Impact of visible knots on relative visual attractiveness of furniture fronts made of pine wood (Pinus sylvestris L.).

The main goal of this paper was to check if either the number or the composition (the arrangement or placement) of knots visible on the furniture fronts could be effective predictors of their relative visual attractiveness. Five different groups of human experts (73 people total) filled out a special online questionnaire, which contained 99 furniture front photos. The experts were asked to rate the relative attractiveness of the fronts using the 5-point Likert scale. It was found that an increase in the number of knots in the range of 0–4 significantly reduced the relative attractiveness of the front, but a further increase (from 4 to 8) made no statistically significant difference. Furthermore, the opinions of all expert groups turned out to be very similar, regardless of their professionalism in the field of interior or furniture design. No other (than the number of knots) predictors of the attractiveness of the fronts (such as the arrangement or placement of visual knots) could be found. The effectiveness of the number of knots as the only predictor of the visual attractiveness of cabinet doors (made of pine wood) was 61% or 87%, depending on the form of classification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]