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Why are most sofas so bad?

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Re: Why are most sofas so bad?

#441

Post by graemep »

schneems wrote: post #214
inglor_cz wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

" after grade 8 " (the OPs concern) is more like 15 y.o., right?

Even at 15 years old you’re still a long way away from having a fully developed pre-frontal cortex. We used to think kids were like little adults, then we learned a bit about how the brain develops and how wildly wrong that mental model was.

Yes, but the same is true (a bit less so) of an 18 year old and most places allow 18 year olds to work, drive, vote, join the military, enter into binding contracts as adults etc.

While teenagers are not fully adult in some ways, they are also very different from a 12 year old.

Re: Why are most sofas so bad?

#442

Post by layer8 »

earleybird wrote: post #100
elteto wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My problem is that I don’t even know where to buy _good_ stuff. I don’t want to pay $5k for a couch, but maybe I will _once_ in N years, for some large N, if I know it’s very well made and I like the design. But I have no idea where to go for this. The overlap between junk and luxury is too large nowadays.

As sibling comment says: survivorship bias as a heuristic is useful.

It's often not, because today's company is not the same as it was 10-20 years ago. The longer you want something to last, the less reliable past experience becomes.

Re: Why are most sofas so bad?

#443

Post by azza2110 »

TylerE wrote: post #340
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…

I think more than a bit of it is typical American trademark laziness and inability to follow directions. I see so many of the bookcases without the backing sheet on them. Even if it's just thin cardboard, it provides a lot more of the structural integrity than you might think. The point is to keep the cubes from deforming and having a progressive failure.

The bracing provided by the backing sheet makes all the difference.

Some of the simple desks the sell are nothing more than a tabletop and four screw in legs. With no bracing the desk is unpleasantly wobbly.

The very popular Ikea cube bookcases (https://www.ikea.com/us/en/cat/kallax-shelving-units-58285/) aren't sold with a backing sheet - thankfully they seem stiff enough without it.

Re: Why are most sofas so bad?

#444

Post by planede »

Hamuko wrote: post #426
Doxin wrote: post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IKEA 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 furn…

And 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…

FYI you don't necessarily have to throw away an otherwise good office chair if the gas spring is leaking. You can replace just the gas spring.

Re: Why are most sofas so bad?

#447

Post by darkwater »

Doxin wrote: post #405
cdchn wrote: post #398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IKEA products seem to vary wildly between "partical board disposable" to "made from actual wood and somewhat decent."

IKEA 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 furn…

> IKEA 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.

Agree, but still I just replaced a Billy bookcase that was over 15 years old and moved in 5 different places with me. It was really ugly looking in the end, and due a replacement. But even Ikea in more recent Billy they replaced metal parts for plastic ones and the "wood" seems even worse.

Re: Why are most sofas so bad?

#448

Post by m000 »

resolutebat wrote: post #189
dylan604 wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quality ain't cheap, and cheap ain't quality. In furniture, you definitely get what you pay for...or not. I've found anything Anything decent doesn't really start until ~$1k, and anything in the $3k range you mentioned starts to become heirloom quality. As with anything, these are YMMV, but serves as a fast basis for my experience

Unfortunately the premise of the article is that you can now easily drop $1k+ on a sofa that looks good on Instagram, but is constructed of particleboard and falls apart when you look at it sideways.

And it's not only sofas. People still conflate price with quality, and this is massively exploited.

You can see that from the number of "small brand" insta-entrepreneurs. People will readily shell $80 for the latest trendy item they saw in a sponsored insta-ad, believing they're buying a branded product. In reality, it's the same $20-$30 item sold on TEMU, with a brand name slapped on it.

Re: Why are most sofas so bad?

#449

Post by ClumsyPilot »

boringuser2 wrote: post #260
hammock wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 reuphol…

A lot of meh furniture that uses steel will last, too.

I 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

Re: Why are most sofas so bad?

#450

Post by kwhitefoot »

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…

I would expect the seller to fix that. Furniture at that price should last much longer. Don't you have any concept of 'merchantable quality' in the US?
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