Natural veneers are often more affordable, unless you opt for rare species. It is very difficult if not impossible to stain engineered veneers, whilst natural veneers such as oak and ash stain beautifully, you can smoke these too for deep shaded effects. We love natural beauty of wood, that's why you use wood to enjoy and appreciate its warmth and individuality, shapes and shades and of course the knots!

Engineered veneers have their uses too, for once - predictability of finish, as these are dyed and printed you can be sure you get what you pick, no danger of more or less tannin in the batch of timber affecting your finishing process. They also come in handy 600mm wide x 2800mm long strips, so very cost effective in panel making, less wastage and less labour in book matching required when laying natural veneer strips. You can also have colour and finishes simply not achievable with natural veneers - e.g. deep grey or even pink colours.

I would say - they both have great uses depending on the design and the client!

Have a look at our recent article on the subject of versatile veneers.

Thank you for your comment Barbara.

I agree, they both have their own unique desirable qualities. We have a good range of both natural and engineered veneers - greys are proving very popular at the moment, both natural Grey Stained Ash and our Grey Oak and Grey Wenge engineered veneers.