Without going into a debate on semantics, there are several species of pines and they placed into three classifications based on cone, seed and leaf characteristics:

• White pines (also called soft pines) – often found in North America and Europe.
• Lacebark pines – Central Asia (and Mexico for Pinyons).
• Typical pines (also called hard pines) – mainly found in Europe and Asia.

For the pine geeks out there, the technical terms for the above classifications are subgenus Strobus, Ducampopinus and Pinus, respectively.

Only some types are commonly used for constructing furniture, such as a pine wardrobe. Let’s go through some main ones:

The first one is Scots Pine (hard pine class). This species is considered to be high altitude mountain trees growing at 1200 to 2600m altitude. It can grow up to 25m in height and have a trunk diameter of 1m at maturity. As a side note, the bark has a different texture and color between the lower and upper trunks. At the upper end, it is flaky, thin and orange, whilst on the lower end, it is has a thick, scaly dark grey, brownish feel. The color of the timber wood itself is somewhere between pale brown and red-brown (sort of red yellowish). The timber has the advantage of being light weight as well as being strong. Aside from being used to build furniture, it used to be popular as a Christmas tree back in the 1980s. They have since been superseeded by other species such as the Douglas Fir, which I’m going to cover next.

Douglas Fir trees can grow up to 120m tall.  They can take quite high loads so you can imagine that they would make a very durable wardrobe. The color of this wood ranges from light red to light yellow.

Another type of pine, also commonly used as Christmas trees, is the Norway Spruce.  These belong to the hard pine class. They can grow up to 35m tall. An interesting observation is that unlike many other pines, Norway Spruce are generally found scattered amongst hardwood trees, rather than in a pure pine forest. Again, it is strong and hence very appropriate in furniture construction. It has a pale wood color.

A fourth type is Ponderosa Pine (also called Western Yellow Pine or Bull Pine).  They mainly grow in mountainous terrains up to almost 70m tall. An interesting little fact is that the bark smells similar to vanilla. The wood has a pale yellow color with light red brown heartwood.

In this post, I want to go through some advantages of choosing pine as a material for your wardrobe. Firstly, I’ll give a bit of background on pine without going into too much depth and turning this into a botany lesson!

Pine Trees

Pines are conifer (or coniferous) trees which are native to most countries in northern hemisphere (E.g. Canada). They also have been introduced to subtropical places in the southern hemisphere (E.g. Australia).  Pines need good soil drainage and acid, sandy soils to grow well. Of course, there are a number of species, which range in height from 3 metres all the way up to 80 metres. Commonly though, they are between 15 to 45m tall. They have very long lifespans, commonly from 100 years up to (and past) 1000 years old!

Other aspects of a conifer tree include:

• The bark of a conifer tree is generally thick and scaly, but you will encounter species with flaking, thin bark as well.
• Four types of leaves – seeds leaves, juvenile leaves, scale leaves and needles (adult leaves).
• Cones – there are male and females cones, both of which grow on the same tree. After pollination, female cones take one and a half years to three years to mature. Typically, at maturity, the cones open to release the seeds. Another possibility is that the seeds remained stored and only released when exposed to heat (fire climax pines). So when there is a forest fire for example, the heat would cause the seeds to be released and re-populated into the burnt ground.

Most people may not know this, but amongst all tree species, pines rank very high in terms of commercial importance.  The value is in the timber and wood pulp. Aside from being used as furniture for your home or office, they are planted in parks (and large gardens, maybe your garden perhaps?), used as Christmas trees. The cones themselves are also used – as decorations, and this is contributed by its pleasant scent. The species with large seeds, aptly named pine nuts are used commonly in cooking and baking.

Now that you have an idea about the material, the reasons for choosing pine include:

• They grow relatively fast compared to other types of wood (E.g. oak, ash, mahogany), so they are cost efficient for suppliers, and (hopefully) for you, the consumer. It also means it’s good for the environment.
• If properly maintained, they can last a lifetime.
• There is a wide range of natural colors to pick from.

One disadvantage with conifer trees is that after logging, they do not possess any resistance to insect or decay. If this kind of wood is left outside, it could only last up to 18 months, tops.