13 ms·

Why new furniture doesn’t last long

80 points by williamsmj 3y ago

EricaHarrington 3y ago
[flagged]
blueyes 3y ago
TLDR: Plywood (and to some extent plastic) replaced solid wood. Got imported from overseas rather than made domestically. Shifted from an artisanal market to a low-cost mass market.
- foobarian 3y ago
  Honestly, I wish it were plywood, it's actually MDF or other kind of pressboard.
  - Joker_vD 3y ago
    Mmm, chipboard. Could as well be called "cheapboard". Low quality at low cost so you can pay twice.
    - foobarian 3y ago
      My biggest issue with them is they handle water very poorly. The affected piece of the board swells and warps, and never returns to original shape.
      - tfandango 3y ago
        yes, they used this for kickboard in my kitchen and even occasional spills and drips will cause swelling. Then you can't do anything about it but tear it out or try to repair with wood putty or something like that.
      - geodel 3y ago
        Very true. A few times I forgot wet wipes after cleaning and next day it was like wtf happened to this table.
    - Ekaros 3y ago
      And then we get to cardboard. You know surfaces structure... Very cheap, good enough if you never hit it properly with anything.
  - zihotki 3y ago
    I wonder why you consider it a problem. Mdf and variations are much more stable, don't warp due to humidity. For non-premium furniture it's a perfect choice.
    - angry_moose 3y ago
      And those properties make it well suited for things like cabinet panels that don't take load. MDF has poor structural strength, next to zero holding strength for fasteners (the first thing to go on ikea furniture is always the screw holes), and is very prone to water damage.
    - arwineap 3y ago
      MDF bubbles when it gets damp, and completely crumbles away when it gets wet. The price difference between plywood and MDF is not significant; $45 -> $60 in my market, and OSB is even cheaper at $30 (all prices, 4'x8', 1/2" sheets) Why MDF is used, I'll never understand.
      - Joker_vD 3y ago
        So that, as I said in my neighbouring comment, "you could pay twice". Why make a piece of furniture that in the end will cost you, the manufacturer, the same but will decrease your sales by about three times because the end product would last three times as long? To recoup the losses, you'd have to charge to the point that you move into the high-end part of the market but at that point you could just as well use solid wood (in fact, you're expected to by the customers).
    - RoyalHenOil 3y ago
      MDF warps and swells worse than any other furniture material I've ever seen. If it's not well sealed against moisture (and laminate alone is not sufficient), it will eventually develop severe flaws if exposed to water or kept in a humid environment. Regular wood (and to a lesser extent plywood) will warp somewhat over time, though rarely enough to affect the function or appearance of the piece. It will swell with humidity, but it won't be permanently disfigured by it. Also, it won't become prone to catastrophic failure because people occasionally spill drinks on it. MDF doesn't have to have these issues; it can be used correctly. It's just very rare to see that in a lot of cheaper furniture.
  - RoyalHenOil 3y ago
    Yes, plywood is fantastic. I wish I could buy furniture made from plywood. I only ever see it in vintage pieces. It's all MDF these days. MDF can be pretty good in some applications, but I mostly see it being used inappropriately: it is laminated poorly (so it peels eventually), it is not properly sealed against moisture (so it warps and discolors over time), and it is used to secure fasteners (so the furniture becomes wobbly and eventually fails). If these same pieces were made out of plywood, they would last 10X as long.
VincentEvans 3y ago
Regarding Ikea and similar self-assemble furniture - even though the assembly instruction manual does not call for it - use wood glue when assembling. It will make it A LOT stronger and it will even survive moves. One thing that didn’t make sense to me in the article is a claim that particle board or MDF is lighter than solid wood. I don’t think it’s necessarily true - I have wood furniture made of pine and cherry that is a lot lighter than Ikea pieces. MDF which is commonly used in Ikea is especially heavy, so much so that Ikea inserts a lot of hollow spaces concealed underneath laminate exterior to reduce weight.
- no_wizard 3y ago
  Use wood glue where, though? Its advice that isn't "obvious". I'm not a big furniture person, and I'm inferring you mean to do things like add some additional bind to assembled spots, e.g. when I screw in the backing for the chair I could use wood glue on the seam to give it more strength, but its not always obvious how I'm suppose to apply these Ikea "hacks" as it were.
  - BizarreByte 3y ago
    On any interlocking joints. On ikea stuff that's typically dowels, dados, and mortise and tenons. I also like to glue those weird locking screw inserts.
  - VincentEvans 3y ago
    Most of Ikea pieces I’ve assembled utilize wooden dowels in addition to their special locking bolts. Definitely use glue in all holes that are meant for wooden dowels. If you wish to go an extra mile - use a thin bead of wood glue anywhere two wood surfaces meet, tighten the screws and then wipe off the excess that gets squeezed out of the seam. Wood glue is water soluble so clean up is easy before it dries.
    - hot_gril 3y ago
      Yes, the dowels are usually the weak points in Ikea furniture. They'll slip out a little, then the leverage will tear apart the wood around it when you're carrying the furniture.
stetrain 3y ago
My biggest issue is that, like so many markets, there is a "missing middle" created by this downward price pressure. For the most part if you want a piece of furniture (ie a nightstand), there are two categories. Either you buy the Amazon/Wayfair version made of pressboard for $100-$200, or you can find a solid wood heirloom version for $2,000+. The domestic plywood or cheaper solid wood options are no longer mass produced at the scale that they used to be. There's very little in between, even if I'm willing to pay a bit more for something a bit nicer. I think one reason Ikea is so popular is that they ride the upper end of the cheap segment. Offering low-priced items but with reasonable instructions, a minimum expectation of quality, and at least there's a physical store to look at it before you buy and return it if it's damaged or doesn't work.
- suoduandao3 3y ago
  used furniture is a good compromise there, though it's harder to get a consistent style when going that route. Part of Ikea furniture's appeal is also that it looks like other Ikea furniture.
  - morkalork 3y ago
    You can definitely find nice stuff made out of maple on Facebook marketplace if you're patient.
  - richbell 3y ago
    Dealing with bed bugs and other pests has made me apprehensive about purchasing used furniture. It's a shame because you can usually find great deals on FB Marketplace, Craigslist, Kijiji etc.
    - freitzkriesler2 3y ago
      Solution to this is to leave it in a quarantine room for up to 5 months (if you have the space). Though and I say this anecdotally, when I moved back to the States I ended up refurnishing most of my house using street finds. We're talking like 10 different furniture finds include a futon frame (we bought a new mattress). Only 1 of those was upolsteres but was in great condition. No bed bugs, I got lucky.
donatj 3y ago
I had an argument with my therapist about this. My wife just gave birth to my daughter, we moved a bookshelf my grandfather built for me when I was born into her nursery and now my office is a mess, my books and such scattered. The mess is stressing me out. I am looking for a bookshelf to replace it, and told him I haven’t found anything I thought would last the rest of my life for a reasonable price. He insists I don’t need something that will last that long and I am just resistant to change. I just don’t want to waste my money on garbage pressboard I am going to need to replace.
- MerelyMortal 3y ago
  It sounds like your therapist is letting their personal opinions into your session. I'm not an expert, but that sounds like a professional no-no.
  - swagasaurus-rex 3y ago
    ... If there is no alternative, maybe the therapist is correct
    - MerelyMortal 3y ago
      Perhaps, but (again, not an expert), I think the therapist should be asking questions (Socratic Method) to get the patient to come to that conclusion themselves.
  - geodel 3y ago
    Agree. In my experience Furniture therapists are too opinionated nowadays.
  - onlyrealcuzzo 3y ago
    Is it really worth stressing yourself out over buying a hold-over bookshelf until you can find yourself a better one? If you've got money for a therapist for this type of issue - it probably isn't. You can get a custom-made bookshelf from Amish country for the cost of less than 5 therapy sessions.
doctorpangloss 3y ago
Hmm. I'm pretty sure as long as people are willing to give away vintage sofas on Facebook Marketplace because they don't know any better, I'm not going to buy a $11,000 new designer sleeper from DWR. It's not Ikea that's competing with the stuff designers want to make.
geodel 3y ago
Further, I read somewhere even solid wood available is no longer as good today as 50 years ago.
- MerelyMortal 3y ago
  I have heard the same as commercial lumber today is harvested from fast growth trees.
- atty 3y ago
  Is this something that would cause a noticeable difference in quality, or more of an academic one?
  - jaclaz 3y ago
    There are two aspects of the "difference": 1) The timber that was once a locally (or nearby) grown tree might nowadays be - while the same or very similar species - originating from some other country (with different climate/humidity/etc.) and thus be different at a structural level. 2) The timber was once seasoned over several months or even years time (again locally), while most nowadays is artificially seasoned very quickly (usually in a kiln or autoclave for a few days) While you cannot do much for #1, except of course choosing the best batch you can find, the #2 (which is actually what makes the larger differences in stability and also strength over time) can sometimes be avoided by buying the wood before it is seasoned and season it yourself naturally (of course you need the space and time needed, for furniture or making of windows/doors seasoning for a couple of years is not uncommon). The difference between artificially seasoned wood and naturally seasoned is essentially that the latter is more "stable", i.e. it will tend to crack and/or bend/deform much less.
    - atty 3y ago
      Awesome, thank you for the info! Edit: not awesome that wood is lower quality of course, the awesome was for the explanation.
- Arrath 3y ago
VirusNewbie 3y ago
I found a local company that made me a 96'' solid wood table from reclaimed wood planks (no veneer). Cost me like $1600, felt like a pretty good deal.
j7ake 3y ago
At ikeas price point you don’t even need to move the fueniture, just give it away and buy the exact same one in the new location.
- no_wizard 3y ago
  I didn't spend $1000 on a couch set to just get rid of it if I move in a year or two though. I realize some folks on HN have lots of disposable income, however even for higher earners its a waste of money at that point, I don't feel like it should be accepted practice to throw out furniture out with every move, particularly if you move a few times in a short time span.
  - lotsofpulp 3y ago
    I spent $1,100 on an IKEA couch and it has moved 3 places with me over the last ~9 years.
  - xnx 3y ago
    Assuming that you're able to sell it for something ($400?), it can make more sense to do that rather than deal with loading, unloading and the moving expense.
- williamsmj 3y ago
  I bought the same Ikea coffee table three times in three countries (https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/lack-coffee-table-black-brown-00104291/ https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/lack-coffee-table-black-brown-0...).
nemo44x 3y ago
You can get great furniture today that is made from stain grade hardwood and uses high quality fabrics. But it’s expensive. It always has been. Quality, heirloom furniture was never the domain of regular people. It’s through mass production and engineered materials everyone has couches, tables, chairs, shelves, dressers, etc. You want nice counter height chairs made of five hardwood and leather and joint work instead of screws? You’re looking at $1000/chair at the bottom and can go way up from there. Most people aren’t spending $4k on chairs for a kitchen island. This is where the cheaper mid market comes in where you get 4 chairs for $1k and they’re fine. Just not jointed or if the better wood or nicer seat, etc.
- aidenn0 3y ago
  But you can't get great furniture pre-assembled from plywood (which a lot of mid-century furniture was). I don't know if the furniture still around from them is just survivorship bias or what, but I've seen many such pieces today.
williamsmj 3y ago
I just moved cross-country in the US and my mover specifically carved out particle board Ikea furniture as "best effort", i.e. they will do their best to make sure it arrives in one piece, but they are not responsible for damages, and we should manage expectations accordingly.
tempodox 3y ago
Unsurprisingly, as someone once said, “It’s the economy, stupid.”
ketzo 3y ago
One thing that's not mentioned anywhere in this article is that a lot of that super-solid, heirloom-quality furniture is still around -- and people are very willing to buy secondhand! Facebook Marketplace/Craigslist/estate sales are a goldmine for stuff like this. This is only gonna be more true as the baby boomers continue to age. I wonder how much that impacts the market for the new stuff.
- fallinghawks 3y ago
  I like art deco and when I finally became a homeowner in 2008 I spent a couple years replacing the stuff I'd had since college. Craigslist got me an expandable dining table, a mahogany record cabinet with ancient player (made by Motorola!), a credenza, an armoire, a cedar blanket chest, and a china cabinet. Everything was $100-$350 each and a total of about $1350 for all. Solid wood, beautiful inlay work, and will outlast me.
angry_moose 3y ago
We actually expected our West Elm sofa to be well built - it wasn't cheap and their reputation wasn't complete garbage yet when we purchased it. After about 18 months the whole thing collapsed, just out of warranty believe it or not. When I started taking it apart to see if it was fixable I found that the entire damn thing was built out of stapled-together 1/2" OSB (oriented strand board...garbage "plywood") and all of the cuts had awful stress concentration corners which caused the frame to pretty much disintegrate. Wasn't a real screw or nail anywhere in the piece that I could find. I spent a day rebuilding the frame with about $30 worth of construction lumber (some 2x4s & 2x8s) and hanger brackets. It's been perfect ever since. Completely inexcusable that a $30 aftermarket fix is all it took to dramatically improve an $1800 sofa. Edit: I found a few images of the damage and a couple of the replacement supports I added. There was a lot more, but at the end of the day I was tired and didn't take a ton of pictures https://imgur.com/a/bqlLgW3 https://imgur.com/a/bqlLgW3
- LastTrain 3y ago
  That is pretty cheap for a sofa. Here is what spending a similar amount in 1970 would have gotten you: https://christmas.musetechnical.com/ShowCatalogPage/1970-Sears-Spring-Summer-Catalog/0004 https://christmas.musetechnical.com/ShowCatalogPage/1970-Sea... That would have been regarded a a cheap sofa at the time, and would have set you back $379. Average salary now vs then is 5x so equivalent price would be $1895. Your sofa probably looks nicer but the Sears one has a proper hardwood frame.
- segmondy 3y ago
  Thanks for sharing. Never thought of doing this, but definitely will be doing it next time a sofa falls apart.
- Gigachad 3y ago
  That's so much worse than what you'd get from IKEA where everything is held together with nuts and bolts and seems to be very carefully engineered to be as strong as possible given the cost constraints.
  - 3y ago
tfandango 3y ago
The same goes for hiring built in furniture. I got some quotes for about 8ft of cabinets with some bookshelves (painted, not even nice wood, probably decent ply) and it came in at 10k. I knew it would cost more than buying something from the furniture store but that really threw me. I think it's why we see so many "ikea hacks" online.
- landmass 3y ago
  I was told by a furniture store owner 20 years to use local cabinet makers to build bookshelves for you. He said never to have shelves installed in your house - a movable bookshelf costs the same as an installed one and you can take it with you when you move.
angry_moose 3y ago
For the real bottom-of-the-barrel, there are brands that are literally just cardboard held together by double-sided tape now. My wife accidentally ordered one of their vinyl record stands. To be fair, it actually did sortof ok until we made the mistake of moving it across the room (we took the records out first): https://www.amazon.com/stores/WayBasics/page/792E6148-46C9-43D1-9758-5CB26B7E28F8?ref_=ast_bln https://www.amazon.com/stores/WayBasics/page/792E6148-46C9-4...
freitzkriesler2 3y ago
I blame downward price pressure and globalization. When it comes to furniture, I only buy solid wood now. Ideally used. The best place to get antiques is from rust belt towns because the prices are actually affordable. The majority of my stuff too were either street finds (California was great for good free stuff) or hand me downs. I might check out some consignment stores back east. Anything solid wood is held onto. I will never buy awful Ikea junk again.
flappyeagle 3y ago
Premise is incorrect. Furniture is great. You can pay whatever you want and get appropriate quality. Low end ikea stuff works great if you put it together right and use some glue. Mid tier furniture is still available — it’s just going to look very traditional. High end is available to those with $$$ like it’s always been
ajford 3y ago
I feel like so many posts that look down on flat-packed/budget furniture overlook the fact that so many people are in a position where "buy it for life" isn't a desired feature. We're seeing job markets where loyalty doesn't pay and the best way to get a pay bump is to switch employers. We're seeing people live check to check, and so many are renting as opposed to buying. If I don't have a permanent home, why do I want permanent furniture? When I entered the workforce, my dad gave me a bunch of BIFL-type solid furniture he purchased with my mom before she passed. I ended up eventually selling it all off because it cost me extra to have it moved into and out of any appt that wasn't on ground floor. Often to the point where I could replace it with an IKEA piece for less than the heavy item surcharge. Or times where I moved into a smaller appt for budget reasons and just didn't have space for some pieces. I once rented a storage locker for a year just to keep furniture I couldn't fit but didn't want to let go because it was solid wood and "had value". I now use Ikea furniture for everything, and figure if I'm lucky I'll eventually be able to own property/a house and then it'd make sense to own something more durable.
dirtyid 3y ago
Real wood furniture got bad / expensive. Lots of decent mid level sheet steel and plastic furniture options now. Not to everyones taste, but they'll last decades + multiple moves. Woods probably more sustainable, but access to nice / old quality wood isn't.
- RoyalHenOil 3y ago
  For midrange furniture (not as nice as vintage hardwood furniture that will last for generations, but not as crappy as cheap laminate furniture that is lucky to last a decade), pine is a great middle ground and very sustainable.
neonate 3y ago
http://web.archive.org/web/20230905155847/https://www.washingtonpost.com/home/2023/09/05/new-furniture-quality-doesnt-last/ http://web.archive.org/web/20230905155847/https://www.washin... https://archive.ph/X7ZLf https://archive.ph/X7ZLf
blueridge 3y ago
I share this list of furniture makers anytime a post about modern furniture comes up. I usually get dinged for posting luxury goods, and am told I must be detached from reality. Here it is anyway: If you're in the market for buy-it-for-life solid wood furniture: https://www.thejoinery.com https://www.thejoinery.com https://vermontwoodsstudios.com/ https://vermontwoodsstudios.com/ https://hedgehousefurniture.com https://hedgehousefurniture.com https://57stdesign.com https://57stdesign.com https://www.57thstreetbookcase.com/ https://www.57thstreetbookcase.com/ (all bookcases, some veneer and plywood) https://www.spekeklein.com/home https://www.spekeklein.com/home https://www.pompy.com/ https://www.pompy.com/ https://www.chiltons.com/ https://www.chiltons.com/ https://roomandboard.com https://roomandboard.com (mix of solid and veneer, some MDF) These makers are in a league of their own, very expensive, incredibly beautiful hand-made pieces: https://www.sammaloofwoodworker.com https://www.sammaloofwoodworker.com https://www.thosmoser.com https://www.thosmoser.com (highly recommended) https://nakashimawoodworkers.com https://nakashimawoodworkers.com (new commissions around $7K-$15K for a coffee table, $20K-40K for dining table, plus shipping; older Nakashima pieces are highly valued in the art world and sell anywhere between $15K-$300K) https://www.wright20.com/search/nakashima/items#past https://www.wright20.com/search/nakashima/items#past I used to own a lot of IKEA furniture and as I've gotten older, have slowly replaced those pieces with items from Knoll, with custom pieces from local woodworkers, with a few pieces from the studios listed above. Yes, they're expensive. But if you like art and design and you care about quality, you save for what you want to buy. I wanted to be surrounded by great craftsmanship, so instead of buying "stuff" and instead of spending money on lots of subscriptions and services, or constantly upgrading phones and computers, I buy one piece of nice furniture every year. I believe the more you appreciate the things around you, the more they begin to influence your own work, and your sense of place. I regularly see a lot of IKEA furniture on the side of the road and in dumpsters. I think this is the difference between buying "things" and having "possessions" but that's a discussion for another day. PS: Find a local woodworker, they'll build what you want and it'll be better than anything you can buy at the store.
- tschwimmer 3y ago
  I'm sorry but I browsed the first two of these and they're 10x the price of Ikea while almost certainly not being 10x the quality. I randomly picked a modern-styled wooden dresser[0] comparable to the Ikea Malm 6 drawer dresser and it's 12x the price. There are clearly no shortage of companies willing to sell you very high margin wood furniture but I agree with the other commenters that there is a missing middle that's 2-3x the price of Ikea and that's maybe 50% better. Really I don't need some beautiful handmade wooden masterpiece (nor do 95% of other people), I'd just like something that isn't horribly flimsy and soft like MDF.
incrudible 3y ago
As someone who has seen a lot of high quality furniture go to waste because they oulast their owners, I firmly believe the market has got this right. Furniture should not be made to last indefinetely. It has a lifecycle. It should not fill you with guilt to dispose of it.
psyclobe 3y ago
I find the best furniture at antique shops, garage/estate sales, and charity stores.
kylehotchkiss 3y ago
There's a certain kind of wood from India (acacia I think) that a lot of new hardwood furniture is built with. I've seen it everywhere from Home Goods to West Elm to Crate and Barrel. If you seek it out, you'll get good, modern looking hardwood furniture at a good price. I find the way hardwood ages over time (it won't be pristine forever) to be preferable, and the ability to pay somebody to refinish it one day is a nice perk.
nunez 3y ago
So if furniture used to be significantly better ages ago, but IKEA, the king of cheap particle board furniture and Swedish meatballs as a service, is one of the wealthiest companies on Earth, then wouldn't it stand to reason that high-quality furniture was _not_ something that the market valued?
aaron695 3y ago
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lubujackson 3y ago
Pro tip for the many SF Bay Area people - if you want better than Ikea, go to the Alameda Flea Market (first Sunday of the month). It is HUUUGE and there is tidy business being done there by people who buy antique furniture on the cheap and reupholster it for modern living. I live in a Victorian and it is much nicer to have furniture that fits the place. I've bought comfy chairs, dressers, nightstands, etc, for the same price (or cheaper!) than Ikea alternatives.
iancmceachern 3y ago
It's because we don't buy furniture, we buy style. Its like paper towels. You are not buying a towell, you are buying dry. Something is now dry. It's like clothing, we don't buy it for function anymore, it's function is style. Same with furniture in most people's lives, it's about how it looks in your home, not how well it performs or lasts. People want to be able to change the style of their rooms every so often and not have it break the bank. We're using these objects differently, they're serving a different purpose (entertainment).
myrandomcomment 3y ago
When my wife and I got married we went to a local unfinished furniture store for our bedroom set. We finished it and used it for years. It is now the guest bedroom set. Our bedroom set was inherited from my parents which they inherited from my grandparents. Just recently we received a shipment of my mothers bedroom set from her teenage years that my aunt took after my grandparents passed (this wi go to my daughter after college). We also received my grandparents dining table and a few other pieces. We have my parents 1940s bar, etc. For other pieces we spent years going to estate sales finding the right pieces. When we pass my daughter will receive it all. Some of these pieces are 80 years old and still as solid as the day they where made. I highly recommend investing in good furniture, and in most cases, if you are willing to take the time, you can find amazing pieces via estate sales. Google for listing. We have picked up end tables from the 50-60s that we have seen in antique shops 1/10 their asking price at estate sales. There are tons of sites. It is 100% worth your time. It was the same thing for rugs. We started with the cheap amazon ones and replaced them with hand made ones via inheritance over time. Emotionally sitting down in the chair at the dining table my grandfather always sat it was just amazing rush of happy memories. We went with our daughter and added to the family inheritance buy having her help pick out the handmade rug that went under the table. When we where young it was not something we could afford, but now we can we focus on memories for the next generation.
sershe 3y ago
What are you guys doing with your Ikea furniture? I bought a bunch since 2008 and I still have some pieces that were with me thru about 10 moves, including 2 interstate moves and one international move, all involving a stint in a warehouse or Public Storage. The only things that ever broke were under-the-bed drawers that have a design flaw where slamming them causes the front to be levered against the bottom of the bed. From my limited experience with non-Ikea, non-office furniture, it's if anything more likely to be damaged when moving, because it cannot be disassembled and neatly stacked, and so is more liable to be banged against things when loading/unloading, or inside the truck.
- RoyalHenOil 3y ago
  Ikea has a range of quality options. Some of their budget offering are very poor quality and will eventually fail with even mild use. However, they do also sell some nicer quality furniture that will absolutely stand up to abuse.
  - sershe 3y ago
    I still have a Lack side table (the only Ikea name that makes sense in English too) and a 1-2 bottom-tier cheapest chairs that are at least 10 years old and maybe more... or e.g. Malm bed of similar age (I think that is the cheapest beds they have), we don't use it anymore cause we wanted to have a padded headboard. They are all totally fine and I've moved with them a few times.
sdfghswe 3y ago
Of all the problems in current day society, this isn't one of the worst. Consumers are talking with the money, and they're saying they prefer the cheap stuff. This isn't one of the worst problems, because no one but the consumer is affected.
LazyMans 3y ago
I have a room & board next to my office and decided to check it out since they were having a 50% off showroom pieces sale. I was shocked to find a decent looking couch for $8,000. $600 lamps. Cheapest end tables at $1500 and $1200 rugs. That said, a friend has told me their furniture is the sort of stuff you pay to re-cover when it wears out, that it should last for lifetimes. I have no way to actually verify the quality of these products though. So I sit the in the perpetual cycle, never purchasing anything because I don't want crap, but I also don't want to get ripped off. Note: Happy to pay 8k for a couch if I love it/never breaks with normal use/is made to be repaired.
api_or_ipa 3y ago
I would recommend everyone buy used furniture. We (my partner and I) furnished our apartment for next to nothing with solid wood furniture. Our queen sized pineapple bed made in the 60s from solid wood cost us $35 and is easily the most solid/best bed we've ever owned.
susiecambria 3y ago
All I can say is that I'm grateful for family who have given us antiques. When I've had to buy furniture, it's a sofa from Ikea (my husband is very hard on furniture and our two dogs are not much better), a solid wood headboard from a thrift shop, a something with veneer to be made into bathroom vanity, and a lovely antique sideboard for a kitchen island. That said, I totally feel the pain of the gap in the market. Not sure how people manage.

80 points by williamsmj 3y ago

[flagged]

TLDR: Plywood (and to some extent plastic) replaced solid wood. Got imported from overseas rather than made domestically. Shifted from an artisanal market to a low-cost mass market.

foobarian 3y ago
Honestly, I wish it were plywood, it's actually MDF or other kind of pressboard.
- Joker_vD 3y ago
  Mmm, chipboard. Could as well be called "cheapboard". Low quality at low cost so you can pay twice.
  - foobarian 3y ago
    My biggest issue with them is they handle water very poorly. The affected piece of the board swells and warps, and never returns to original shape.
    - tfandango 3y ago
      yes, they used this for kickboard in my kitchen and even occasional spills and drips will cause swelling. Then you can't do anything about it but tear it out or try to repair with wood putty or something like that.
    - geodel 3y ago
      Very true. A few times I forgot wet wipes after cleaning and next day it was like wtf happened to this table.
  - Ekaros 3y ago
    And then we get to cardboard. You know surfaces structure... Very cheap, good enough if you never hit it properly with anything.
- zihotki 3y ago
  I wonder why you consider it a problem. Mdf and variations are much more stable, don't warp due to humidity. For non-premium furniture it's a perfect choice.
  - angry_moose 3y ago
    And those properties make it well suited for things like cabinet panels that don't take load. MDF has poor structural strength, next to zero holding strength for fasteners (the first thing to go on ikea furniture is always the screw holes), and is very prone to water damage.
  - arwineap 3y ago
    MDF bubbles when it gets damp, and completely crumbles away when it gets wet. The price difference between plywood and MDF is not significant; $45 -> $60 in my market, and OSB is even cheaper at $30 (all prices, 4'x8', 1/2" sheets) Why MDF is used, I'll never understand.
    - Joker_vD 3y ago
      So that, as I said in my neighbouring comment, "you could pay twice". Why make a piece of furniture that in the end will cost you, the manufacturer, the same but will decrease your sales by about three times because the end product would last three times as long? To recoup the losses, you'd have to charge to the point that you move into the high-end part of the market but at that point you could just as well use solid wood (in fact, you're expected to by the customers).
  - RoyalHenOil 3y ago
    MDF warps and swells worse than any other furniture material I've ever seen. If it's not well sealed against moisture (and laminate alone is not sufficient), it will eventually develop severe flaws if exposed to water or kept in a humid environment. Regular wood (and to a lesser extent plywood) will warp somewhat over time, though rarely enough to affect the function or appearance of the piece. It will swell with humidity, but it won't be permanently disfigured by it. Also, it won't become prone to catastrophic failure because people occasionally spill drinks on it. MDF doesn't have to have these issues; it can be used correctly. It's just very rare to see that in a lot of cheaper furniture.
- RoyalHenOil 3y ago
  Yes, plywood is fantastic. I wish I could buy furniture made from plywood. I only ever see it in vintage pieces. It's all MDF these days. MDF can be pretty good in some applications, but I mostly see it being used inappropriately: it is laminated poorly (so it peels eventually), it is not properly sealed against moisture (so it warps and discolors over time), and it is used to secure fasteners (so the furniture becomes wobbly and eventually fails). If these same pieces were made out of plywood, they would last 10X as long.

VincentEvans 3y ago

Regarding Ikea and similar self-assemble furniture - even though the assembly instruction manual does not call for it - use wood glue when assembling. It will make it A LOT stronger and it will even survive moves. One thing that didn’t make sense to me in the article is a claim that particle board or MDF is lighter than solid wood. I don’t think it’s necessarily true - I have wood furniture made of pine and cherry that is a lot lighter than Ikea pieces. MDF which is commonly used in Ikea is especially heavy, so much so that Ikea inserts a lot of hollow spaces concealed underneath laminate exterior to reduce weight.

no_wizard 3y ago
Use wood glue where, though? Its advice that isn't "obvious". I'm not a big furniture person, and I'm inferring you mean to do things like add some additional bind to assembled spots, e.g. when I screw in the backing for the chair I could use wood glue on the seam to give it more strength, but its not always obvious how I'm suppose to apply these Ikea "hacks" as it were.
- BizarreByte 3y ago
  On any interlocking joints. On ikea stuff that's typically dowels, dados, and mortise and tenons. I also like to glue those weird locking screw inserts.
- VincentEvans 3y ago
  Most of Ikea pieces I’ve assembled utilize wooden dowels in addition to their special locking bolts. Definitely use glue in all holes that are meant for wooden dowels. If you wish to go an extra mile - use a thin bead of wood glue anywhere two wood surfaces meet, tighten the screws and then wipe off the excess that gets squeezed out of the seam. Wood glue is water soluble so clean up is easy before it dries.
  - hot_gril 3y ago
    Yes, the dowels are usually the weak points in Ikea furniture. They'll slip out a little, then the leverage will tear apart the wood around it when you're carrying the furniture.

stetrain 3y ago

My biggest issue is that, like so many markets, there is a "missing middle" created by this downward price pressure. For the most part if you want a piece of furniture (ie a nightstand), there are two categories. Either you buy the Amazon/Wayfair version made of pressboard for $100-$200, or you can find a solid wood heirloom version for $2,000+. The domestic plywood or cheaper solid wood options are no longer mass produced at the scale that they used to be. There's very little in between, even if I'm willing to pay a bit more for something a bit nicer. I think one reason Ikea is so popular is that they ride the upper end of the cheap segment. Offering low-priced items but with reasonable instructions, a minimum expectation of quality, and at least there's a physical store to look at it before you buy and return it if it's damaged or doesn't work.

suoduandao3 3y ago
used furniture is a good compromise there, though it's harder to get a consistent style when going that route. Part of Ikea furniture's appeal is also that it looks like other Ikea furniture.
- morkalork 3y ago
  You can definitely find nice stuff made out of maple on Facebook marketplace if you're patient.
- richbell 3y ago
  Dealing with bed bugs and other pests has made me apprehensive about purchasing used furniture. It's a shame because you can usually find great deals on FB Marketplace, Craigslist, Kijiji etc.
  - freitzkriesler2 3y ago
    Solution to this is to leave it in a quarantine room for up to 5 months (if you have the space). Though and I say this anecdotally, when I moved back to the States I ended up refurnishing most of my house using street finds. We're talking like 10 different furniture finds include a futon frame (we bought a new mattress). Only 1 of those was upolsteres but was in great condition. No bed bugs, I got lucky.

donatj 3y ago

I had an argument with my therapist about this. My wife just gave birth to my daughter, we moved a bookshelf my grandfather built for me when I was born into her nursery and now my office is a mess, my books and such scattered. The mess is stressing me out. I am looking for a bookshelf to replace it, and told him I haven’t found anything I thought would last the rest of my life for a reasonable price. He insists I don’t need something that will last that long and I am just resistant to change. I just don’t want to waste my money on garbage pressboard I am going to need to replace.

MerelyMortal 3y ago
It sounds like your therapist is letting their personal opinions into your session. I'm not an expert, but that sounds like a professional no-no.
- swagasaurus-rex 3y ago
  ... If there is no alternative, maybe the therapist is correct
  - MerelyMortal 3y ago
    Perhaps, but (again, not an expert), I think the therapist should be asking questions (Socratic Method) to get the patient to come to that conclusion themselves.
- geodel 3y ago
  Agree. In my experience Furniture therapists are too opinionated nowadays.
- onlyrealcuzzo 3y ago
  Is it really worth stressing yourself out over buying a hold-over bookshelf until you can find yourself a better one? If you've got money for a therapist for this type of issue - it probably isn't. You can get a custom-made bookshelf from Amish country for the cost of less than 5 therapy sessions.

doctorpangloss 3y ago

Hmm. I'm pretty sure as long as people are willing to give away vintage sofas on Facebook Marketplace because they don't know any better, I'm not going to buy a $11,000 new designer sleeper from DWR. It's not Ikea that's competing with the stuff designers want to make.

geodel 3y ago

Further, I read somewhere even solid wood available is no longer as good today as 50 years ago.

MerelyMortal 3y ago
I have heard the same as commercial lumber today is harvested from fast growth trees.
atty 3y ago
Is this something that would cause a noticeable difference in quality, or more of an academic one?
- jaclaz 3y ago
  There are two aspects of the "difference": 1) The timber that was once a locally (or nearby) grown tree might nowadays be - while the same or very similar species - originating from some other country (with different climate/humidity/etc.) and thus be different at a structural level. 2) The timber was once seasoned over several months or even years time (again locally), while most nowadays is artificially seasoned very quickly (usually in a kiln or autoclave for a few days) While you cannot do much for #1, except of course choosing the best batch you can find, the #2 (which is actually what makes the larger differences in stability and also strength over time) can sometimes be avoided by buying the wood before it is seasoned and season it yourself naturally (of course you need the space and time needed, for furniture or making of windows/doors seasoning for a couple of years is not uncommon). The difference between artificially seasoned wood and naturally seasoned is essentially that the latter is more "stable", i.e. it will tend to crack and/or bend/deform much less.
  - atty 3y ago
    Awesome, thank you for the info! Edit: not awesome that wood is lower quality of course, the awesome was for the explanation.
Arrath 3y ago

VirusNewbie 3y ago

I found a local company that made me a 96'' solid wood table from reclaimed wood planks (no veneer). Cost me like $1600, felt like a pretty good deal.

j7ake 3y ago

At ikeas price point you don’t even need to move the fueniture, just give it away and buy the exact same one in the new location.

no_wizard 3y ago
I didn't spend $1000 on a couch set to just get rid of it if I move in a year or two though. I realize some folks on HN have lots of disposable income, however even for higher earners its a waste of money at that point, I don't feel like it should be accepted practice to throw out furniture out with every move, particularly if you move a few times in a short time span.
- lotsofpulp 3y ago
  I spent $1,100 on an IKEA couch and it has moved 3 places with me over the last ~9 years.
- xnx 3y ago
  Assuming that you're able to sell it for something ($400?), it can make more sense to do that rather than deal with loading, unloading and the moving expense.
williamsmj 3y ago
I bought the same Ikea coffee table three times in three countries (https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/lack-coffee-table-black-brown-00104291/ https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/lack-coffee-table-black-brown-0...).

nemo44x 3y ago

You can get great furniture today that is made from stain grade hardwood and uses high quality fabrics. But it’s expensive. It always has been. Quality, heirloom furniture was never the domain of regular people. It’s through mass production and engineered materials everyone has couches, tables, chairs, shelves, dressers, etc. You want nice counter height chairs made of five hardwood and leather and joint work instead of screws? You’re looking at $1000/chair at the bottom and can go way up from there. Most people aren’t spending $4k on chairs for a kitchen island. This is where the cheaper mid market comes in where you get 4 chairs for $1k and they’re fine. Just not jointed or if the better wood or nicer seat, etc.

aidenn0 3y ago
But you can't get great furniture pre-assembled from plywood (which a lot of mid-century furniture was). I don't know if the furniture still around from them is just survivorship bias or what, but I've seen many such pieces today.

williamsmj 3y ago

I just moved cross-country in the US and my mover specifically carved out particle board Ikea furniture as "best effort", i.e. they will do their best to make sure it arrives in one piece, but they are not responsible for damages, and we should manage expectations accordingly.

tempodox 3y ago

Unsurprisingly, as someone once said, “It’s the economy, stupid.”

ketzo 3y ago

One thing that's not mentioned anywhere in this article is that a lot of that super-solid, heirloom-quality furniture is still around -- and people are very willing to buy secondhand! Facebook Marketplace/Craigslist/estate sales are a goldmine for stuff like this. This is only gonna be more true as the baby boomers continue to age. I wonder how much that impacts the market for the new stuff.

fallinghawks 3y ago
I like art deco and when I finally became a homeowner in 2008 I spent a couple years replacing the stuff I'd had since college. Craigslist got me an expandable dining table, a mahogany record cabinet with ancient player (made by Motorola!), a credenza, an armoire, a cedar blanket chest, and a china cabinet. Everything was $100-$350 each and a total of about $1350 for all. Solid wood, beautiful inlay work, and will outlast me.

angry_moose 3y ago

We actually expected our West Elm sofa to be well built - it wasn't cheap and their reputation wasn't complete garbage yet when we purchased it. After about 18 months the whole thing collapsed, just out of warranty believe it or not. When I started taking it apart to see if it was fixable I found that the entire damn thing was built out of stapled-together 1/2" OSB (oriented strand board...garbage "plywood") and all of the cuts had awful stress concentration corners which caused the frame to pretty much disintegrate. Wasn't a real screw or nail anywhere in the piece that I could find. I spent a day rebuilding the frame with about $30 worth of construction lumber (some 2x4s & 2x8s) and hanger brackets. It's been perfect ever since. Completely inexcusable that a $30 aftermarket fix is all it took to dramatically improve an $1800 sofa. Edit: I found a few images of the damage and a couple of the replacement supports I added. There was a lot more, but at the end of the day I was tired and didn't take a ton of pictures https://imgur.com/a/bqlLgW3 https://imgur.com/a/bqlLgW3

LastTrain 3y ago
That is pretty cheap for a sofa. Here is what spending a similar amount in 1970 would have gotten you: https://christmas.musetechnical.com/ShowCatalogPage/1970-Sears-Spring-Summer-Catalog/0004 https://christmas.musetechnical.com/ShowCatalogPage/1970-Sea... That would have been regarded a a cheap sofa at the time, and would have set you back $379. Average salary now vs then is 5x so equivalent price would be $1895. Your sofa probably looks nicer but the Sears one has a proper hardwood frame.
segmondy 3y ago
Thanks for sharing. Never thought of doing this, but definitely will be doing it next time a sofa falls apart.
Gigachad 3y ago
That's so much worse than what you'd get from IKEA where everything is held together with nuts and bolts and seems to be very carefully engineered to be as strong as possible given the cost constraints.
- 3y ago

tfandango 3y ago

The same goes for hiring built in furniture. I got some quotes for about 8ft of cabinets with some bookshelves (painted, not even nice wood, probably decent ply) and it came in at 10k. I knew it would cost more than buying something from the furniture store but that really threw me. I think it's why we see so many "ikea hacks" online.

landmass 3y ago
I was told by a furniture store owner 20 years to use local cabinet makers to build bookshelves for you. He said never to have shelves installed in your house - a movable bookshelf costs the same as an installed one and you can take it with you when you move.

angry_moose 3y ago

For the real bottom-of-the-barrel, there are brands that are literally just cardboard held together by double-sided tape now. My wife accidentally ordered one of their vinyl record stands. To be fair, it actually did sortof ok until we made the mistake of moving it across the room (we took the records out first): https://www.amazon.com/stores/WayBasics/page/792E6148-46C9-43D1-9758-5CB26B7E28F8?ref_=ast_bln https://www.amazon.com/stores/WayBasics/page/792E6148-46C9-4...

freitzkriesler2 3y ago

I blame downward price pressure and globalization. When it comes to furniture, I only buy solid wood now. Ideally used. The best place to get antiques is from rust belt towns because the prices are actually affordable. The majority of my stuff too were either street finds (California was great for good free stuff) or hand me downs. I might check out some consignment stores back east. Anything solid wood is held onto. I will never buy awful Ikea junk again.

flappyeagle 3y ago

Premise is incorrect. Furniture is great. You can pay whatever you want and get appropriate quality. Low end ikea stuff works great if you put it together right and use some glue. Mid tier furniture is still available — it’s just going to look very traditional. High end is available to those with $$$ like it’s always been

ajford 3y ago

I feel like so many posts that look down on flat-packed/budget furniture overlook the fact that so many people are in a position where "buy it for life" isn't a desired feature. We're seeing job markets where loyalty doesn't pay and the best way to get a pay bump is to switch employers. We're seeing people live check to check, and so many are renting as opposed to buying. If I don't have a permanent home, why do I want permanent furniture? When I entered the workforce, my dad gave me a bunch of BIFL-type solid furniture he purchased with my mom before she passed. I ended up eventually selling it all off because it cost me extra to have it moved into and out of any appt that wasn't on ground floor. Often to the point where I could replace it with an IKEA piece for less than the heavy item surcharge. Or times where I moved into a smaller appt for budget reasons and just didn't have space for some pieces. I once rented a storage locker for a year just to keep furniture I couldn't fit but didn't want to let go because it was solid wood and "had value". I now use Ikea furniture for everything, and figure if I'm lucky I'll eventually be able to own property/a house and then it'd make sense to own something more durable.

dirtyid 3y ago

Real wood furniture got bad / expensive. Lots of decent mid level sheet steel and plastic furniture options now. Not to everyones taste, but they'll last decades + multiple moves. Woods probably more sustainable, but access to nice / old quality wood isn't.

RoyalHenOil 3y ago
For midrange furniture (not as nice as vintage hardwood furniture that will last for generations, but not as crappy as cheap laminate furniture that is lucky to last a decade), pine is a great middle ground and very sustainable.

neonate 3y ago

http://web.archive.org/web/20230905155847/https://www.washingtonpost.com/home/2023/09/05/new-furniture-quality-doesnt-last/ http://web.archive.org/web/20230905155847/https://www.washin... https://archive.ph/X7ZLf https://archive.ph/X7ZLf

blueridge 3y ago

I share this list of furniture makers anytime a post about modern furniture comes up. I usually get dinged for posting luxury goods, and am told I must be detached from reality. Here it is anyway: If you're in the market for buy-it-for-life solid wood furniture: https://www.thejoinery.com https://www.thejoinery.com https://vermontwoodsstudios.com/ https://vermontwoodsstudios.com/ https://hedgehousefurniture.com https://hedgehousefurniture.com https://57stdesign.com https://57stdesign.com https://www.57thstreetbookcase.com/ https://www.57thstreetbookcase.com/ (all bookcases, some veneer and plywood) https://www.spekeklein.com/home https://www.spekeklein.com/home https://www.pompy.com/ https://www.pompy.com/ https://www.chiltons.com/ https://www.chiltons.com/ https://roomandboard.com https://roomandboard.com (mix of solid and veneer, some MDF) These makers are in a league of their own, very expensive, incredibly beautiful hand-made pieces: https://www.sammaloofwoodworker.com https://www.sammaloofwoodworker.com https://www.thosmoser.com https://www.thosmoser.com (highly recommended) https://nakashimawoodworkers.com https://nakashimawoodworkers.com (new commissions around $7K-$15K for a coffee table, $20K-40K for dining table, plus shipping; older Nakashima pieces are highly valued in the art world and sell anywhere between $15K-$300K) https://www.wright20.com/search/nakashima/items#past https://www.wright20.com/search/nakashima/items#past I used to own a lot of IKEA furniture and as I've gotten older, have slowly replaced those pieces with items from Knoll, with custom pieces from local woodworkers, with a few pieces from the studios listed above. Yes, they're expensive. But if you like art and design and you care about quality, you save for what you want to buy. I wanted to be surrounded by great craftsmanship, so instead of buying "stuff" and instead of spending money on lots of subscriptions and services, or constantly upgrading phones and computers, I buy one piece of nice furniture every year. I believe the more you appreciate the things around you, the more they begin to influence your own work, and your sense of place. I regularly see a lot of IKEA furniture on the side of the road and in dumpsters. I think this is the difference between buying "things" and having "possessions" but that's a discussion for another day. PS: Find a local woodworker, they'll build what you want and it'll be better than anything you can buy at the store.

tschwimmer 3y ago
I'm sorry but I browsed the first two of these and they're 10x the price of Ikea while almost certainly not being 10x the quality. I randomly picked a modern-styled wooden dresser[0] comparable to the Ikea Malm 6 drawer dresser and it's 12x the price. There are clearly no shortage of companies willing to sell you very high margin wood furniture but I agree with the other commenters that there is a missing middle that's 2-3x the price of Ikea and that's maybe 50% better. Really I don't need some beautiful handmade wooden masterpiece (nor do 95% of other people), I'd just like something that isn't horribly flimsy and soft like MDF.

incrudible 3y ago

As someone who has seen a lot of high quality furniture go to waste because they oulast their owners, I firmly believe the market has got this right. Furniture should not be made to last indefinetely. It has a lifecycle. It should not fill you with guilt to dispose of it.

psyclobe 3y ago

I find the best furniture at antique shops, garage/estate sales, and charity stores.

kylehotchkiss 3y ago

There's a certain kind of wood from India (acacia I think) that a lot of new hardwood furniture is built with. I've seen it everywhere from Home Goods to West Elm to Crate and Barrel. If you seek it out, you'll get good, modern looking hardwood furniture at a good price. I find the way hardwood ages over time (it won't be pristine forever) to be preferable, and the ability to pay somebody to refinish it one day is a nice perk.

nunez 3y ago

So if furniture used to be significantly better ages ago, but IKEA, the king of cheap particle board furniture and Swedish meatballs as a service, is one of the wealthiest companies on Earth, then wouldn't it stand to reason that high-quality furniture was _not_ something that the market valued?

aaron695 3y ago

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lubujackson 3y ago

Pro tip for the many SF Bay Area people - if you want better than Ikea, go to the Alameda Flea Market (first Sunday of the month). It is HUUUGE and there is tidy business being done there by people who buy antique furniture on the cheap and reupholster it for modern living. I live in a Victorian and it is much nicer to have furniture that fits the place. I've bought comfy chairs, dressers, nightstands, etc, for the same price (or cheaper!) than Ikea alternatives.

iancmceachern 3y ago

It's because we don't buy furniture, we buy style. Its like paper towels. You are not buying a towell, you are buying dry. Something is now dry. It's like clothing, we don't buy it for function anymore, it's function is style. Same with furniture in most people's lives, it's about how it looks in your home, not how well it performs or lasts. People want to be able to change the style of their rooms every so often and not have it break the bank. We're using these objects differently, they're serving a different purpose (entertainment).

myrandomcomment 3y ago

When my wife and I got married we went to a local unfinished furniture store for our bedroom set. We finished it and used it for years. It is now the guest bedroom set. Our bedroom set was inherited from my parents which they inherited from my grandparents. Just recently we received a shipment of my mothers bedroom set from her teenage years that my aunt took after my grandparents passed (this wi go to my daughter after college). We also received my grandparents dining table and a few other pieces. We have my parents 1940s bar, etc. For other pieces we spent years going to estate sales finding the right pieces. When we pass my daughter will receive it all. Some of these pieces are 80 years old and still as solid as the day they where made. I highly recommend investing in good furniture, and in most cases, if you are willing to take the time, you can find amazing pieces via estate sales. Google for listing. We have picked up end tables from the 50-60s that we have seen in antique shops 1/10 their asking price at estate sales. There are tons of sites. It is 100% worth your time. It was the same thing for rugs. We started with the cheap amazon ones and replaced them with hand made ones via inheritance over time. Emotionally sitting down in the chair at the dining table my grandfather always sat it was just amazing rush of happy memories. We went with our daughter and added to the family inheritance buy having her help pick out the handmade rug that went under the table. When we where young it was not something we could afford, but now we can we focus on memories for the next generation.

sershe 3y ago

What are you guys doing with your Ikea furniture? I bought a bunch since 2008 and I still have some pieces that were with me thru about 10 moves, including 2 interstate moves and one international move, all involving a stint in a warehouse or Public Storage. The only things that ever broke were under-the-bed drawers that have a design flaw where slamming them causes the front to be levered against the bottom of the bed. From my limited experience with non-Ikea, non-office furniture, it's if anything more likely to be damaged when moving, because it cannot be disassembled and neatly stacked, and so is more liable to be banged against things when loading/unloading, or inside the truck.

RoyalHenOil 3y ago
Ikea has a range of quality options. Some of their budget offering are very poor quality and will eventually fail with even mild use. However, they do also sell some nicer quality furniture that will absolutely stand up to abuse.
- sershe 3y ago
  I still have a Lack side table (the only Ikea name that makes sense in English too) and a 1-2 bottom-tier cheapest chairs that are at least 10 years old and maybe more... or e.g. Malm bed of similar age (I think that is the cheapest beds they have), we don't use it anymore cause we wanted to have a padded headboard. They are all totally fine and I've moved with them a few times.

sdfghswe 3y ago

Of all the problems in current day society, this isn't one of the worst. Consumers are talking with the money, and they're saying they prefer the cheap stuff. This isn't one of the worst problems, because no one but the consumer is affected.

LazyMans 3y ago

I have a room & board next to my office and decided to check it out since they were having a 50% off showroom pieces sale. I was shocked to find a decent looking couch for $8,000. $600 lamps. Cheapest end tables at $1500 and $1200 rugs. That said, a friend has told me their furniture is the sort of stuff you pay to re-cover when it wears out, that it should last for lifetimes. I have no way to actually verify the quality of these products though. So I sit the in the perpetual cycle, never purchasing anything because I don't want crap, but I also don't want to get ripped off. Note: Happy to pay 8k for a couch if I love it/never breaks with normal use/is made to be repaired.

api_or_ipa 3y ago

I would recommend everyone buy used furniture. We (my partner and I) furnished our apartment for next to nothing with solid wood furniture. Our queen sized pineapple bed made in the 60s from solid wood cost us $35 and is easily the most solid/best bed we've ever owned.

susiecambria 3y ago

All I can say is that I'm grateful for family who have given us antiques. When I've had to buy furniture, it's a sofa from Ikea (my husband is very hard on furniture and our two dogs are not much better), a solid wood headboard from a thrift shop, a something with veneer to be made into bathroom vanity, and a lovely antique sideboard for a kitchen island. That said, I totally feel the pain of the gap in the market. Not sure how people manage.