Yes... slowly
Your table will yellow and mellow over time. But it won't compare with an example that has been around for 40 or 50 years. If you want to speed the color change up, make sure it gets lot of sunlight. Light woods such as birch and maple darken with exposure to daylight, dark woods like walnut and rosewood lighten or fade in direct light.
I have often wondered about that too
The black and white photographs of the slat bench in the Herman Miller catalogs always looked like they were more golden in tone. The currently available ones seem to be much more neutral light with an obviously clear finish.
I also have a pair of 72" current Herman Miller benches and after two years, they still look bleachy blond in color tone.
One's in the basement and I have my plastic Ingrid cubes on them (my bookshelf storage) and the other one is in the dining room, exposed.
Both look about the same after two years....
My bench is about 8 yrs old
and it's gone a lovely golden tone just like a vintage piece. UV exposure is what does it, so if you put it in a sunny location it will hurry the process along. One interesting point to note...flooring manufacturers have long since gone to non-yellowing finishes, but it seems that HM knows their market well enough to keep using the old-fashioned stuff. I, too, would have been dissapointed if mine had stayed bleach bottle blonde!
Create your own story
I think all of us would agree that furniture carries different stories along with it. My old and very beat up DCW always reminds me of my dads barn when I discovered it.
It is true that patinated pieces have rich, textured histories - some of which will be revealed to us, and some of which will remain hidden.
But - having said that - the ones that are old now were once as blond as yours is. Part of the beauty of new pieces is that they are a complete blank slate on which your story can be told.
I personally think a well balanced house will have lots of layers - some newer, some older. And some day you'll be able to tell your kids or grandkids about the time you got the Nelson bench, and how bright and crisp it was.
(but yeah, in the meantime, lots of sun will help 🙂
I've had mine for about six...
I've had mine for about six or seven years now. I would say I have really started loving it's color for the past year and a half. It's beginning to look more like the vintage ones with the warmer wood tone. It does change. I love wood for this ... betters with age, so long as you take care of it.
Around four years back I bought an LCW brand new in ash. I really noticed then how much my bench had warmed up. They were night and day. In fact, I really hated the LCW and consequently a year and a half later I sold it. It looked almost white to me.
Just a month ago I bought six DCMs that I think were made in 2003. They aren't quite as warm as my bench, but they're damn close. I would never buy Herman Miller wood items brand new now. Instead I opted for used, so that the wood had a head start. Had I bought the DCWs new, I would have paid four times the amount and I would've hated them. They look proper, with some warm discoloration and some scratches already there for me! Nothing worse than a chair with only one or two scratches too!
A question related to this...
A question related to this discussion: Which blonde woods age faster, or how do they age differently?
For instance, the Nelson bench is maple. The Eames plywood seating in blonde is in ash, and I wonder how these compare to birch as well (birch is used for rocker and dowel bases).
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