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I've been burned by online furniture too many times. There's just no way to get a sense of something's quality online. You need to be able to touch it. Price i
by nsxwolf 9y ago
I've been burned by online furniture too many times. There's just no way to get a sense of something's quality online. You need to be able to touch it.
Price is not an indicator. My grandfather bought a couch and coffee table from Ethan Allen in the 1960s. They seemed to have been carved from a single block of wood and weighed a ton. Now everything they sell feels like it is made of cardboard, but it costs thousands and thousands of dollars.
- tekstar 9y agoso.. you're saying shipping weight is an indicator?
- s73ver_ 9y agoWell, it can indicate what the materials are, like if it's solid wood or not. It can't really indicate how it's put together.
- otterley 9y agoSolid wood is actually far lighter per cubic food than most composite materials. Glue is rather dense compared to wood.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- princeb 9y agoDepends. The most popular engineered wood for furniture is MDF, which from the name ("medium density") you can imagine is not too dense and not too light. The solid wood choices I thought were really beautiful for furniture (for the aesthetics and tactile qualities) are teak, oak, mahogany, and american walnut, all of which are rather dense (e.g. Asian teak is extremely heavy, while walnut is just as dense as MDF).
- ghaff 9y agoIf something is really standardized and, especially if you can try it out beforehand like an office chair, it can make sense if you find a particularly good deal online. Got an Aeron that way and still going strong after 15 years with a free warranty repair at about 7 years. But yeah, in general, furniture like sofas really needs to be experienced, it's almost impossible to return, and you'll hopefully have it for a long time. Of course, even experiencing something in person is no guarantee and, as you say, a lot of furniture these days is basically crap.