A Schplendid Guide to Beech Hardwood (and why it’s the traditional sofa timber)
Posted posted on January 19, 2026
All you’ve ever wanted to know about beech hardwood as a furniture timber – and why it has been trusted by generations of makers for building proper sofa frames…
There’s nothing especially groundbreaking about that – indeed, if you visit a proper, traditional sofa workshop, hardwood is what you’d expect to see. But it is unusual these days, because most sofa businesses use the easier, cheaper option of ply.
But actually, using beech (and proper joinery methods) for our frames is what enables us to give our sofas a lifetime guarantee. To put it plainly, a seriously good frame is the difference between a sofa being a family heirloom and a ten-year landfill candidate.
Other hardwoods are available, but here’s why beech is best…
What is beech?
The beech used in traditional furniture-making is almost always European beech (Fagus sylvatica) — one of the most widespread broadleaf trees on the continent.
Its natural range stretches from southern Scandinavia down towards Sicily, and from Spain across into central and eastern Europe. It thrives in temperate climates, often forming vast, cathedral-like forests. So beech isn’t a rare or exotic timber, it’s an abundant, sustainable, hard-working hardwood.
It’s abundant in Britain too. In fact, it has long occupied a particular place in the British imagination, referred to in folklore as the ‘queen’ of British trees, paired with the oak as the ‘king’.
Beech trees by Alfred Clint (1807-1883) - V&A Museum. Public domain
Beech woods were felt to be less ominous and gnarly than oak woods, and were associated with reflection and learning (the word book itself is thought to share roots with old Germanic words for beech tablets used for writing).
So beech has a cultural resonance – but above all it has shaped craft traditions across Britain and Europe for centuries as the basis for wonderful, durable chairs, tables, cabinets, beds — and yes, sofas.
A brief bit of beech botany and tree science
Before beech becomes timber (and is subsequently planed, jointed and hidden inside a sofa) it is a remarkably successful living organism.
European beech (Fagus sylvatica) is a slow-to-moderate growing hardwood. In good conditions, a beech tree might take 40–60 years to reach a size suitable for structural timber, and far longer to reach full maturity. And left to its own devices, a beech can live for 200 to 300 years, with some veteran trees estimated to be older still.
That’s relevant to furniture-makers because trees that grow slowly tend to develop denser, more even-grained wood, which is one of the reasons beech behaves so predictably when seasoned and worked (see below).
One of beech’s defining biological traits is its exceptional shade tolerance. Young beech trees can survive under the dense canopy of older trees. This allows beech forests to become self-renewing and long-lived, with multiple generations coexisting in the same woodland. It’s why mature beech woods feel so ‘orderly’, with smooth grey trunks rising into a continuous canopy and relatively little undergrowth beneath.
From a timber perspective, this slow, steady upbringing contributes to straight trunks and consistent wood structure – all qualities that furniture-makers have prized for centuries.
Beech trees typically develop wide-spreading, shallow root systems rather than a single deep taproot. These roots extend laterally, anchoring the tree and efficiently absorbing nutrients from the forest floor.
Even more interestingly, beech is known to participate actively in mycorrhizal networks - symbiotic relationships with fungi that allow trees to exchange nutrients and chemical signals underground (there’s an amazing documentary on this called Fantastic Funghi - well worth checking out).
Finally, beech is deciduous, shedding its leaves each autumn and regrowing them each spring. Those leaves form a dense canopy in summer, then break down into a thick, nutrient-rich leaf litter that feeds the soil below. This seasonal rhythm contributes to beech’s success as a forest-former — and to the long-term health of the ecosystems it dominates.
Why beech is so good for furniture
There are various reasons for beech’s exceptional usefulness in furniture-making.
1) It’s relatively easy to manipulate
European beech is typically straight-grained with a fine, even texture. This is terrific for furniture-makers because it behaves itself when you cut it and joint it – and it finishes well, too.
2) It’s strong and hard-wearing
Beech offers a rare combination of strength and toughness, but at a sensible weight. It copes particularly well with all the kinds of forces that a sofa frame has to deal with everyday: repeated stress and compression, being jumped on etc.
3) It’s bendable
Beech is famously responsive to steam bending, which is the ability to soften under heat and moisture, then hold a new shape as it cools and dries. Indeed, that property has actually been critical in the history and development of furniture (more on that below).
4) It has a low moisture content
Wood is ‘hygroscopic’, meaning it constantly exchanges moisture with the air until it reaches equilibrium with its surroundings. Indoors, the ‘happy place’ is typically somewhere around 6–8% moisture content.
That’s important because when timber gains or loses moisture it moves – and in a sofa frame you want an absolute minimum of shrinking, swelling, twisting etc. Beech, when seasoned and kiln-dried well, has comparatively moderate movement compared to some timbers.
Micheal Thonet and bentwood beech
In the 19th century, a German-Austrian cabinet-maker called Michael Thonet perfected innovating steam-bending techniques that allowed solid beech to be shaped into strong, elegant curves. Known as ‘bentwood’ furniture, it soon flooded cafés, homes and public buildings across Europe, particularly in the form of chairs.
Rocking chair Model 1 (1860) By Michael Thonet - Brooklyn Museum, public domain
Thonet’s work was critical because he combined traditional materials and craft with repeatable production, without sacrificing quality and beauty. It helped make great craft scalable and affordable for many more people. Thonet’s innovation is a key reason why beech turns up again and again in serious furniture-making to this day.
How a beech sofa frame is built
A proper sofa frame is a structure made up of arms, back, seat platform and key load-bearing rails, all joined together. A really good frame should be:
Rigid enough not to rack or wobble
Strong at joints and corners
Stable through seasonal humidity changes
Precise enough to be re-sprung and re-upholstered
Repairable (so you don’t need to dispose of the whole when something goes wrong)
Schplendid uses FSC-certified beech, with timber routed through certified European supply chains. FSC certification exists to ensure forests are managed responsibly, with attention to biodiversity and long-term stewardship.
In a nutshell:
Beech is the traditional sofa-frame timber, proven over centuries
It’s strong, hard-wearing and predictable when properly dried
It works beautifully with proper joinery
It supports our lifetime guarantees because it’s so durable.
A Schplendid Guide to Beech Hardwood (and why it’s the traditional sofa timber)
All you’ve ever wanted to know about beech hardwood as a furniture timber – and why it has been trusted by generations of makers for building proper sofa frames…
At Schplendid, we insist on making our frames from solid, FSC-certified European beech hardwood, for the simple reason that it’s the best material for the job.
There’s nothing especially groundbreaking about that – indeed, if you visit a proper, traditional sofa workshop, hardwood is what you’d expect to see. But it is unusual these days, because most sofa businesses use the easier, cheaper option of ply.
But actually, using beech (and proper joinery methods) for our frames is what enables us to give our sofas a lifetime guarantee. To put it plainly, a seriously good frame is the difference between a sofa being a family heirloom and a ten-year landfill candidate.
Other hardwoods are available, but here’s why beech is best…
What is beech?
The beech used in traditional furniture-making is almost always European beech (Fagus sylvatica) — one of the most widespread broadleaf trees on the continent.
Its natural range stretches from southern Scandinavia down towards Sicily, and from Spain across into central and eastern Europe. It thrives in temperate climates, often forming vast, cathedral-like forests. So beech isn’t a rare or exotic timber, it’s an abundant, sustainable, hard-working hardwood.
It’s abundant in Britain too. In fact, it has long occupied a particular place in the British imagination, referred to in folklore as the ‘queen’ of British trees, paired with the oak as the ‘king’.
Beech woods were felt to be less ominous and gnarly than oak woods, and were associated with reflection and learning (the word book itself is thought to share roots with old Germanic words for beech tablets used for writing).
So beech has a cultural resonance – but above all it has shaped craft traditions across Britain and Europe for centuries as the basis for wonderful, durable chairs, tables, cabinets, beds — and yes, sofas.
A brief bit of beech botany and tree science
Before beech becomes timber (and is subsequently planed, jointed and hidden inside a sofa) it is a remarkably successful living organism.
European beech (Fagus sylvatica) is a slow-to-moderate growing hardwood. In good conditions, a beech tree might take 40–60 years to reach a size suitable for structural timber, and far longer to reach full maturity. And left to its own devices, a beech can live for 200 to 300 years, with some veteran trees estimated to be older still.
That’s relevant to furniture-makers because trees that grow slowly tend to develop denser, more even-grained wood, which is one of the reasons beech behaves so predictably when seasoned and worked (see below).
One of beech’s defining biological traits is its exceptional shade tolerance. Young beech trees can survive under the dense canopy of older trees. This allows beech forests to become self-renewing and long-lived, with multiple generations coexisting in the same woodland. It’s why mature beech woods feel so ‘orderly’, with smooth grey trunks rising into a continuous canopy and relatively little undergrowth beneath.
From a timber perspective, this slow, steady upbringing contributes to straight trunks and consistent wood structure – all qualities that furniture-makers have prized for centuries.
Beech trees typically develop wide-spreading, shallow root systems rather than a single deep taproot. These roots extend laterally, anchoring the tree and efficiently absorbing nutrients from the forest floor.
Even more interestingly, beech is known to participate actively in mycorrhizal networks - symbiotic relationships with fungi that allow trees to exchange nutrients and chemical signals underground (there’s an amazing documentary on this called Fantastic Funghi - well worth checking out).
Finally, beech is deciduous, shedding its leaves each autumn and regrowing them each spring. Those leaves form a dense canopy in summer, then break down into a thick, nutrient-rich leaf litter that feeds the soil below. This seasonal rhythm contributes to beech’s success as a forest-former — and to the long-term health of the ecosystems it dominates.
Why beech is so good for furniture
There are various reasons for beech’s exceptional usefulness in furniture-making.
1) It’s relatively easy to manipulate
European beech is typically straight-grained with a fine, even texture. This is terrific for furniture-makers because it behaves itself when you cut it and joint it – and it finishes well, too.
2) It’s strong and hard-wearing
Beech offers a rare combination of strength and toughness, but at a sensible weight. It copes particularly well with all the kinds of forces that a sofa frame has to deal with everyday: repeated stress and compression, being jumped on etc.
3) It’s bendable
Beech is famously responsive to steam bending, which is the ability to soften under heat and moisture, then hold a new shape as it cools and dries. Indeed, that property has actually been critical in the history and development of furniture (more on that below).
4) It has a low moisture content
Wood is ‘hygroscopic’, meaning it constantly exchanges moisture with the air until it reaches equilibrium with its surroundings. Indoors, the ‘happy place’ is typically somewhere around 6–8% moisture content.
That’s important because when timber gains or loses moisture it moves – and in a sofa frame you want an absolute minimum of shrinking, swelling, twisting etc. Beech, when seasoned and kiln-dried well, has comparatively moderate movement compared to some timbers.
Micheal Thonet and bentwood beech
In the 19th century, a German-Austrian cabinet-maker called Michael Thonet perfected innovating steam-bending techniques that allowed solid beech to be shaped into strong, elegant curves. Known as ‘bentwood’ furniture, it soon flooded cafés, homes and public buildings across Europe, particularly in the form of chairs.
Rocking chair Model 1 (1860) By Michael Thonet - Brooklyn Museum, public domain
Thonet’s work was critical because he combined traditional materials and craft with repeatable production, without sacrificing quality and beauty. It helped make great craft scalable and affordable for many more people. Thonet’s innovation is a key reason why beech turns up again and again in serious furniture-making to this day.
How a beech sofa frame is built
A proper sofa frame is a structure made up of arms, back, seat platform and key load-bearing rails, all joined together. A really good frame should be:
Rigid enough not to rack or wobble
Strong at joints and corners
Stable through seasonal humidity changes
Precise enough to be re-sprung and re-upholstered
Repairable (so you don’t need to dispose of the whole when something goes wrong)
At Schplendid, our frames use proper joinery, with dovetails, dowels, glue and screws, instead of relying on quick and cheap stapling. Beech suits this kind of construction perfectly.
Why Schplendid uses beech
Schplendid uses FSC-certified beech, with timber routed through certified European supply chains. FSC certification exists to ensure forests are managed responsibly, with attention to biodiversity and long-term stewardship.
In a nutshell:
Beech is the traditional sofa-frame timber, proven over centuries
It’s strong, hard-wearing and predictable when properly dried
It works beautifully with proper joinery
It supports our lifetime guarantees because it’s so durable.
Read more about why we use solid beech hardword and proper joinery in Schplendid sofas here.
Photo top by Kevin Linch on Unsplash