When people search for a walnut or dark wood table, what most of them want is a warm, dark brown surface with visible grain. That is what our dark oak is. If you want the walnut tree itself, its color and its figure, buy walnut from a maker who works in it.
Do you make walnut furniture?
No. Every wooden table we make for indoors is solid oak, bought as FSC-certified timber and finished in our own workshop. Outdoors we use teak.
Walnut vs dark oak: what is the difference?
Both are real hardwoods, and both last for decades if you keep standing water off them. The difference is where the color lives: in walnut it is the wood, in dark oak it is the stain. Ours sits under a matte lacquer, so care is a cloth, not oil.
| Walnut | Our dark oak | Our black oak | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where the color comes from | The wood itself | A tobacco-brown stain on solid oak | A black stain on solid oak |
| Grain | Finer, often wavy figure | Oak's open grain, clearly visible | Grain still shows through the black |
| A deep scratch | Shows the same brown wood | Can show paler oak; sand and relacquer | Can show paler oak; sand and relacquer |
| Under evening lamps | Deep chocolate brown | Warm brown | Graphic, near black |
| From us | Not made | Coffee, dining, bedside tables, benches | Coffee, dining, bedside tables, benches |
Dark oak or black oak?
Dark oak if you want brown: it is the finish people mean by a dark wood table, and it is warmer at night under lamps. Black oak if you want black that still looks like wood: the grain shows through, and it pairs with a black steel frame.
Matte and grained hides marks best, so both forgive more than a gloss top. Order wood samples before you choose. Color on a screen is a guess, and the same finish reads differently on a sunny floor and a dark one.
Can dark oak sit next to walnut furniture?
Yes. Dark oak sits easily with walnut tones, because both are warm browns. Let one wood lead the room and the other repeat it in a smaller piece, such as a walnut sideboard with a dark oak coffee table.
Black oak works next to walnut too, as a contrast rather than a match. What rarely works is three different browns at the same height. If you are buying several pieces, keep the same oak finish across them: our dark oak is the same stain on the coffee table, the dining table and the bedside table.
Which dark wood tables do we make?
Coffee table: Leo takes a solid oak top on Design Your Own, round, ø70, ø80 or ø37.4 in (27.5, 31.5 or 37.5 in). Details in the oak coffee table guide.
Dining: Ann, all solid oak, and Melker, Diana and round Luna with an oak top on a black frame, all in dark oak or black oak. See the oak dining table guide.
Bedside and side: Lisa, screwed to the wall, and Affe, a turned oak pedestal, 23 or 31 in high. See the oak bedside table guide.
How do you look after a dark oak table?
A barely damp cloth, then dry. No standing water, no silicone polish, no hot pan on the lacquer. It is lacquered, so oil and wax just sit on top.
A coaster is cheaper than a ring. A deep mark through the lacquer can be sanded and relacquered, which is the point of solid wood.
Dark oak for a dark table, walnut for walnut
- Coffee
- Leo in oak, ø70 to ø27.5 to 37.5 in
- Dining
- Ann, Melker, Diana, Luna
- Bedside
- Lisa and Affe
