Plywood is likely the most popular material in your home, and you are not likely aware of it. Plywood surrounds us from furniture, framing, walls, cabinets, bed frames, and more. This material is synonymous with a few things; to some people, it may be building or construction; to others, it may be select pieces of furniture, all of them Eames. Either way, plywood is an incredible material that deserves our respect. This is achieved through learning – hath no fear I am here to teach.
Ply = layers of materials, aka veneers (not the Disney teeth style)
Wood = wood
Phew, I’m glad I made it through that lesson in one piece. Essentially, that is it; plywood is made by laminating layers of wood together. However, the actual construction is a bit more complicated than that. Technically plywood is the original engineered wood material as it is comprised of thin layers of wood cut from using a giant carrot-peeler-like device, held together with adhesives, and pressed using hydraulic or vacuum assisted presses. Plywood came to prominence as a construction material in the 19th century. Since then, it has been used daily by contractors and builders galore throughout the Western world. The manufacturing of plywood has largely remained the same since its invention. The invention of a waterproof adhesive in the early 1900’s is what drove plywood to the mainstream. The key takeaway of the rise of plywood is that it made products cheaper – both in economic and some cases, quality ways – unfortunately. But that is not to say that plywood itself is a “cheap” material or in itself makes things look “cheap.” Plywood can be an incredibly elegant material to use when used effectively. And here's a fascinating tidbit: there is even some evidence that the Egyptians used veneers and early plywood, showcasing their ingenuity and early adoption of this versatile material.
Case in point, the various Eames chairs revolutionized how we use and see plywood in our everyday lives. Charles and Ray Eames began experimenting with plywood during WWII, particularly around the bending of plywood. As an aside, generally, wood can be bent; think of majestic bent trees growing in rock cracks. Wood has incredible inherent properties that allow its fibres to be bent, achieved through moisture. Living trees bend and twist as they grow because the fibres are full of moisture – the main reason why when we process wood, we have to dry the material. Likewise, with wood as a building material, we have to add moisture to bend it. For centuries, woodworkers have been using moisture to bend wood to its will – this is much more time and material-effective than carving a rectangular piece of wood into an arch.
Charles and Ray Eames found their stride using plywood and steam to bend and shape the wood into gorgeous, sinuous shapes. Some of their initial outputs were splints and materials made for the military during the war. Their titular Eames Lounge Chair is the perfect example. This piece of plywood furniture can fetch up to $21,000 (authentic 1950s version) on the used market. Congratulations, oh, simple plywood! Licenced reproductions of these chairs sell for around $8,000. As they revolutionized the use of plywood in furniture development, so did their competition. From Eames knock-offs to big box store-filled shelves of bent plywood – it is a material here to stay.
However, the use of plywood and veneers in furniture construction started much earlier than WWII-era Eames works. In 1860 John Henry Belter created the Belter Chair featuring a beautiful curved back. The use of veneers and plywood allowed him to create this shape that was previously achieved through tireless carving of wood. Historically, plywood was also used for airplanes, cars, book binding, boats, canoes, and more. This wide range of applications demonstrates the versatility of plywood, allowing manufacturers and woodworkers the opportunity to achieve a look of carved wood for a fraction of the time and money. Plywood canoes, for example by the Haskell Corporation, were lighter and ostensively stronger than their wood-strip-built predecessors.
It was famed modernist architect Alvar Aalto in 1932 who first started producing plywood furniture in the bentwood shapes we know today. His Paimio chair, shown below, is a beautiful example of how far you can push wood bending. Aalto took learnings from the Paimio chair to his signature lounge chair...which looks awfully like the ever-so-popular IKEA Poang chair – copying as a form of admiration.
Plywood in cabinetry is incredibly widespread. Our “wood” cabinets are actually an amalgamation of different types of processed wood. Typically, a cabinet door is comprised of dimensional wood lumber, aka “solid wood,” as the frame of the door holds a piece of plywood inside. This is done for economy as plywood is typically less expensive than solid wood of the same variety, think walnut, for example, and to reduce the weight of each door. Cabinet boxes are also frequently built using plywood or plywood’s dirty rotten cousin, MDF, but we do not use swear words here. For a pricing exercise example, a 4ft by 8ft sheet of solid walnut would cost approximately $700, whereas the same size piece of walnut plywood would cost approximately $250. However, it is not all about cost, it is also about longevity. The way plywood is processed, using large flat beds and presses, it is intended to stay flat and true. Solid wood is a bit more unruly and generally more susceptible to shrinkage, warping, and more. This durability of plywood ensures that your furniture and construction projects will stand the test of time, giving you peace of mind about your investment.
This is all to say that our perception of plywood needs to be more than a building material, more than “cost-effective,” but rather a key material used in our daily lives. Thankfully, plywood has stood the test of time as an interior design/architectural finish. The following spaces are wonderful examples of plywood's glory.
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