White furniture may refer either to a distinct style of furniture or to the White Furniture Company, founded in 1881 in North Carolina by the White Brothers, Dave and Will, who made furnishings, but not in the particular style of “white furniture”.
The White brothers started their company with $275 earned working as telegraph operators and built a successful furniture company by 1886, and later the company won very large contracts with the U.S. government to help furnish hundreds of buildings needed to house workers building the Panama Canal.
As a furniture style, there are two primary types of white furniture; antique white furniture and modern white furniture. These two have almost nothing in common other than sharing the color white.
Antique white furniture is most common in bedroom furnishings; baby cribs, beds and headboards, nightstands and dressers will be the most popular antique white pieces found.
Since white is associated with peace and tranquility, its use in the bedroom is quite logical. However, you can also find pieces like dining tables, buffet tables and coffee tables with an antique white finish. You can find antique white furniture in many different styles and designs, and it combines European and American styles.
Reproduction antique white furniture is extremely popular and can be found in many galleries and furniture boutiques. Finding true antiques in the style will require more effort and, as with any quality antiques, you will pay for the original collector pieces, although it will typically be more affordable than natural wood finished antique furniture.
Modern white furniture is another aesthetic altogether. Often used in modern and contemporary furnishings, you will see white finishes ranging from satin white to pearl, highly lacquered white to rough hewn oak with a white wash finish. White is a neutral tone that fits in well with the modernist furniture movement and aesthetic.
Since it sets a very neutral tone in a room, white furniture fits in well with any color palette and can be easily adapted as the theme, design and color palette of a room changes over time, giving it the added benefit of flexibility.
Choose any quality white furniture piece, whether modern or antique; if it has a nice form and design and you will get many years of use from it, even as other elements of the room may change or even as you move from one home to another.
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