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Why new furniture doesn’t last long

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Why new furniture doesn’t last long

#81

Post by fallinghawks »

VincentEvans wrote: post #3

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 th…

Almost everything from IKEA is particle board or MDF. If it's solid wood it will be priced higher - even pine. I have a couple of particle board items from them and they are definitely heavier compared to actual wood.

Re: Why new furniture doesn’t last long

#82

Post by fallinghawks »

ketzo wrote: post #32

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.

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.

Re: Why new furniture doesn’t last long

#83

Post by dirtyid »

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.

Re: Why new furniture doesn’t last long

#84

Post by freitzkriesler2 »

yowzadave wrote: post #80
freitzkriesler2 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Where is it a cost-saving solution to pay for a quarantine room that will be unused for other purposes for up to 5 months, all so you can save a few hundred dollars by buying used furniture?

It's not unless you've got the space, I have a shed I put stuff in and let anything on it starve to death. You have to plan on for it

Re: Why new furniture doesn’t last long

#85

Post by tome »

MerelyMortal wrote: post #10
donatj wrote: post #5

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 do…

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.

I wonder if commenters on Psych News question the professional judgement of IT workers based on second hand reports of their behavior.

Re: Why new furniture doesn’t last long

#86

Post by LargoLasskhyfv »

sheepybloke wrote: post #73
lbwtaylor wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And part of the problem is that it is so hard to tell if the middle priced goods are worth it. For example: - is it real wood but cheaply finished so the wood wears quickly and needs refinishing quickly. Seen this problem so often at priced places like crate & barrel. - how do you tell good quality veneer from bad? - showcase pieces of higher quality than what's delivered to your house. Room & board with their real w…

Exactly. I've been looking for bookshelves and wanted something that wasn't just Ikea's Billy. The price jump to something from Pottery Barn is 3-4x the Ikea price, but from the quality you see at the showroom, it should be closer to 1.5-2x the price. I also feel a bit jaded from the mid-tier furniture showrooms, which offer Wayfair quality at 2x the price. I just want something that will survive a move while not hav…

Why care about furniture surviving a move, when you can buy and build the same shit at your destination for cheap? And 'gift' the old to your follow renters, or just discard it?

Re: Why new furniture doesn’t last long

#88

Post by [deleted] »

evan_ wrote: post #46
nemo44x wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn’t the issue the screws tearing through the soft wood and/or engineered wood?

Ikea furniture usually uses these funky cam lock nuts and bolts in particle board pieces, rather than screws: https://www.furnitureparts.com/products/cam-lock-nuts-ikea-p... These turn the force into compression over a larger diameter so it's less likely to cause a problem. I've actually had pretty good experiences with Ikea stuff holding up over time, even across multiple moves.

[deleted]

Re: Why new furniture doesn’t last long

#89

Post by Arrath »

geodel wrote: post #7

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

Indeed not. Going to the building supply store with my dad (former logger, from a family of loggers) was maddening as he flipped through the lumber bin to try to find relatively straight and knot-free boards, akin to those he was used to in 'the old days'.

Re: Why new furniture doesn’t last long

#90

Post by blueridge »

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://vermontwoodsstudios.com/

https://hedgehousefurniture.com

https://57stdesign.com

https://www.57thstreetbookcase.com/ (all bookcases, some veneer and plywood)

https://www.spekeklein.com/home

https://www.pompy.com/

https://www.chiltons.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.thosmoser.com (highly recommended)

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

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.

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