Rustic furniture is furniture

Furniture

Furniture is the mass noun for the movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating and sleeping in beds, to hold objects at a convenient height for work using horizontal surfaces above the ground, or to store things...

 employing sticks, twigs or logs for a natural look. Many companies, artists and craftspeople make rustic furniture in a variety of styles and with a variety of historical and contemporary influences. There are a two basic types of rustic-furniture construction: bentwood

Bentwood

Bentwood is a term used to describe furniture made by steaming wood, bending it, and letting it harden into curved shapes and patterns, and is most often used in the production of rocking chairs, cafe chairs, and other light furniture. The iconic No...

 (sticks are harvested fresh or steamed to make them supple, then bent into a variety of structures and decorative shapes) and twig work

Twig work

Twig-work is the term applied to architectural details constructed of twigs and branches, usually peeled, to form decorative motifs in buildings and furniture. The most common instances are found in Adirondack Great Camps, in northern New York State, although examples are also found in the...

 (sticks – straight, curved or forked – are assembled into structures and decorative shapes within a structure). Sometimes both types are used in the same piece. Some rustic furniture makers use mortice and tenon construction; others simply nail or screw members together. Dan Mack (Warwick, New York

Warwick, New York

Warwick is a town in Orange County, New York, United States. The population was 30,764 at the 2000 census. The 2007 census population estimate is 32,669.The Town of Warwick is located in the southwest part of the county...

) is a well-known furniture maker who has authored several books on the subject. Ralph Kyloe has written books on rustic furniture and related topics.

History

Rustic furniture was originally made from whatever natural materials were in greatest supply, and often by poor people as items of trade

Barter

Barter is a method of exchange by which goods or services are directly exchanged for other goods or services without using a medium of exchange, such as money. It is usually bilateral, but may be multilateral, and usually exists parallel to monetary systems in most developed countries, though to a...

 for food or cash. It is associated with the Great Depression and other hard times in America; however, it is also associated with the Great Camps

Great Camps

Great camps refer to the grandiose family compounds of cabins that were built in the latter half of the nineteenth century on lakes in the Adirondacks such as Spitfire Lake and Rainbow Lake. The camps were summer homes for the wealthy, where they could relax, host or attend parties, and enjoy the...

 built by wealthy Americans in the Adirondack Mountains

Adirondack Mountains

The Adirondack Mountains are a mountain range located in the northeastern part of New York, that runs through Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Hamilton, Herkimer, Lewis, Saint Lawrence, Saratoga, Warren, and Washington counties....

 of New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

. Various rustic styles reflect the personality of their maker, with techniques such as chip carving

Chip carving

Chip carving or chip-carving, kerbschnitt in German, is a style of carving in which knives or chisels are used to remove small chips of the material from a flat surface in a single piece. The style became important in Migration Period metalwork, mainly Animal style jewellery, where the faceted...

, silver or gold brushwork, milk paint

Milk paint

Milk paint is a non-toxic water based mixture used as a paint. It is made from milk and lime with or without pigments added for color. Borax may be added to the milk paint recipe to assist the lime in dissolving the casein and as a preservative....

, peeled bark and other decorative enhancements. The basic wood used for rustic furniture was usually willow

Willow

Willows, sallows, and osiers form the genus Salix, around 400 species of deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere...

, although many other hard-

Hardwood

Hardwood is wood from angiosperm trees . It may also be used for those trees themselves: these are usually broad-leaved; in temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen.Hardwood contrasts with softwood...

 and softwood

Softwood

The term softwood is used to describe wood from trees that are known as gymnosperms.Conifers are an example. It may also be used to describe trees, which tend to be evergreen, notable exceptions being bald cypress and the larches....

s were also used. In the American South, palm fronds

Arecaceae

Arecaceae or Palmae , are a family of flowering plants, the only family in the monocot order Arecales. There are roughly 202 currently known genera with around 2600 species, most of which are restricted to tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate climates...

 were occasionally employed. Historical examples of rustic furniture may be found in museums and antique shops, although fine historical pieces are rare outside a museum setting. One showcase for this style of furniture is the Adirondack Museum

Adirondack Museum

The Adirondack Museum, located on NY-30 in the hamlet of Blue Mountain Lake in Hamilton County, New York, is a museum dedicated to preserving the history of the Adirondacks...

 in Blue Mountain Lake, New York. Typical items of rustic furniture include chairs, love seats, tables, desks, smoking stands (often with a cabin on top), clocks, chest of drawers

Chest of drawers

A chest of drawers, also called a dresser or a bureau, is a piece of furniture that has multiple parallel, horizontal drawers stacked one above another...

, rockers, coat racks, mirror frames and lamps.

Contemporary rustic furniture

Present-day manufacturers of rustic furniture may also craft architectural details such as bridges, porches, banisters, stairs, chandeliers and complete works of rustic architecture

Rustic architecture

Rustic architecture is a style of architecture in the United States, used in rural government and private structures and their landscape interior design. It was influenced by the American craftsman style.-Rustic styles and types:...

.