Wooden furniture vs. Metal furniture

Wood has been the mainstay furniture material for millennia due to abundance and cost-effectiveness. However, technological advancement had enabled more materials to be commonly used for manufacturing of a lot of things, including furniture. The foremost competitor of wooden furniture would be metal furniture, typically made from either steel or aluminium, and here are some factors to consider before taking sides.

Cost
No one can deny that cheap metal furniture, steel or aluminium, are near non-existent, but in the case of wooden furniture, solid wood and particle board can mean that a single piece of furniture can worth less than RM100 or more than RM1000. With that said, prices of higher end wooden furniture can easily rival that of metal ones, and if cost is a problem, metal furniture is out of the question.

If you are into antiques or interesting in making your furniture antiques or passing them down as heirlooms, note that antique furniture are almost exclusively made of wood.

Lifecycle
One cannot talk about lifecycle without touching recyclability, and but metal ones are easier to recycle. Durability-wise, furniture made from whichever type of materials can be durable or flimsy depends on factors like quality of make and material use, and despite popular perception, higher end wooden furniture, with fair amount of solid wood thrown in, or used higher grades of plywood or fiberboards, have fair chances of outlasting metal ones.

Wooden furniture, at least higher end ones, boost an advantage of typically being more repairable, whereas metal ones would usually go to the trash when they are broken.

Feel
Wood furniture, unless finished in such a way to look neutral and professional ala office furniture, generally project warmth and gives a more natural feel to the place. Metal furniture on the other hand, generally project coolness and gives a more modern, even futuristic look unless worked extensively to look organic.

As with art in general, preference is subjective and none is universally acclaimed to be better than the other. Here it all comes to what kind of feel you want for your place.

Health
It’d be puzzling to many why health is a concern in this case, but anyone with knowledge in modern furniture manufacturing that glues, paints, varnishes and adhesives used in the process may contain volatile organic compounds (VOC) like formaldehyde, which can cause a variety of health problems like asthma, headaches, sore throats and even chronic organ damages.

Both metal and wooden furniture have fair chances of containing harmful VOCs, the cheaper they are, the more toxic they likely are. Wood or metal, always be sure to check for any labels regarding toxicity before purchase.