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Prior to about 1820 and the coming of the "machine age," almost everything had been done by hand, and every good cabinetmaker was trained so that he could create his pieces practically from log to the finished product. Furniture making in the United States was very much a handcraft trade. The mass production of furniture, which began with the Industrial Revolution, for the first time, created a division of labor between those who designed furniture and those who produced it.

All wood furniture is made from two classifications of trees; hardwoods and softwoods. Wood is classified as hard or soft in reference to the type of foliage and seeds borne by the tree from which it comes. Deciduous trees have flat spreading leaves. These generally produce hardwoods. Coniferous trees which bare needles rather than leaves and whose seed form around a core into a cone, generally produce softwoods. Both hardwoods and softwoods are widely used in the furniture industry. The many different pines are the most popular furniture softwoods, and oak, cherry, maple, walnut and mahogany are some the more important furniture hardwoods in America.

Plastics, steel, laminates, engineered plywood and other materials are gaining market share in the manufacture of furniture. Solid wood no longer is the only material used in the production of furniture. Steel, plastics, and composites are becoming more attractive in both design and price. All one needs to do is to walk into any modern office today and observe the materials from which the furniture is made.

Furniture manufacturing is very much like the garment business. Furniture styles have always been subject to cycles. There are three basic decorating styles and, therefore, three basic furniture categories. These categories are traditional, contemporary, and what most of us live with, transitional. Traditional style refers to any of the historical design movements of the past. Contemporary or modern style is still evolving; it started with the British Arts and Crafts Movement, the Austrian mechanical process of steam bending wood, and the America’s Spanish Mission and Shaker furniture. I believe all modern furniture developed from a reaction to Victorian styling. There are numerous books on the development and evolution of modern furniture. One may start with Art Nouveau, Bauhaus Design and Danish Modern. The last of the three basic furniture categories is transitional or eclectic style. Transitional or eclectic is the freest as far as decorating is concerned. Transitional is the most common kind of décor in America, simply because most people do not care or cannot afford to live with a literal translation of a past style, or with the dictates of contemporary styling.

By the late 1800’s, furniture made in America, England, or on the European continent during the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries, had begun to appear alongside new furnishings in American homes. The vast majority of us live with a varied collection of furniture. We have Great Aunt Ruby’s Victorian occasional table, our mother’s dining room set, and other odds and ends; either purchased without thought or purchased from a tremendous furniture sale that we didn’t miss on Ebay. One inevitable result of such a process will be to force a critical examination of our possessions. There must be a weeding out and a consignment to the attic some of our heirlooms and mistakes. The process is almost a middle age right of passage which is to be passed on to the next generation.

There can be no invariable rules for mingling styles, but certain general principles should be observed. Sturdier pieces are best when combined with similar design. Lighter and more delicate pieces are best used with pieces of their type. We all know someone who can put a room together seemingly without effort. I wish I could. Avoid mixing oak and mahogany if possible. Walnut and mahogany or walnut and oak may be successfully mingled. The best rule, however, is oak with oak, walnut with walnut, or mahogany with mahogany, etc.

Remember that individual pieces may have many common characteristics aside from those that link them with their style or period. The transition from one period to another or from one style to the next was commonly gradual, and much of the old was retained in the new. The practice of furniture designers from one period borrowing from furniture designers of previous periods also results in common characteristics. The practice has been going on for centuries. Remember that nationalistic, political, and regional influences are also added to the equation. I almost forgot to mention people’s religion and customs also exert an important influence on furniture. People will not produce something if no one will buy or use it; some of what worked in the past should work in the future.

If the dominant characteristics of pieces are similar, they will generally go well together. That is why we all consign things to the attic, barn, garage, basement or one of the many charity organizations including the garage sale which our children seem to profit from. The successful mixing of period styles will depend on the harmoniousness of all the parts considered as a whole.