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You can still get made in the USA sofas with real hardwood, not rubber wood, which is fine, or worse, soft pine or particleboard or OSB) North Carolina was and
by hammock 3y ago
You can still get made in the USA sofas with real hardwood, not rubber wood, which is fine, or worse, soft pine or particleboard or OSB) North Carolina was and is the center of solid wood furniture), and they still cost several to many thousands of dollars, and they will still last 100+ years with a couple reupholsterings or so, but most furniture comes from Asia now and is sold for 10x less, and is not worth reupholstering, and you will be lucky if it lasts 10 years.
The was a great company an old colleague of mine started called Interior Define that sourced custom furniture from China for a BluDot price but much higher quality, but they did not survive the pandemic and have since been sold in bankruptcy to a company that has reduced the quality to par
- nostromo 3y agoRoom and Board sells great sofas that are made in the US. We've been very happy with ours. It's made from solid wood and stuffed with real feather down. It's several years old now and has shown no signs of aging.
- bradgessler 3y agoI recently cut open a heavily used R&B sofa and found 1” thick plywood used through the frame. It was solid. The down feather pillows didn’t do well—lots of feathers made their way out of the pillow.
- illegalsmile 3y agoI've never really enjoyed down cushions on a functional everyday couch. Feathers inevitably make they're way out of the pillow, through the cushion's exterior fabric and into your back/arm/leg/etc... or just around the room. They lose loft and aren't as easy to replace as say cutting a piece or two of foam and inserting those. My current couch has a down cushion on the top of the seated part and backrest and when they go I'll replace them with memory foam.
- jasondigitized 3y agoAgreed. We researched a ton of sofas and landed on Room and Board. Super happy so far.
- caseyohara 3y agoRoom and Board makes very good furniture. When my wife and I moved into our new home a few years ago, we decided to invest in high quality furniture that would last decades. Originally we ordered a sofa from Interior Define that never arrived. Something wonky was going on with that company, many people never received their orders and they wouldn’t issue a refund. Thankfully we were still within the window to do a chargeback. We have a sofa, coffee table, bed, nightstands, and some wall sconces from Room and Board. I am very impressed with the materials and build quality; I can tell everything will wear well and age nicely. Worth the investment, highly recommended.
- ipqk 3y agoI just wish their designs weren’t so staid.
- Spivak 3y agoWow you weren't kidding, those are absolutely hideous. And I thought IKEA furniture design was as minimal as it got.
- infecto 3y agoGlad you mentioned this. When I did previous research before the quote that convinced me was that Room and Board couches have the highest resell value among furniture brands. I cannot find the source now but anecdotally it has appeared to be true.
- makestuff 3y agoYeah I have furniture from there mainly because it was the only showroom I could find that hide a wide selection + was mostly solid wood or veneered cabinet grade plywood. The TV stand I bought from there shows no signs of warping a few years later and has had a 70 pound TV sitting on it the entire time. The pricing was also pretty reasonable for solid walnut that was made in the USA.
- enthdegree 3y agoI got a Room and Board 65" Jasper in Cognac Leather right before the pandemic. I thought I was overpaying and it ended up sitting in shipping for 4 months because of lockdowns. I was predisposed to hate the thing but it's become one of my most reliable large purchases. Very solidly built. The leather has held up perfectly in front of bright windows.
- morgante 3y agoTheir beds are also great. It's the only solid, high-quality furniture I've ever owned. It's not cheap, but easily much higher quality than anything else in the same price point.
- andrewl 3y agoI had a very good user experience ordering from Dreamsofa.com. They answered questions quickly, sent swatches, then sent more swatches when I needed more information, and their shipping tracking and notifications were helpful and accurate. The two guys from the shipping company they worked with were very nice. And I’m very happy with the sofa.
- boringuser2 3y agoA lot of meh furniture that uses steel will last, too.
- ClumsyPilot 3y agoI like steel in furniture, especially for larger items like bookshelves - you get the level of rigidity that you can only get from very expensive and massive chunks of hardwood. Also it’s light, and makes moving much easier
- lostlogin 3y ago> larger items like bookshelves I’m a huge fan of Lundia shelving. It seems to be strong enough to hold anything, it’s adjustable, comes in millions of sizes and looks good imho. https://lundia.com/ https://lundia.com/
- MrDresden 3y agoStrange, I remember hearing something about them going bankrupt not so long ago. Hope they haven't been revived by a VC fund that lacks their vision of quality and long lasting furniture.
- boringuser2 3y agoWorst case scenario it bends (this takes a lot of abuse) rather than snaps like plywood.
- cherrycherry98 3y agoBought our sectional from a Bassett showroom almost 10 years ago. Extremely comfortable and the thing still looks brand new. Checked a few items on their website and found that they're still made in North Carolina.
- ecliptik 3y agoWe have a Bassett sectional going on almost 10 years too. Family friend'd mom worked for/with Bassett and got us a B2B price somehow - only caveat was I had to pick it up myself at the distribution warehouse in LA. It's a fun memory renting a box truck, driving to the industrial heart of LA while listening to Will Wheaton narrate "Masters of Doom" to pick it up.
- jseliger 3y agoThe was a great company an old colleague of mine started called Interior Define My wife and I have one of their sofas—it's quite nice, although our lives might've been easier with one of the Burrow-style sofas that are easily disassembled for moves.
- linsomniac 3y ago>or worse, soft pine or particleboard or OSB Having done a lot of DIY projects over the last decade, I've really shifted my view of OSB. Originally I would lump it in with particleboard, but I've since drastically changed my view of it. Particleboard is, truly, junk. OSB and plywood are both pretty good products, and for some uses superior to hardwoods (dimensional stability, for example). High quality plywoods are amazing products. OSB for structure or underlayments are really quite good.
- Wohlf 3y agoParticleboard is absolutely useless, MDF is mostly useless except using as a guaranteed flat surface on top of something to support it, hardboard is pretty useful in certain applications though. OSB is great and extremely affordable as sheathing, and there's a massive variety of plywood that's great for their respective purposes - from cheap rough sheathing, mid-grade for shop projects and filling large gaps in furniture, all the way up to beautiful and supremely strong Baltic birch.
- teleforce 3y agoAvoid particleboard like a plague if you can afford it, appparently most of IKEA products now made of these since they are widely being used in dirt cheap furniture construction. They melt like ice once in contact with water. Recently, just had to chopped off all four legs of a bookshelf then replaced them with metal legs. The bookshelf legs somehow got damaged in contact with accumulated air-cond water droplets.
- Symbiote 3y agoIkea has two or three price points for each product. The cheapest will be made from chipboard or even cardboard. The most expensive varies, it might be pine or even something better.
- sgc 3y agoI bought their highest end leather couch with a fold out bed a couple years ago, due to time constraints. I was very unhappy to see it was made from chipboard. Of course their shelves and such you can see what you are buying, but I would not trust anything upholstered myself.
- sarchertech 3y agoWe bought 2 Stickley sofas made in North Carolina. They cost close to $10k a piece. You can still get quality, you just have to pay for it.
- lotsofpulp 3y ago>and you will be lucky if it lasts 10 years. I have at least 20 various pieces of furniture from IKEA that have lasted more than 10 years, some even closing on 20, even after multiple moves to various college dorms. Dresser drawers, dining table, sofa, bed platform, sit stand desk, etc. I do not think I have ever thrown something out for breaking. Maybe gets scuffed or scratched up or chipped, but you can mostly use one of those latex paint touch up markers and make the damage nearly invisible.
- cdchn 3y agoIKEA products seem to vary wildly between "partical board disposable" to "made from actual wood and somewhat decent."
- Doxin 3y agoIKEA sells many products in a couple tiers. E.g. if you get the cheapest billy bookcase it'll just about barely hold up if it's full of books and you don't nudge it. If you get one of the more expensive models it'll be surprisingly sturdy instead. Same sort of thing applies to nearly all their products. Yes they sell cheap crap -- that still serves its purpose mind you -- but they also sell slightly more upscale furniture that'll actually survive a couple decades. And it's not like going for a "normal" furniture store is any guarantee either. My previous couch was from a regular furniture store and it broke right in half at around the 5 year mark. Upon inspection one of the cross members was significantly tapered, still had bark on it and everything. On one end it was a solid 2x4, on the other it was barely a 0.2x0.4.
- Hamuko 3y agoAnd even the cheapest crap you can get from IKEA doesn't seem that bad to me. I've had one of those 5-euro LACK coffee tables for around six years and it really only has some minor surface damage on the top. Far away from throwing out. Although at the same time, I think I'm on my third MARKUS chair because of the gas spring leaking. Thankfully they do have long warranties, so you can exchange them if it doesn't last for 10 years.
- emodendroket 3y ago> You can still get made in the USA sofas with real hardwood, not rubber wood, which is fine, or worse, soft pine or particleboard or OSB) Where? I went around furniture stores and found it hard to discern any relationship between price and quality.
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- nerdjon 3y agoI used to live in North Carolina, and some of the outlet stores for furniture are insane. Still expensive but compared to what I would get anywhere else for the same price quite good. Hickory in particular with all of those chair statues everywhere. I have long been thinking about the idea of saving up for a while and doing a big re-furnish trip down to North Carolina with a moving truck.
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- bushbaba 3y agorubber wood IS hardwood, not sure why you'd ding it. It's a more eco-friendly wood choice
- ineedaj0b 3y agoIt’s soft, dings easily
- creer 3y agoI was mentioning in another thread, seeing good furniture made with engineered finger-jointed wood - which looked perfectly nice after finishing and felt super solid. A middle ground probably: not hardwood but very consistent, inexpensive and available by the mile. Probably with a hard finish on it.