“It turns yellow”

It would seem that there are an awful lot of people out there who love wood. At least they think they love wood. But when you start talking to them, they will eventually get around to mentioning the few things they don't like about wood. And somehow, by the time they are done, they have listed virtually every characteristic of wood that makes it wood in the first place. The "uneven tones," the dissimilar grains, how this piece doesn't "match" that piece, "those little marks," etc.

Eventually you feel like suggesting that they might not like wood at all and might be much happier with a photo grain vinyl or plastic laminate which, while lacking the tactile qualities of wood, certainly do not exhibit any of the "flaws" that they are attempting to avoid.

But wood is wood and we are in the business of working with it and that means that we are also in the business of answering the concerns of our customers regardless of how misguided or misinformed we might think those concerns are.

So over the next week or two we are going to look at the characteristics of wood and how to present them to our clients in the most favorable light possible. Stay tuned ...

D.D.