday lives. Wooden furniture is one of the earliest, and most important, inventions intended strictly for human comfort and pleasure. Understanding where our love affair with all things wooden comes from is an important part of understanding human nature and aesthetics.
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Chairs
1. Perhaps the earliest form of wooden furniture, the wooden chair has seen many permutations over the centuries. In Egypt, chairs carved of wood were status symbols in that mostly-treeless environment. Pharoahs would sit upon thrones of carved cedar inlaid with gold and gems. Romans also carved chairs, but Roman chairs were an open “U” shape allowing the occupant to rest his arms but without a backrest to lean against.
Arguably the most intricately crafted chairs hail from the 18th and 19th centuries. French, American, English and German craftsmen all produced highly detailed, exquisitely-crafted wooden chairs that displayed the grains, knots and patterns of exotic woods, all protected under layers of lacquer.
Chests
2. Chests in China were cedar-lined boxes delicately enameled and lacquered to protect precious silks and clothes from destructive insects. Medieval European wooden chests were relatively watertight, sealed with tar or lacquer, to protect important documents such as maps and papers from the occasional storm. Chests have changed over time, and have even been given new name: armoire, wardrobe, chest-of-drawers and hope chest. Regardless of their name, the function is the same; to use the durability of wood to protect precious belongings while making the room more attractive.
Beds
3. Early beds were nothing more than piles of animal skins or straw with a blanket on top. But Mesopotamian and Egyptian nobles slept off the floor, thanks to a wooden frame with interwoven leather or hemp straps. The essential configuration of a bed remained largely unchanged for centuries until the early Renaissance. Beds then were considerably shorter than they are now for two reasons; people slept sitting up and mattresses were becoming more widely used.
In 19th century America, Sears Roebuck & Co. began selling beds that could be dismantled and re-assembled fairly easily and thus distributed wooden beds across the country in a few short decades.
Tables
4. As old as chairs are, tables must be nearly as old. Persian emperors and the Rajahs of the Indus valley used tables as platforms for games of Shataranj (also called “Chess”). Roman and Greek feasts rested upon intricately inlaid and carved tables. The mythical King Arthur ordered a round table built so that all knights of his realm might be seen as equal.
Simple but elegant tables in the Shaker style are still in high demand both for their quality and for their attractiveness. Born of the Protestant American religious philosophy of simplicity, functionality and modesty, Shaker tables are easily recognized across the world.
Desks
5. Writing desks became the province of educated gentlemen in during the Enlightenment. Thomas Jefferson is often depicted with quill in hand, sitting at a beautifully carved writing desk penning the Declaration of Independence.
Presidents of the United States are often photographed sitting behind an imposing, wooden desk known as the “Resolute Desk.” Originally a gift from Queen Victoria to Rutherford B Hayes, the Resolute Desk was made from the planks of the HMS Resolute, a British ship rescued from the Arctic, refitted, and returned to England two decades earlier. The Resolute Desk is usually the desk of choice of American presidents and serves as a reminder of the “special bond” between the United States and Great Britain.

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Wooden Beds

Monday, November 23rd, 2009

Wooden Beds are bulletproof
I’m not quite sure that I should be taken literally here, but I won’t patronise you any further by explaining the metaphor! Another one of my chance conversations the other day caused me to ruminate over the whole wooden bedroom furniture thing. Having said that, our bedroom furniture is never far from my mind, let alone thinking about what I need to write on a blog about wooden bedroom furniture! I digress and am in danger of becoming the Ronnie Corbett of the blogging world. So the producer said….. Sorry, hang on, where was I? Yes, a chance chat. I happened to bump into my neighbour, Jimmy the other day when he announced that he’d just gone and bought a new car. ‘Nice.’ says I, ‘what have you gone for this time?’
‘Merc.’ Says Jimmy. ‘Well they’re bulletproof aren’t they?’.
I won’t bore you with the whole conversation, but needless to say, Jimmy doesn’t like having to pay out for cars all the time, he considers them a necessary evil. He’s going for a Merc as he plans to ‘run the thing into the ground’. Mercs are not a cheap option, but they do have that reputation of solid build and reliability over long periods of time.
Wait for it.
Just like quality wooden bedroom furniture! Any luxury item that has a commodity value needs to be stylish and durable. Like cars, we don’t go buying beds all the time and when we do, we want them to stand the test of time both in looks and reliability. With the odd bit of Danish oil over the years, an akka bed will continue to look as fantastic as the day you first owned it and last you for many years to come.
Akka beds are bulletproof. QED.

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AKKA 3ft Beds

Thursday, June 25th, 2009

We have had numerous customers who seem to buy beds and wooden chests for their main bedrooms but then ask if we do any single 3ft beds.
The simple answer is YES!
We can supply the Stockholm and the Milan beds to fit into a childrens room or that small back bedroom.
If space is a problem then also look at our 1 drawer / 1 door wardrobe. This is our smallest version of our popular wardrobes we manufacture.

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AKKA Furniture Guide To Bed Sizes

Thursday, March 19th, 2009

At AKKA Furniture we make solid wooden beds in the following sizes:

  • 3′0ft x 6′3ft  -  Single
  • 4′6ft x 6′3ft  -  Double
  • 5′0ft x 6′6ft  -  Kingsize
  • 6′0ft x 6′6ft  -  Superking

There are a number of considerations to make when purchasing a wooden bed.

The wider your bed the better your sleep will be. This is quoted by sleep experts who say that the average person tosses and turns approximately 70 times a night.

Choose a bed between 10cm / 15cm longer than your height.

Have you got enough room to walk around your bed?

Can you open your wardrobe doors?

Can you open all the drawers on your wooden bedroom furniture?

Remember that ‘ The Sleep Council ‘ recommends replacing your mattress at least every 10 years.

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