Mind the wood finish when buying transitional and contemporary upholstered pieces

[drcollie]

Customers usually select wood finishes based on color, they pay little attention to the names or descriptions of the finish. However, its important to know the difference between a distressed and non-distressed wood. In most all the sleek and minimalist designs, you will want a non-distressed wood finish. These pieces don't look very good in a distressed wood in my opinion. Often I will have a customer select a wood finish that is distressed and then knowing the piece it is going on - I will recommend they specify to leave the distressing off and put on the purchase order "no distressing". The color stays the same, but the "whacking marks" are left out.

Case in point, here's a H&M Ava sofa, one I like very much that has great wood trim on it:



And two photos of an Ava in two different finishes. See the difference?