Southwestern Furniture is exactly as it sounds. The designs and styles are usually pulled from Native American cultures. If you've ever watched a John Wayne film,there is a good chance you've already seen every typical piece of southwestern furniture. The wicker rocking chairs on the front porch, heavy fabric couches with western designs, a lot of what a carpenter would call "rough cuts", meaning the pieces are designed from the start to look rustic, and hand made. If you take a typical dresser from New England, and place it side by side of an Arizona dresser the difference becomes immediately apparent. And in case you were wondering, Southwestern furniture is made with the same care and quality of "eastern" furniture. I Hope this helps:)

Here is a link that might be useful: A Ball of Wax

There is also Texas furniture, which may be a subcategory of SW furniture. It has a strong influence from Mexico, but still is its own distinctive style and frequently features longhorn head (not to mention actual horns), often stitched into headboards or sofa backs. Furniture made in Texas often uses native mesquite, cedar, or cypress. When I was little, we had a sofa that had half wagon wheels for arms and a longhorn head stitched into the back.

Lars