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Why are most sofas so bad?

dwell.com

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Re: Why are most sofas so bad?

#311

Post by swatcoder »

standardUser wrote: post #185

I have 3 sofas and all of them were free. One is from a neighbor and the other two from the Buy Nothing group on Facebook. I have never been able to convince myself that any piece of furniture is worth the thousands of dollars that an average couch costs. The one exception being the bed (which is the actual most important piece of furniture anyone owns). What truly baffles me is how, in my middle-class suburban homet…

> middle-class

That's your explanation.

The modern professional "middle class" was once called the petit bougeuosie and characterizes itself by trying to replicate aristocratic aesthetics and lifestyles with earned wages, which is mostly a lost cause and just creates a endless treadmill of labor and consumption.

Good on you for being so thoroughly free of the compulsion that they're an alien bafflement to you!

Re: Why are most sofas so bad?

#312

Post by ajsnigrutin »

VHRanger wrote: post #296
Gigachad wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ikea stuff also seems to be perfectly fine. Almost my entire apartment I ikea stuff and I’m yet to have anything fail. With some of the oldest bits being the Malm draws which are about 15 years old now and still perfectly fine. Sure, if you move them around a lot or leave them in the sun they will degrade, but just using them as normal they seem to last way longer than you’d think.

The problem with Ikea is once you have to move them around. Or if you have kids/dogs jumping up and down the sofa, etc. The particleboard connections aren't very sturdy.

Well sure, but in many cases, you can go to a "proper" furniture store, buy a piece that is a couple of times more expensive than the one from ikea, and get the same particle board and same shitty connections... especially with stuff where the wood is hidden (eg. sofas).

Also the assembly for ikea stuff is usually perfect.. everything aligns to the last millimeter... which again, I can't say for much more expensive furniture pieces.

Re: Why are most sofas so bad?

#313

Post by rtpg »

alright2565 wrote: post #148
swatcoder wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IKEA is beloved by many in the US and generally one of the most specifically in-demand brands in the market for used contemporary furniture. You might just be in an unusual region or had some other reasons why your listings didn't perform the way you expected. That said, I am one of those people who doesn't get a lot from them so I can speak to some of criticism. Part of it is just the aesthetic, and theirs doesn't m…

> you discover that much of the cheapest stuff has the same flimsy glueboard, peeling laminate, and unstable joinery of the cheap stuff at Wal-mart. I'm not going to argue too much with this, but I think this is underselling Ikea quite a bit. Their cheap stuff is definitely made out of cheap materials. But I've found it to be well-engineered compared to walmart with reinforcements in critical places and general overa…

I feel like the cheapest thing in a certain price category in IKEA is "doesn't survive two moves" stuff, but everything above it is ... basically fine. Like it's a table, there's only so many ways to put 4 metal bars and a piece of wood on top. It'll be fine.

Re: Why are most sofas so bad?

#314

Post by makeitdouble »

al_borland wrote: post #158

When I moved to an area for work I wasn’t planning to live long-term I ended up buying the cheapest sofa in the store. I think it was around $270. After a prolonged illness I grew more and more displeased with it, to the point that I went and bought a better one after I was better. I bought from a place that advertised the inside of the sofa more than the outside. It was all about the build quality and how long it wo…

We had an ikea klippan for around 10 years, and had to give it up when moving.

During these 10 years I haven't sat on any sofa, be in office lobbies, hotels, showrooms, friends' home that made me feel like it could be a significant upgrade upon my 400 USD sofa.

Sure that might not be usual, and I actually wouldn't recommend any other Ikea sofa in general (many were crappy when we were choosing ours). But price and marketting ("made in XXXX") is still only one factor in the wether the product will be any good.

Re: Why are most sofas so bad?

#315

Post by smileysteve »

VoodooJuJu wrote: post #247

Lots of people suggesting buying second-hand because the old stuff is made better - and it really is. The problem with thrifting is that everyone is doing it. The word is out. Price goes up and supply dwindles. Same situation with buying used cars. New cars suck. You can't work on them yourself and they have terrible UX. So people started only looking for used. Except the used prices skyrocketed to match supply & dem…

I mean, we can, as long as repairing is part of it, and rethrifting is too.

The US largest generation is approaching life expectancy and we are below replacement numbers.

Re: Why are most sofas so bad?

#316

Post by OJFord »

ascagnel_ wrote: post #307
Gigachad wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ikea stuff also seems to be perfectly fine. Almost my entire apartment I ikea stuff and I’m yet to have anything fail. With some of the oldest bits being the Malm draws which are about 15 years old now and still perfectly fine. Sure, if you move them around a lot or leave them in the sun they will degrade, but just using them as normal they seem to last way longer than you’d think.

IKEA is highly variable. I’m writing this while sitting on a leather loveseat that’s more than a decade old and holding up great. I also have a chest of drawers that, despite my best efforts during construction, immediately began to sag. Their expensive furniture is good mid-range stuff, the cheap stuff is cheap.

Yeah the cheap stuff is on par with up to 10x cheaper stuff on Amazon (you just have to deal with drop shipped branding and dodgy/no instructions), the more expensive stuff has better quality competitors IMO.

Such as Dwell.co.uk, coincidentally, completely unrelated afaict to OP. They make veneer-grade non-flat-pack furniture (and upholstered stuff) at a mid-high Ikea price. Made similar I think, or any number (including local showrooms) of suppliers of either drop shipped or wholesale manufactured oak+paint-grade, it seems quite common/popular. I have a couple of items from cotswoldco.com for example that have absolutely matching (but differently named) pieces available from an unrelated local independent shop, that I might otherwise assume had a small manufacturing operation too.

Re: Why are most sofas so bad?

#318

Post by maxerickson »

neilv wrote: post #304
scoofy wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been wanting to buy nice furniture for a very long time... unfortunately the housing crisis has prevented my from ever having a sense of permanence. If I had known I'd live in my last place for nearly a decade I would have purchased nice things, but as it stands, until I have a mortgage of my own, I refuse to spend good money on something I may need to replace next year.

I'm glad I'm not the only one. The buying up of precious housing as investments by non-residents should mostly be banned, starting with institutional and overseas investors. AirBnb should also be banned. And the people who profited off that startup, who must've known they were creating illegal hotels and destroying rental markets, should be hit with devastating fines, maybe also imprisoned.

We should just build lots of housing.

Re: Why are most sofas so bad?

#319

Post by brandensilva »

angry_moose wrote: post #9

I've posted about our ~$2000 West Elm sofa that disintegrated within 2 years in a similar previous thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37393399 The whole thing is just stapled together OSB. I ripped the dust cover off and added 3 new frame stretchers made from 2x8 construction lumber (and tied other loose joints back together) and its done pretty well since then: https://imgur.com/a/bqlLgW3 (wish I'd gotten…

West elm has been pretty bad for most stuff for us too. Surprisingly we have an okay Urban couch from them that's held up well the last 5 years. The cushions haven't maintained their shape all that much and the feathers occasionally poke through which are my only complaints. Our little kids used to jump on it before we moved it downstairs so the frame was at least built well and it's still pretty comfortable.

Id never buy one again from them though after having everything else fail on us.

Re: Why are most sofas so bad?

#320

Post by VHRanger »

ajsnigrutin wrote: post #312
VHRanger wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with Ikea is once you have to move them around. Or if you have kids/dogs jumping up and down the sofa, etc. The particleboard connections aren't very sturdy.

Well sure, but in many cases, you can go to a "proper" furniture store, buy a piece that is a couple of times more expensive than the one from ikea, and get the same particle board and same shitty connections... especially with stuff where the wood is hidden (eg. sofas). Also the assembly for ikea stuff is usually perfect.. everything aligns to the last millimeter... which again, I can't say for much more expensive f…

Agreed, there's a big gap between Ikea and the next step up.

And most people can't differentiate between quality (nor should we expect them to!).

"Proper" furniture stores you find in malls and outlets are generally high margin crap. There's lots of soft scams out there.

There's a reason many people go back towards antiques and similar.

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