What Furniture Material to Choose for Living Room?

September 10, 2010 - When you want the perfect look and style for your living room and that too within your budget, you must choose the living room furniture materials with care. There are many factors to consider when selecting furniture materials (raw material like wood, metal etc.) for your living room. We will here give you certain tips on types of furniture materials available for living room and what factors you must keep in mind while choosing from among these materials used for making living room furniture!

Types of Furniture Materials for Living Room

This is not very difficult for you too to think about the popular furniture materials used for living rooms. To start with, there is the classic wooden furniture which is there since ages and still preferred over other materials. Then there are metal furniture that are usually combined with wood or sometimes even used alone for making stylish trendy furniture. These types of materials give birth to such furniture as aluminum, brass, silver, steel and wrought iron furniture among others. Apart from wooden and metal furniture, there are other materials like leather and glass that are again used for making trendy living room furniture. Leather furniture is used mostly for upholstery. However, certain contemporary furniture like bean bags etc. are exclusively made with leather for a modern living room. Glass is also used for making certain parts of furniture pieces like table tops, cabinet doors etc. though ultra modern glass furniture completely made with glass is also not very uncommon.

One of the very recent developments in furniture styles has been that of sustainable furniture made from eco-friendly materials that are close to nature like bamboo and cane. Rattan furniture as well as recycled furniture made from reclaimed materials like wood etc. also fall in this category. The furniture materials that have been very popular include plastic and fiber that go into making molded furniture. Although, in the wake of awareness about environmental cause, now plastic furniture has been replaced by many eco friendly furniture materials, fiber is still used for making certain unique ultra contemporary furniture pieces.

How to Choose Living Room Furniture by Material?

Now when you know what are all materials that are used for making living room furniture, it should be comparatively easier for you to choose the perfect furniture materials. However, you must keep in mind the following tips when selecting type of furniture material for living room.

Living Room Style

For a traditional and antique living room, nothing goes well other than wooden furniture though you can experiment with some of the metals that have antique kind of looks like wrought iron furniture! Metal and leather furniture can very well blend into modern as well as contemporary living room. If you love glass furniture, you can use them in almost all types of living room styles but have to be selective about its usage in the piece. For example, if having traditional style of living room, get tables with wooden legs and glass tops but if its a contemporary decor, then you can buy glass top tables with its base made with metals or even a table made completely with glass (of course, if you don't have very small children or pets at your home.) Know more about living room furniture styles for better guidance.

Cost and Durability of Furniture Materials

Wood furniture is the most common, versatile and oldest material used for making furniture of almost all varieties. It has one more advantage- it goes well with all styles of living room depending upon the furniture design. Wooden furniture can be cheap as well as very expensive depending on the type of wood and carving work. If you do not have living room remodeling plans for a very long period, then you must invest in good quality wooden furniture. Furniture made with certain types of wood like oak, teak and rosewood are very durable and therefore costlier too. However, if you have limited budget then you can go for some other softwood furniture that are cheaper.

As far as metal furniture is considered, many of them are really expensive like antique iron furniture and even wrought iron furniture. Aluminum and stainless steel furniture are also costly though not as expensive as wooden furniture. From durability point of view, they are rated somewhat lower than wood as material for furniture. Even painted or electroplated furniture like those made with wrought iron tend to rust over time. Aluminum and stainless steel furniture too are mostly preferred for light weight furniture like chairs and tables etc. They will need extra care if you go for these furniture materials but then they give you the most desired look of your choice to your living room!

So, its all dependent on your budget, living room style, and your preference of durability and how much time are you willing to spend for maintaining your furniture, that will decide about what furniture materials are best for your living room!