I bought a pine corner cabinet many years ago when we moved into this house and stained it myself. At the time unfinished was very inexpensive. Its had lots of use over the years and is still holding up fine. Frankly, compared to the furniture I've seen lately, I think its almost the only way to get anything made of solid wood anymore. Even though its no longer inexpensive, it still seems like a good way to go IMO. Sandy

I LOVE unfinished furniture! We have a great store near here - Al's Woodcraft. If there's ever that one piece that you want but can't find anywhere else, they will have it. For instance, they'll have 50 bookcases in all different sizes/styles and then you can have them finish it to look exactly how you want it. I've always had them do the finishing because they do a much better job than I always could. At that store the finishing costs 40% of the cost. Since everything is so inexpensive you are still getting an amazing deal. They also do custom upholstery on pieces that use that (dining room chairs, etc).

We used to also have another one near here but they closed down, although I'm not sure if other stores still exist - Woody's.

Breenthumb is right - everything is solid wood (no particle board or veneers on anything) and very well made. And of course you have have them make it look exactly how YOU want it. A great way to get custom stuff at affordable prices.

As in most things, there are different levels of quality. Some of it is very good - better construction than some mid-grade furniture lines. Unfinished furniture has no way to hide sloppy construction.

Some of the pine they are getting these days out of Brazil looks a little strange - its TOO clear (I'm working on a piece right now). But it is solid wood (some of the pieces are veneer, but they are over a solid wood core). But if I stain it properly, it should do OK for our needs. It just won't look like traditional knotty pine (my wife liked it, and she out ranks me).

I can only find pine, oak, and aspen locally, but I have seen some unfinished furniture in other places made of maple and cherry.

A lot of woodworkers hate finishing their work (I know, it sounds strange, but many of them hate to sand). If you can find a local woodworker, he might be willing to cut you a deal if you do the finishing yourself.

We got our dining room table from a Barewoods store- can't remember the vender they got it from. It is alder, and we had them stain it a fruitwood type color. The style is very close to the farm tables you see in PB or other magazine. I love it-- it came with two leaves, and is very solid.

My dining table was unfinished. It is ash and has held up very well. I didn't stain it, but did polyurethane it. I've had it about 15 years and I do need to re-finish it, mostly because it got scratched in my last move.

I have a pine armoire that I got at a different store and had them stain and finish it. They didn't do a very good job with the stain--you can see little bits of unstained wood on the front panels. And the finish is very easily scratched.

Overall, I like unfinished furniture--you get to finish it exactly the way you want. Be careful about what type of wood you chose--I wouldn't get a soft wood like pine for a table that will get hard use, but pine would be fine for a bookcase or something similar. If you have the store finish the piece, find out how they finish it and what types of product they use.