To Gustav Stickley furniture was a movement; a philosophy of function over form and a celebration of design and engineering. He produced a periodical called The Craftsman that came filled with plans for everything from furniture to entire houses. As an insult, his detractors referred to this furniture as mission furniture…implying that his designs were crude and unsophisticated; Stickley preferred the term craftsman, but Mission stuck and it is no longer considered an insult by any means.
Craftsman furniture builders built this furniture out of the then-abundant quarter sawn white oak that they fumed with ammonia to naturally darken the wood from the reaction the fumes had with the natural tannins in the wood. They chose quarter sawn wood because of its inherent strength, and they chose white oak because it is strong, durable and resistant to weather. By design the furniture de-emphsized the grain of the wood and drew the eye instead to the strength and practicality. Well, that was then and this is now. Stop by any woodworking shop and you’ll find that quarter sawn white oak, if they even have it, is one of the more expensive hardwoods. There are only so many trees left of sufficient size. But instead of depleting our dwindling white oak supply these pieces are made from poly-wood. It’s a material that is made from re-cycled plastics and although it can be worked like wood, and used like wood it is resistant to…well…just about everything. You can put this in your house, on your patio, wherever and it will stay pretty much like new forever. The Mission Poly-Wood Sofa, Mission Poly-Wood Love Seat, Mission Poly-Wood Chair, Mission Poly-Wood Coffee Table and the Mission Poly-Wood Ottoman all pay tribute to this great philosophy of practical design and they are available from Clean Air Gardening.
