Wenge is on its way out, which is news to me because this dark wood never made it onto my radar. And yet, it’s everywhere, in hairpins, in bass guitars, and in chairs. One seems to see it more in very modern furniture than in anything that could be considered classic or country. Target carries more of it than you might imagine, though I’m pretty sure we’re talking about a wenge finish rather than wenge wood.

I suppose I never explained what it actually is. First off, wenge is pronounced “wengay,” not “wenj,” as my brain initially parsed it. This wood comes from the tropical wenge tree in Africa, and it’s the heartwood that’s prized. It is very dark and dense, and it has a coarse grain with a pattern of nearly black grains separated by dark brown grains.

Now it’s probably just me, but I feel like the obvious grain pattern and the intense darkness of the grain make wenge and wenge finishes look too much like the cheap faux wood finishes one finds in places… well, like the horrible cheap kitchen cabinets that some idiot installed (badly) in our house many, many years ago.

Is it just me?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 at 5:50 am by Christa Terry and is filed under Color, Furniture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.