Choose Wood Furniture for Better Health, Reduced Environmental Impact & Greater Return on Investment

When it comes to choosing furniture for your facility, there are a variety of considerations that factor into the decision-making process. With budget, aesthetics and specific-use cases in mind, buyers face a range of choices – and the furniture they ultimately choose will shape their organization and its people for years to come.  

Today’s global furniture marketplace offers an unlimited array of colors, styles and features at just about any price point. From off-the-shelf, mass-produced pieces to full customization at any scale, there’s no shortage of brands or lines to consider. And even more so, from metal to wood to formed plastic pieces, there are a range of construction methods available too.

To further complicate things, in parallel with these factors described above, designers, architects and facility managers alike are looking for furniture that makes a difference. They want furniture that solves problems, creates healthier spaces and happier communities, and reduces a building’s impact on the environment.

What’s the best way to achieve all of these goals at once? Choose wood-based contract furniture over pieces made from metal, plastic or other synthetic materials.

It’s true, a wide range of scientific studies over recent years have demonstrated that natural wood elements improve concentration, comfort, sense of security, and overall health. The consensus from organizations such as the International Society of Wood Science, the National Center for Biotechnology Information, Frontiers in Psychology, and a number of research universities, is that wood furniture makes a positive difference in a variety of important ways.

At Blockhouse, we’re a leading contract furniture manufacturer that uses wood to create our products, and we’ve observed the real-world benefits of wood over metal or plastic furniture firsthand. More importantly, we’ve heard feedback from our customers over many decades that wood-based furniture delivers the style, features, comfort and utility that they need – while creating healthier spaces, better healthcare outcomes, greater sustainability, and maximum ROI. 

Read on to learn more about how wood-based furniture can transform your facility for the better in a way that other options can’t match, and contact our team to discuss gaining these same benefits for your organization.

Better Mental Health

No matter what type of setting, multiple studies from respected journals such as Frontiers in Psychology and the National Center for Biotechnology Information have shown that the use of natural elements, including wood furniture, creates a calming atmosphere that improves moods, increases satisfaction and lowers stress levels. And, it stands to reason that because most homes are furnished with wood-built furniture and similar natural materials, spaces like residence halls, hospital rooms, behavioral health spaces, lobbies and lounges can create the same comfortable, familiar feeling with wood-based pieces.

Unlike metal or plastic furniture which has a cold, hard and inherently institutional feel, wood furniture pieces and design elements represent home, warmth, calm and comfort. 

Especially in healthcare, behavioral and drug treatment environments, studies like a 2023 report in the Journal of Environmental Psychology have proven that this type of calming atmosphere enhances the healing process, leading to improved patient outcomes and faster recoveries. 

In fact, wood furniture is integral to this philosophy of patient-centered care and helps buyers align the design of their facility with the mission of their organization: accelerating the healing process and improving the wellbeing of patients and their families.

Better Physical Health

The impact of wood-built furniture on human health isn’t limited to the mental health aspects alone. A variety of studies have demonstrated that there are practical, physical benefits to using natural materials in the design of healthcare spaces that accelerate physical healing and promote physiological changes that improve patient outcomes. In fact, a major three-year study by five European universities in 2017 has proven the benefit.

In addition, researchers from the Technical University of Munich noted a decrease in blood pressure and heart rate from wood design elements, and an increase in blood pressure from similar steel elements. In another study, cortisol, the stress hormone, was shown to decrease with exposure to wood. Furthermore, lower cortisol levels have been linked to the likelihood of faster healing from surgery or injury. That means that wood design elements and furnishings are likely to help patients on the road to recovery in a way that metal or plastic furniture won’t.

When comparing the health benefits of wood furniture to plastic or metal, it is important to consider that wood contains naturally occurring anti-microbial properties. Even better, when combined with a coating that fuses protective particles into the surface of the wood at a molecular level, wood furniture pieces can stop germs and bacteria on contact. 

Finally, in a 2020 study, researchers found that the Coronavirus can only be replicated for 12 hours on wooden surfaces, compared to 96 hours on plastic and stainless steel surfaces. So clearly, wood furnishings can help organizations ranging from hospitals to college campuses to government facilities maintain a safer and healthier environment.

Reduced Environmental Impact

When looking for ways to minimize your organization’s impact on the environment, there are major differences between wood furnishings and those made from plastic and metal. Trees are a 100% renewable resource and, when managed effectively, the cycle of seed, plant, grow and harvest is natural and re-occurring. 

Additionally, wood is biodegradable and returns naturally to the environment from which it came. Even the US Department of Agriculture encourages the production and use of wood products because they offer a host of environmental benefits over metal or plastic. 

According to the USDA, when it comes to carbon, products manufactured with wood create a much lower impact. That’s because wood naturally stores the carbon that builds up in our environment as opposed to releasing it into the atmosphere. For comparison, the carbon footprint of hardwood flooring is more than 20 times lower than that of vinyl flooring. 

Wooden furniture, when compared with plastic or metal furniture, is no exception. Consider the following examples:

  • Petroleum to Plastic
    It takes 1.9 kg of crude oil to produce 1 kg of plastic bottles. You can imagine how much crude oil it takes to make plastic furniture: almost a 2:1 ratio of petroleum to plastic.
  • Steel Power Consumption
    It takes 6 megawatts of coal-fired power to create 1 ton of steel. This is the same amount of power it takes to power between 2,400 and 5,400 homes for a year, depending on estimates.
  • Natural, Renewable Wood
    Wood, on the other hand, is 100% sustainable. It is a renewable resource that is replenished naturally. It has a far smaller energy, water and carbon footprint than other materials. It takes no energy to make and breaks down naturally in the environment.

Greater Return on Investment

This might be the most important factor of them all to consider! While you might think that wood furniture could be more prone to damage than metal or plastic furnishings, that’s not necessarily the case. Wood furniture can be manufactured to be just as durable, if not more so, and it offers a singular benefit: it’s repairable. 

When a formed plastic stool is cracked, it must be thrown away. When a hollow metal chair frame is bent, the chair is often broken for good. Wooden furniture, on the other hand, can be repaired. It can be sanded, refinished or disassembled. Once disassembled, the individual component parts can be repaired or replaced. A cracked arm or damaged cushion doesn’t mean the piece is headed for a landfill, and the associated cost to replace an entire piece is eliminated.

Our experience over the past 50 years, derived from working with tens of thousands of organizations, has shown that wood furniture far outlasts plastic or metal furniture and ultimately holds up better in demanding, high-use environments. 

For example, thanks to innovative features like Key-Loc reversible cushions and replaceable component parts, Blockhouse furniture is known to last for decades. It’s true that when your initial furniture investment lasts longer, your bottom line is stronger. 

Ready to Gain the Benefits of Wood Furniture for Your Organization?

As you can see, there are a variety of compelling reasons to choose wood-built furniture over plastic or metal furniture. From improved mental and physical health outcomes, to greater sustainability and lower environmental impact, to far better return on investment and a stronger bottom line, the differences are clear. 

At Blockhouse, our friendly team of furniture experts is standing by to answer your questions about the many options available to your organization. If you’re looking to furnish a healthcare, education, behavioral or government facility, contact us today

We look forward to hearing from you and sharing the many benefits that wood-based furniture has to offer!