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Why are most sofas so bad?

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Re: Why are most sofas so bad?

#681

Post by bushbaba »

hammock wrote: post #221
btbuildem wrote: post #181

Twenty some years ago I used to work at a business that made and delivered sofas. They've got showrooms in key large cities in North America, fancy schmancy top end stuff. The factory was a real place; the frames were made of solid wood and plywood, there was a sewing floor and even one (incredibly kooky) person whose sole job was to stuff the pillows. This guy was in a little room full of feathers all day, and they'…

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…

rubber wood IS hardwood, not sure why you'd ding it. It's a more eco-friendly wood choice

Re: Why are most sofas so bad?

#682

Post by ericpauley »

maccard wrote: post #675
arbitrage wrote: post #618

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're exaggerating about light-bulbs. There is no way LEDs last less than incandescents. If you are experiencing this, its possible your wiring is bad. You should call an electrician and have them check that out.

Unfortunately my experience matches this - our LED bulbs are lasting between 2 and 5 years. There are truly just some cheap, shitty bulbs out there. But, they cost £3 each and leaving them running 24/7 will cost you less than £20/year.

Standard incandescent bulb life was around 1000h. Do you use these LED bulbs only an hour a day?

I suspect most people simply forget how often highly-used incandescent bulbs had to be replaced.

Re: Why are most sofas so bad?

#683

Post by blago »

When we moved to the US with two babies last year it was very important for us to buy non-toxic furniture. We ended up buying a sofa and chairs from Medley. Their products are made in LA out of wood and are free of formaldehyde, flame retardants, and PFAS. It's been only a year but it looks like the furniture is going to last.

Re: Why are most sofas so bad?

#684

Post by rossjudson »

zac23or wrote: post #615
abraxas wrote: post #573

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the electronics front I'd beg to differ. Apple has raised the quality bar on electronics by a mile in the last couple of decades. The gadgetry I remember from the eighties and nineties was very cheaply made with plastics that warped or cracked (or both) and cheap switches made of molded plastic and a ballpen spring. Casette player gears were mostly made of that white plastic that always wore down with not much usa…

Of course, there have been many bad things in the past. Floppy disks, cassettes and VHS were horrible technologies. Did you use tube radios? They broke all the time. The difference is that they weren't intentionally horrible, they were limitations of an era. But at some point, devices start to last a long time. My parents' first refrigerator ran without problems for over 10 years. I've had far fewer problems with CDS…

You made me laugh with "refrigerator ran without problems for over 10 years". My family cottage has a still-running refrigerator that's been there for close to 40 years. Third or fourth handle, though ;)

Re: Why are most sofas so bad?

#685

Post by genmud »

arbitrage wrote: post #618
zac23or wrote: post #530

Everything is bad these days, not just the sofas. 1. The new switches I bought broke before the old ones, which are over 20 years old. 2. LED bulbs last less than incandescent bulbs, even with a 20-year warranty. 3. The new cell phone's screen breaks very easily, it's not like the old Nokia's. And nowadays something expensive is no longer guaranteed to last. This is why I value old things so much: I have an old chair…

You're exaggerating about light-bulbs. There is no way LEDs last less than incandescents. If you are experiencing this, its possible your wiring is bad. You should call an electrician and have them check that out.

You are absolutely incorrect. Most of the LED bulbs on the market have incredibly poorly designed power circuits that absolutely cook the passive components.

Re: Why are most sofas so bad?

#686

Post by accrual »

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #623
Too wrote: post #614

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does it have 4K and HDR? Those are game changers, especially on such a big screen.

Are they really game changers though? Baraka (1992) in 1080p non-HDR looks stunning.

I remember being quite blown away by my first Blu-ray discs (Planet Earth series) on a PS3 connected to a 1080p plasma, well ahead of ubiquitous 4K and HDR. It was the first time source quality really made a difference to me, coming from DVDs and rips.

Re: Why are most sofas so bad?

#687

Post by pubby »

linsomniac wrote: post #325
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…

>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 a…

OSB is much more nuanced than particle board, often in a bad way. Many manufactures orient the chips along a single axis, meaning it shares the anisotropic properties of solid wood where the X axis has a different strength and expansion rate than the Y axis. And looking at the 3rd dimension, the Z axis is actually quite weak. If you glue something to the face of an OSB board, you can break the joint fairly easily because the individual chips pull out.

Re: Why are most sofas so bad?

#688

Post by MrDresden »

lostlogin wrote: post #484
ClumsyPilot wrote: post #449

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

> 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/

Strange, 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.

Re: Why are most sofas so bad?

#689

Post by MrDresden »

klondike_klive wrote: post #469
m463 wrote: post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the problem I've noticed is - the furniture that is built to last very frequently fails the partner test - "that looks like old fart stuff". Same sort of issue with cool remote controls. For example, la-z-boy has pretty good controls - remotes have better designs, have lots of adjustments, and motors seem to move faster. And they too fail the partner test - "that looks like old fart stuff" I kind of like some…

Ugh this - my partner hates the sofa that I inherited from my mother, one that she told me she used to play on in the 1940s. It's a beast, with claw and ball feet that have stubbed many a toe, but I am fighting for its survival.

I got my great grandparents's German made sofa set from my mother some years ago (she was downsizing and didn't have room).

Solid hardwood with carvings all over, legs shaped as claws etc.

But frankly it looked horrible in a modern home, and wasn't all that comfortable to sit in.

So I sold it to a carpenter who was renovating an old wooden building in the remote north (Iceland) to have an interior that would fit the year of construction (I believe around the year 1905).

Kind of like the idea that it is now in a much better place.

Re: Why are most sofas so bad?

#690

Post by MrDresden »

abraxas wrote: post #573
zac23or wrote: post #530

Everything is bad these days, not just the sofas. 1. The new switches I bought broke before the old ones, which are over 20 years old. 2. LED bulbs last less than incandescent bulbs, even with a 20-year warranty. 3. The new cell phone's screen breaks very easily, it's not like the old Nokia's. And nowadays something expensive is no longer guaranteed to last. This is why I value old things so much: I have an old chair…

On the electronics front I'd beg to differ. Apple has raised the quality bar on electronics by a mile in the last couple of decades. The gadgetry I remember from the eighties and nineties was very cheaply made with plastics that warped or cracked (or both) and cheap switches made of molded plastic and a ballpen spring. Casette player gears were mostly made of that white plastic that always wore down with not much usa…

Bought a Framework laptop last year to make sure I never get into a situation of having to throw away a whole expensive laptop just because the manufacturer decided I shouldn't be able to replace or upgrade parts easily or cheaply myself.

You know, like Apple does.

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