What is the difference between solid timber and veneer?

Solid timber is cut from whole boards, so every layer of it is the same wood. Veneer is a thin slice of real wood glued onto a board. On the surface both are real timber. The difference is what is underneath.

How solid timber is made

The boards are sawn from the log, dried, and joined. A wide table top is usually several boards glued edge to edge. Each board keeps its own grain, knots and colour.

Because it is the same timber all the way down, a worn top can be taken back to fresh wood.

How veneer is made

A furniture veneer is usually about 0.6 mm thick. It is cut from a log in two common ways. In the first, the log turns against a long blade and is peeled, a bit like unrolling paper towel. In the second, a block of the log is sliced into thin leaves.

The leaves are glued onto a core board: MDF, plywood or particleboard. The board is less likely to warp or crack than solid timber. The veneer gives it the look and feel of the wood.

The real wood layer is thin, which changes how you look after it. Our guide below covers that.

How to tell them apart in the shop

You don't need tools. Two checks:

1. Follow the grain over the edge. Pick one line of grain on the top and follow it to the edge. On solid timber it carries on down the side. On veneer it stops at the corner, or the edge shows a thin strip of its own.
2. Look along the top. Veneer leaves from one log are laid side by side, so the pattern often repeats or mirrors itself. Solid boards each look a little different.

Weight is no guide: a veneer top on MDF can weigh about as much as solid oak.

Then check the spec, not the name. Our Galway Solid Timber 4 Door Buffet has "solid timber" in its name, and its Structural Frame line reads "Solid & Veneer Marri Timber". It mixes solid marri, a hardwood from the south-west of Western Australia, with marri veneer. On our product pages that line is under Features, as Material or Structural Frame.

Where we use each

Solid. The Kensington Solid Elm Timber Dining Table is solid elm, with a parquetry top (small blocks of timber laid in a pattern) on a double pedestal base. It comes 200 cm or 245 cm wide, from $2,245.

Solid legs, veneer top. The Patchwood Extendable Dining Table has solid oak legs and a veneer top laid in the same parquetry look. It opens from 170 to 230 cm ($1,395). The same pattern, two different builds: that is why the spec line matters.

Veneer on a board. The Montauk 2 Door 3 Drawer Buffet is elm veneer on MDF, with a light rustic wash over the grain. It is 180 cm wide and arrives fully assembled ($850).

Prices are as listed on 30 October 2026.

Want the rest?

Wondering which one to buy? Read Is solid timber better than veneer? Only for some rooms.

For MDF, and how to look after solid timber and veneer, read Solid timber, veneer or MDF: what you are paying for, and how to care for it.

Not sure what a piece is made of? Come and run your hand along the edge at our showroom, 590 Hume Hwy, Yagoona, or call us on 02 9790 2588.