How much should I pay for an oak wardrobe?

Prices are one of those things that are difficult to predict, due to their changeable nature. Who would have thought for example, that petrol prices could have gone so easily and quickly from 80p per litre to £1.22 a litre? (I remember when it was 50p a gallon - but that's a different story). OK, oak furniture prices have been rising due to the cost of fuel oil for ships and the weakness of the Pound and have increased by 10 to 20% since the beginning of 2010.

I would suggest that a typical 2 door oak wardrobe will now cost anything between £400 and £500. Anything over this and its either bespoke or you're paying for the retailer's brand. If it's much below this, check that it is actually oak and that you're dealing with a trustworthy retailer.

Buy Now! - Oak furniture prices rising

I've just heard that Devonshire Pine is raising the prices of its oak furniture ranges by 10% from the end of March 2010. This company builds its oak range overseas and the increases are due to the weakness of the Pound and rising shipping costs.

If they're putting up their prices, you can be sure others are likely to follow so, if you've always fancied that oak wardrobe, buy now...

Everyone wants to sell you an oak wardrobe

It's ironic that, after years of telling us that fitted bedroom furniture is the only thing to have, many companies have now decided that freestanding wardrobes may still be a good idea after all...

Freestanding or fitted?
OK fitted units can look good, but if they're shaving something like 18 inches to 2 feet (450mm to 600mm) off an entire wall of a modern bedroom it really doesn't leave much room for anything else. This is because modern bedrooms are frequently smaller than the 'typical' 10ft x 12ft (3m x 3.6m) of the past and, by the time you add a 5ft (1.5m) double bed with enough room either side and at the foot, there really isn't room for anything else.

A transitory population
30 years ago it was estimated that the average adult would live in four different homes; one when they first married, the next when children arrived, a third as their prosperity grew and then a fourth when their children left and something smaller was need for retirement. Thus it made sense to install fitted furniture, after all, it would be used for a long time. Today however, society has changed and the average person will find themselves living in many more houses so it makes sense to have furniture that can be moved from home to home.

Oak means quality
The advantage of cheap furniture is that it can easily be replaced (or discarded if moving house) but the disadvantage is that it looks like... cheap furniture. Surely it is much better to invest in a good quality oak wardrobe that will survive the peaks and troughs of the working life and yet still look good even if it acquires one or two minor blemishes along the way.

Buy buy buy
Manufacturers and retailers have realised that shrewd buyers have woken up to the advantages of the oak wardrobe. This is why there is now so much competition to sell them. Cheap furniture has its place, but a quality wardrobe will last a lifetime (and beyond) so they want to be sure your one-off or long-term purchase is placed with them rather than elsewhere.

Buying Oak Wardrobes

When buying Oak Wardrobes the ultimate aim is too buy solid oak throughout. A lot of consumers are always looking for highest quality but it's worth bearing in mind that almost all solid oak wardrobes will be supplied in sectional form.

This is a long way from your traditional flat packed furniture though.

If your looking for some wardrobe reviews Cheap Wardrobes has a few interesting comments to read.

A Great Alternative - Pine Furniture!

At the weekend I was looking at some pine furniture and it was like meeting an old friend I hadn’t seen for some time. I’d forgotten just how new pine furniture can be so fresh and natural – add a few pebbles and some sisal rope and it feels like the seaside, but add a thick rug and a blazing log fire and it feels like a cabin in the mountains.

For a great choice of pine furniture in traditional and contemporary styles I’d look for pine furniture on Right Price furniture’s website. They have dozens of ranges of genuine solid pine furniture and Right Price Furniture is now one of the biggest and most trusted online furniture retailers in the UK.

Wardrobe is for weapons?

The French word for wardrobe is Armoire, but whereas the British wardrobe evolved from a room for hanging clothes, the French Armoire developed from an upright cupboard used for storing a variety of items.

It is derived from the Latin Armarium, a cupboard of Roman origin used for storing weapons and armour.

Oak Wardrobes

The Oak Wardrobe as it is known today has its origins in the 17th Century. This site looks at the evolution of the wardrobe and some of the examples that are currently available.

Unlike the Armoire in France, the Wardrobe in Britain was developed specifically for the storage of fine clothes. In Tudor times, such clothes were of course all hand-made items, often using materials that had been extremely difficult or expensive to acquire. Their high status and value could not have been more different to the disposable fashion clothes of today. It was the responsibility of the ‘ward of the robes’ to care for and store their master or mistress’ robes.

Until the 17th Century such clothes would have been stored in a room allocated specifically for the purpose, but the rise of the merchant classes meant that many more people now had fine clothes even though they did not necessarily live in huge castles with unlimited numbers of rooms. The need for a new storage solution resulted in the development of the upright cupboard, known as a Ward-robe.

The new Wardrobes may have been a substitute for a separate room but they were still substantial affairs, built on a much larger scale than today’s free standing wardrobes. Usually the fancy new wardrobes would have been made of heavy oak boards and their sheer size and weight meant that, once in place, it was unlikely they would ever be moved again. Such items of furniture had such prestige that they would often be mentioned specifically in the wills of their owners.

Styles and tastes changed but the basic wardrobe, still made of oak, was here to stay.

Perhaps one of the more significant developments in wardrobe design and construction occurred as a result of technological developments in the late 1700s. This was when the screw cutting lathe was invented. Now the link between a screw cutting lathe and Wardrobes may, at first glance, appear rather obscure but until this time the manufacture of woodscrews was a long, laborious and painstaking process. Each thread on each individual screw had to be formed by hand. Consequently the use of woodscrews had always been kept to a minimum when making furniture.

The greater availability of woodscrews afforded by the invention of the new lathe allowed cabinet makers to design furniture that could be dismantled for transportation and then simply screwed back together again. This was a huge advantage when, for example, delivering wardrobes to the new Victorian town houses.

Today people have the choice of walk in wardrobes, which are a return to the medieval approach, free standing wardrobes or built-in wardrobes that are something of a compromise between the two.

Almost all contemporary Oak Wardrobes are able to be dismantled for transportation. If they are made of good quality oak, (such as the American Red Oak used by Devonshire Pine Ltd) and well designed, they represent attractive items of furniture that are a lifetime asset.

Fine examples of Oak Wardrobes can be seen in the showrooms of most high street furniture retailers but to gain an appreciation of the vast choice currently available the best place to view them is on the websites of internet retailers. One such retailer is Right Price Furniture.