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Solid Wood, Wood Veneer and Laminate: What’s the Difference?
Solid Wood, Wood Veneer and Laminate: What’s the Difference?
When you’re comparing wood furniture options, you are likely to run into three types of materials: solid wood, wood veneer and laminate. These are all distinct options that come with their own advantages and possible disadvantages. In this article, we explain the differences between these options so you can make the best choice for you.
Solid Wood

Pros to Solid Wood
Here are some of the top advantages of solid wood furniture:
- High-quality feel: Solid wood has an unmistakable feeling of quality. When you want your business’s interior to feel luxurious or traditional, solid wood furniture is an excellent choice.
- Unique appearance: With real wood, each piece of furniture is distinctive, with its own wood grain, knots and natural beauty. A live edge table or countertop can provide an especially unique appearance.
- Easy to repair: Solid wood is also durable, and if the surface gets scratched or stained, you can always repair it. You can completely refinish a tabletop by sanding, staining and sealing it.
Cons to Solid Wood
Of course, solid wood also has a few disadvantages:
- Susceptible to atmospheric conditions: Solid wood naturally expands and contracts with changes in temperature and humidity. This can lead to problems like splitting, but this isn’t typically an issue in indoor settings with controlled conditions.
- Higher cost: A downside to the luxurious, high-quality look and feel of solid wood tables is that they tend to come at a considerably higher price tag than veneer wood or laminate options.
Wood Veneer
Pros to Veneer
These are some of the many benefits of veneer:
- Similar look to solid wood: Furniture wood veneer looks like solid wood because it is, albeit a very thin layer. Still, this means the surface of your furniture will mimic the natural beauty of solid wood furniture better than laminate.
- Less susceptible to the environment: Because the majority of a veneer table or other piece of furniture is made of a stable substrate, veneer furniture is not as susceptible to environmental effects compared to solid wood.
- More options: A great reason to consider veneer furniture is that there are more options for wood species. Some woods are hard to find or don’t grow large or fast, with veneer there are hundreds of more options than solid wood. We’re also able to build more configurations.
Cons to Veneer
Here are some of the major drawbacks to veneer:
- Not as fixable: You may think you could sand and refinish solid wood veneer, but because the veneer is so thin, it can be difficult to repair. You can’t sand down the surface and refinish often it because you would quickly sand through the veneer to the substrate underneath.
Laminate
Laminate furniture also comes with some pros and cons.
Pros to Laminate
These are a few of the main advantages of laminate:
- Exceptionally affordable: When comparing real wood vs. veneer wood vs. laminate, laminate tends to be the most affordable option. This is a great advantage for companies that want to furnish their facility on a budget.
- Durable surface: Laminate furniture is impervious to environmental factors and is resistant to scratches and stains because of its durable, sealed surface. Laminate furniture is also easy to clean and maintain.
- Highly customizable: Another reason to consider choosing laminate is that it opens up endless possibilities for the design. Because the surface is covered in a decorative design, you can choose a woodgrain pattern, a solid color, a metal, or another design.
Cons to Laminate
Laminate also has a few disadvantages, including:
- Artificial copy: Laminate may resemble real wood, but some people feel that a replicated wood grain design can never match the beauty and authenticity of solid wood or a wood veneer.
- Not fixable when scratched: Fortunately, laminate surfaces are scratch-resistant, but if they do get scratched or otherwise damaged, you can’t sand down the scratch and refinish the surface.