[HN Gopher] Why new furniture doesn't last long
___________________________________________________________________
Why new furniture doesn't last long
Author : williamsmj
Score : 45 points
Date : 2023-09-05 15:49 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.washingtonpost.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.washingtonpost.com)
| dirtyid wrote:
| 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.
| tempodox wrote:
| Unsurprisingly, as someone once said, "It's the economy, stupid."
| blueyes wrote:
| TLDR: Plywood (and to some extent plastic) replaced solid wood.
| Got imported from overseas rather than made domestically. Shifted
| from an artisanal market to a low-cost mass market.
| foobarian wrote:
| Honestly, I wish it were plywood, it's actually MDF or other
| kind of pressboard.
| zihotki wrote:
| I wonder why you consider it a problem. Mdf and variations
| are much more stable, don't warp due to humidity. For non-
| premium furniture it's a perfect choice.
| angry_moose wrote:
| And those properties make it well suited for things like
| cabinet panels that don't take load.
|
| MDF has poor structural strength, next to zero holding
| strength for fasteners (the first thing to go on ikea
| furniture is always the screw holes), and is very prone to
| water damage.
| Joker_vD wrote:
| Mmm, chipboard. Could as well be called "cheapboard". Low
| quality at low cost so you can pay twice.
| foobarian wrote:
| My biggest issue with them is they handle water very
| poorly. The affected piece of the board swells and warps,
| and never returns to original shape.
| geodel wrote:
| Very true. A few times I forgot wet wipes after cleaning
| and next day it was like wtf happened to this table.
| tfandango wrote:
| yes, they used this for kickboard in my kitchen and even
| occasional spills and drips will cause swelling. Then you
| can't do anything about it but tear it out or try to
| repair with wood putty or something like that.
| Ekaros wrote:
| And then we get to cardboard. You know surfaces
| structure...
|
| Very cheap, good enough if you never hit it properly with
| anything.
| blueridge wrote:
| 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.
| tfandango wrote:
| The same goes for hiring built in furniture. I got some quotes
| for about 8ft of cabinets with some bookshelves (painted, not
| even nice wood, probably decent ply) and it came in at 10k. I
| knew it would cost more than buying something from the furniture
| store but that really threw me. I think it's why we see so many
| "ikea hacks" online.
| landmass wrote:
| I was told by a furniture store owner 20 years to use local
| cabinet makers to build bookshelves for you. He said never to
| have shelves installed in your house - a movable bookshelf
| costs the same as an installed one and you can take it with you
| when you move.
| ketzo wrote:
| 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.
| fallinghawks wrote:
| 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.
| freitzkriesler2 wrote:
| I blame downward price pressure and globalization.
|
| When it comes to furniture, I only buy solid wood now. Ideally
| used. The best place to get antiques is from rust belt towns
| because the prices are actually affordable. The majority of my
| stuff too were either street finds (California was great for good
| free stuff) or hand me downs.
|
| I might check out some consignment stores back east. Anything
| solid wood is held onto. I will never buy awful Ikea junk again.
| VincentEvans wrote:
| 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 that is a lot lighter than Ikea pieces. MDF which is
| commonly used in Ikea is especially heavy, so much so that Ikea
| inserts a lot of hollow spaces concealed underneath laminate
| exterior to reduce weight.
| nemo44x wrote:
| Isn't the issue the screws tearing through the soft wood and/or
| engineered wood?
| VincentEvans wrote:
| Furniture made of soft wood is certainly more susceptible to
| damage and denting than if made from hardwood, sure.
| Personally I find the trade off acceptable - I have a narrow
| six foot book shelf that I can lift with one arm and a much
| smaller Ikea one that needs two people to move, but
| preferences are subjective.
|
| Regarding screws however, furniture made from wood using
| approaches traditional for wood-made furniture - don't rely
| on screws all that much, but rather mortises, dados, and
| various other joints held by glue, dowels, and sometimes
| staples or furniture nails that assist holding joints
| together until glue dries. Once dried - glue is often
| stronger than the wood it holds together and attempting to
| separate the bonded pieces results in splitting the wood
| rather than breaking the bond.
| falcolas wrote:
| Yes, making wood glue even more valuable if you want it to
| last.
| evan_ wrote:
| 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]
| no_wizard wrote:
| Use wood glue where, though? Its advice that isn't "obvious".
| I'm not a big furniture person, and I'm inferring you mean to
| do things like add some additional bind to assembled spots,
| e.g. when I screw in the backing for the chair I could use wood
| glue on the seam to give it more strength, but its not always
| obvious how I'm suppose to apply these Ikea "hacks" as it were.
| BizarreByte wrote:
| On any interlocking joints. On ikea stuff that's typically
| dowels, dados, and mortise and tenons.
|
| I also like to glue those weird locking screw inserts.
| VincentEvans wrote:
| Most of Ikea pieces I've assembled utilize wooden dowels in
| addition to their special locking bolts. Definitely use glue
| in all holes that are meant for wooden dowels. If you wish to
| go an extra mile - use a thin bead of wood glue anywhere two
| wood surfaces meet, tighten the screws and then wipe off the
| excess that gets squeezed out of the seam. Wood glue is water
| soluble so clean up is easy before it dries.
| fallinghawks wrote:
| 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.
| angry_moose wrote:
| For the real bottom-of-the-barrel, there are brands that are
| literally just cardboard held together by double-sided tape now.
| My wife accidentally ordered one of their vinyl record stands. To
| be fair, it actually did sortof ok until we made the mistake of
| moving it across the room (we took the records out first):
|
| https://www.amazon.com/stores/WayBasics/page/792E6148-46C9-4...
| flappyeagle wrote:
| Premise is incorrect. Furniture is great. You can pay whatever
| you want and get appropriate quality.
|
| Low end ikea stuff works great if you put it together right and
| use some glue.
|
| Mid tier furniture is still available -- it's just going to look
| very traditional.
|
| High end is available to those with $$$ like it's always been
| stetrain wrote:
| My biggest issue is that, like so many markets, there is a
| "missing middle" created by this downward price pressure.
|
| For the most part if you want a piece of furniture (ie a
| nightstand), there are two categories. Either you buy the
| Amazon/Wayfair version made of pressboard for $100-$200, or you
| can find a solid wood heirloom version for $2,000+. The domestic
| plywood or cheaper solid wood options are no longer mass produced
| at the scale that they used to be.
|
| There's very little in between, even if I'm willing to pay a bit
| more for something a bit nicer.
|
| I think one reason Ikea is so popular is that they ride the upper
| end of the cheap segment. Offering low-priced items but with
| reasonable instructions, a minimum expectation of quality, and at
| least there's a physical store to look at it before you buy and
| return it if it's damaged or doesn't work.
| suoduandao3 wrote:
| used furniture is a good compromise there, though it's harder
| to get a consistent style when going that route. Part of Ikea
| furniture's appeal is also that it looks like other Ikea
| furniture.
| mikepurvis wrote:
| This has been how I've largely addressed the missing middle
| issue for myself-- I'm not up for $2000+ pieces, but when I
| want to do better than flat-pack trash, getting something for
| $300-500 second hand seems like a solid way to go.
| morkalork wrote:
| You can definitely find nice stuff made out of maple on
| Facebook marketplace if you're patient.
| richbell wrote:
| Dealing with bed bugs and other pests has made me
| apprehensive about purchasing used furniture. It's a shame
| because you can usually find great deals on FB Marketplace,
| Craigslist, Kijiji etc.
| freitzkriesler2 wrote:
| 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.
| yowzadave wrote:
| 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?
| freitzkriesler2 wrote:
| 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
| philsnow wrote:
| I live on the west coast, and sometimes visit family in the
| Midwest. The quality and quantity of used furniture available
| over there is so much better.
|
| I attribute this to much of California only becoming as
| densely populated as it is (which is to say, not) after
| around the 1950s. While there are families who have lived
| here for five or more generations, they're by far the
| exception rather than the norm. The overwhelming majority of
| people who are here have comparatively shallow roots, didn't
| bring furniture with them when they came here, and even if
| they have access to good furniture from elsewhere, it's cheap
| and good enough to go to ikea.
| AlanYx wrote:
| One of the things that undermines the used furniture market
| for higher-end furniture is storage. Larger pieces often get
| stored somewhere for a period before they're sold, but unlike
| veneered MDF, solid wood pieces are vulnerable to get warped
| by rapid changes in moisture, particularly if they get
| temporarily stored in non-climate-controlled storage
| facilities. I wonder if there's a business opportunity for
| some kind of efficient middleman that takes high end
| furniture off people's hands and stores it properly while
| facilitating resale.
| novok wrote:
| There are all sorts of people who run small businesses like
| this, who often sell on craigslist and a shopify store. I
| bought one in his storage warehouse, nice guy.
| 5040 wrote:
| I was recently looking for a shelving unit for vinyl records.
| The Ikea solution was 100$. Next step up were 1000$ home-made
| units on Etsy. In the end, I went with Ikea. Something in the
| middle would have been nice.
| reacharavindh wrote:
| True, proper wood furniture have become more of a luxury as
| more and more utility is drawn from the likes of mass
| manufactured furniture like that of IKEA's.
|
| I'm a weekend woodworker, and I have built a lot of things for
| my house like my kid's cradle, bed, our custom wardrobe, fancy
| looking shelves etc. However, even I think IKEA furniture has
| its place in my house. Our bed for example is IKEA MALM, our
| kitchen is made by IKEA. Some things are just not worth my time
| and effort and the cost of solid wood. IKEA quality is good
| enough and the price is right for them.
|
| Recently, I have been bombarded with ads from some smallish
| furniture companies from Europe on Facebook. Dont know how the
| algorith decided on it, but it did. I see several companies
| that do few things and do them well, but not targeted at teh
| luxury buyer or vintage collector. They are targeted that a
| consumer looking for better than IKEA like you described.
| Perhaps, what you're looking for is coming already and you need
| to look deeper for now.
| MrBuddyCasino wrote:
| > There's very little in between, even if I'm willing to pay a
| bit more for something a bit nicer.
|
| Same has happened in clothing. To get something other than
| cheap crap made out of synthetic fibers, you now have to go
| premium. Are people really less discerning than they used to
| be? Has the average purchasing power declined? Or is the
| problem that people don't want to commit to something that
| lasts for years, because they fear their taste may change?
| LastTrain wrote:
| People used to spend a lot more, per item, on clothing. The
| real culprit in this case is that we have become accustomed
| to things being cheap.
| lbwtaylor wrote:
| 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 wood furniture can be
| like this - I got a piece that was more knots than wood.
| sheepybloke wrote:
| 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 having to look at payment plan!
| LargoLasskhyfv wrote:
| 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?
| ChatGTP wrote:
| I know this is extreme and not available to everyone, but I'm
| just making my own furniture because of the reasons you cite.
|
| Yes I have the room, money and a little time to build my own
| workshop, but really, it's 100% more satisfying, attractive and
| much much cheaper to DIY.
|
| It's really turned into quite the passion for me. Once I pay
| off me house I'd think about investing more time into it.
| donatj wrote:
| 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 don't need something that
| will last that long and I am just resistant to change. I just
| don't want to waste my money on garbage pressboard I am going to
| need to replace.
| tcgv wrote:
| > The mess is stressing me out.
|
| > I just don't want to waste my money on garbage pressboard I
| am going to need to replace.
|
| If I may propose an alternative, you could buy the cheapest
| bookshelf you can find just to have your office organized while
| you search for a quality one to last decades or centuries :)
|
| Or if you have the time and interest you could even make a
| makeshift bookshelf instead. There are lots of tutorials on
| youtube for this.
| ethbr1 wrote:
| There's the famous Adam Savage quip about "Buy cheap, then if
| you use it re-buy quality."
|
| https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=usB6jqa4Yt4&t=24s
|
| Which I guess in your case boils down to...
|
| Would you rather not have bookcases while you're searching for
| the perfect one?
|
| Or would you rather have bookcases you aren't thrilled about,
| while you decide/look for more quality ones?
|
| I'd hazard from the limited information, it might make sense to
| find the cheapest thing you can't push over, ASAP. Rip the
| band-aid off.
| foobarian wrote:
| My solution was to give up and DIY. I wouldn't dare attempt
| anything more complicated but a bookcase is among the simplest
| projects to take on.
|
| The plan B which we used for some things in the house was a
| custom build. (Not meaning to shill or anything but they did a
| fantastic job and in your shoes I would explore their
| bookcases: https://www.dutchcrafters.com/Amish-
| Bookcases/cat/146). The prices are up there but I figure are
| about the same inflation-adjusted as what my grandpa would have
| paid 80 years ago.
| bhollander823 wrote:
| +1 to solid wood Amish furniture
|
| I've ordered a few pieces from Hedge House Furniture
| (https://hedgehousefurniture.com/collections/storage) and am
| very satisfied. They aren't cheap but they've also been able
| to customize the dimensions and their designs are more to my
| taste.
| maximinus_thrax wrote:
| > He insists I don't need something that will last that long
| and I am just resistant to change
|
| This is a bit of a red flag. Was this during a therapy session?
| They shouldn't be giving this type of advice, not to mention
| 'insisting' on it.
| Tagbert wrote:
| This is second hand commentary. We don't know what the
| therapist actually said, just how the poster is representing
| it, just that the poster interprets it as 'insisting'.
| orev wrote:
| Even if you know that something is objectively better, if the
| majority of the market doesn't agree, you're going to find
| yourself spending lots of time and energy going against
| everyone else. At a certain point you just need to accept that
| that's how things are and go with the flow, or take it upon
| yourself to really "fix" things, which will probably mean
| taking it on as a full time job or hobby.
|
| So in this case, you can get a commercial bookcase that is
| probably good enough to last quite a while (and be able to
| spend a lot of time with your new child), or spend a lot of
| time on the garage learning woodworking so you can build a
| "real" one.
| bcrosby95 wrote:
| Or wait until the new child is older, and spend a lot of time
| building a new bookshelf with them.
| bobsmooth wrote:
| I still use the ikea dresser and bookshelf I had in high
| school.
| cmckn wrote:
| Bookshelves are pretty low-traffic, so I don't see why an Ikea
| one wouldn't last as long as you needed it to. I think you'll
| probably get tired of the look of it before the structure fails
| in any meaningful way.
| airstrike wrote:
| I would tell my therapist I find it odd that they're voicing
| their opinions rather than letting me arrive at conclusions on
| my own.
| MerelyMortal wrote:
| 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.
| swagasaurus-rex wrote:
| ... If there is no alternative, maybe the therapist is
| correct
| MerelyMortal wrote:
| Perhaps, but (again, not an expert), I think the therapist
| should be asking questions (Socratic Method) to get the
| patient to come to that conclusion themselves.
| tome wrote:
| I wonder if commenters on Psych News question the
| professional judgement of IT workers based on second hand
| reports of their behavior.
| geodel wrote:
| Agree. In my experience Furniture therapists are too
| opinionated nowadays.
| onlyrealcuzzo wrote:
| Is it really worth stressing yourself out over buying a hold-
| over bookshelf until you can find yourself a better one?
|
| If you've got money for a therapist for this type of issue -
| it probably isn't.
|
| You can get a custom-made bookshelf from Amish country for
| the cost of less than 5 therapy sessions.
| crazygringo wrote:
| A large part of therapy can be pointing out cognitive
| distortions.
|
| The idea that you need a bookshelf to last you for the rest
| of your life is actually a pretty reasonable thing for a
| therapist to question.
|
| People come into therapy with a lot of strongly held ideas
| that wind up negatively impacting their relationships and
| lives. E.g. winding up in fights with your spouse because you
| insist on a bookshelf to last a lifetime, while they just
| want to get something reasonably priced and move on from the
| issue.
|
| So trying to figure out where the desire comes from for an
| object that lasts a lifetime is actually a pretty reasonable
| therapeutic path of exploration. It's the old serenity prayer
| -- "the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the
| courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know
| the difference".
|
| There might be a lot of wisdom here in deciding that
| reasonably-priced bookshelves don't last a lifetime anymore,
| that that's not something you can change or want to spend
| time and effort on changing, and deciding you can finally be
| OK with that. To just make the choice to either buy a cheap
| one that doesn't last or an "overly expensive one" that does,
| accept it, and move on.
| SketchySeaBeast wrote:
| To me it sounds like someone who wants internet strangers to
| agree with them in opposition to their therapist. Not knowing
| any of the other details that's as far as I'm willing to go
| with the assuming.
| suoduandao3 wrote:
| I'd bet you can get a local handyman to make a bookshelf out of
| boards and screws if you're concerned about quality. But of
| course, wood isn't going to cost today what it cost when you
| were born.
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| I have been furnishing with IKEA (and Target and Home Depot and
| Costco) furniture for 20+ years, and still use dressers and
| coffee tables and bunk beds from back then, including the use
| by 2 toddlers. I even moved it across the country.
|
| Maybe the melamine surface chips or scratches, but a little
| touch up marker makes it pretty unnoticeable, plus I do not
| care. Plus it was $20 to $200, so I can just replace it if it
| was damaged.
|
| I would much rather spend the money saved on vacations and
| whatnot, I get no utility from a heavier table (in casual
| household use).
| geodel wrote:
| Don't you care that your table could be found along with
| this[1]
|
| 1. https://www.10000yearclock.net/learnmore.html
| ForRealsies wrote:
| [dead]
| geodel wrote:
| Further, I read somewhere even solid wood available is no longer
| as good today as 50 years ago.
| Arrath wrote:
| 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'.
| atty wrote:
| Is this something that would cause a noticeable difference in
| quality, or more of an academic one?
| jaclaz wrote:
| There are two aspects of the "difference":
|
| 1) The timber that was once a locally (or nearby) grown tree
| might nowadays be - while the same or very similar species -
| originating from some other country (with different
| climate/humidity/etc.) and thus be different at a structural
| level.
|
| 2) The timber was once seasoned over several months or even
| years time (again locally), while most nowadays is
| artificially seasoned very quickly (usually in a kiln or
| autoclave for a few days)
|
| While you cannot do much for #1, except of course choosing
| the best batch you can find, the #2 (which is actually what
| makes the larger differences in stability and also strength
| over time) can sometimes be avoided by buying the wood before
| it is seasoned and season it yourself naturally (of course
| you need the space and time needed, for furniture or making
| of windows/doors seasoning for a couple of years is not
| uncommon).
|
| The difference between artificially seasoned wood and
| naturally seasoned is essentially that the latter is more
| "stable", i.e. it will tend to crack and/or bend/deform much
| less.
| atty wrote:
| Awesome, thank you for the info!
|
| Edit: not awesome that wood is lower quality of course, the
| awesome was for the explanation.
| MerelyMortal wrote:
| I have heard the same as commercial lumber today is harvested
| from fast growth trees.
| ajford wrote:
| I feel like so many posts that look down on flat-packed/budget
| furniture overlook the fact that so many people are in a position
| where "buy it for life" isn't a desired feature.
|
| We're seeing job markets where loyalty doesn't pay and the best
| way to get a pay bump is to switch employers. We're seeing people
| live check to check, and so many are renting as opposed to
| buying.
|
| If I don't have a permanent home, why do I want permanent
| furniture? When I entered the workforce, my dad gave me a bunch
| of BIFL-type solid furniture he purchased with my mom before she
| passed. I ended up eventually selling it all off because it cost
| me extra to have it moved into and out of any appt that wasn't on
| ground floor. Often to the point where I could replace it with an
| IKEA piece for less than the heavy item surcharge.
|
| Or times where I moved into a smaller appt for budget reasons and
| just didn't have space for some pieces. I once rented a storage
| locker for a year just to keep furniture I couldn't fit but
| didn't want to let go because it was solid wood and "had value".
|
| I now use Ikea furniture for everything, and figure if I'm lucky
| I'll eventually be able to own property/a house and then it'd
| make sense to own something more durable.
| doctorpangloss wrote:
| Hmm. I'm pretty sure as long as people are willing to give away
| vintage sofas on Facebook Marketplace because they don't know any
| better, I'm not going to buy a $11,000 new designer sleeper from
| DWR. It's not Ikea that's competing with the stuff designers want
| to make.
| angry_moose wrote:
| We actually expected our West Elm sofa to be well built - it
| wasn't cheap and their reputation wasn't complete garbage yet
| when we purchased it. After about 18 months the whole thing
| collapsed, just out of warranty believe it or not.
|
| When I started taking it apart to see if it was fixable I found
| that the entire damn thing was built out of stapled-together 1/2"
| OSB (oriented strand board...garbage "plywood") and all of the
| cuts had awful stress concentration corners which caused the
| frame to pretty much disintegrate. Wasn't a real screw or nail
| anywhere in the piece that I could find.
|
| I spent a day rebuilding the frame with about $30 worth of
| construction lumber (some 2x4s & 2x8s) and hanger brackets. It's
| been perfect ever since.
|
| Completely inexcusable that a $30 aftermarket fix is all it took
| to dramatically improve an $1800 sofa.
|
| Edit: I found a few images of the damage and a couple of the
| replacement supports I added. There was a lot more, but at the
| end of the day I was tired and didn't take a ton of pictures
| https://imgur.com/a/bqlLgW3
| segmondy wrote:
| Thanks for sharing. Never thought of doing this, but definitely
| will be doing it next time a sofa falls apart.
| LastTrain wrote:
| That is pretty cheap for a sofa. Here is what spending a
| similar amount in 1970 would have gotten you:
|
| https://christmas.musetechnical.com/ShowCatalogPage/1970-Sea...
|
| That would have been regarded a a cheap sofa at the time, and
| would have set you back $379. Average salary now vs then is 5x
| so equivalent price would be $1895. Your sofa probably looks
| nicer but the Sears one has a proper hardwood frame.
| neonate wrote:
| http://web.archive.org/web/20230905155847/https://www.washin...
|
| https://archive.ph/X7ZLf
| VirusNewbie wrote:
| I found a local company that made me a 96'' solid wood table from
| reclaimed wood planks (no veneer). Cost me like $1600, felt like
| a pretty good deal.
| j7ake wrote:
| At ikeas price point you don't even need to move the fueniture,
| just give it away and buy the exact same one in the new location.
| no_wizard wrote:
| I didn't spend $1000 on a couch set to just get rid of it if I
| move in a year or two though.
|
| I realize some folks on HN have lots of disposable income,
| however even for higher earners its a waste of money at that
| point, I don't feel like it should be accepted practice to
| throw out furniture out with every move, particularly if you
| move a few times in a short time span.
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| I spent $1,100 on an IKEA couch and it has moved 3 places
| with me over the last ~9 years.
| xnx wrote:
| Assuming that you're able to sell it for something ($400?),
| it can make more sense to do that rather than deal with
| loading, unloading and the moving expense.
| williamsmj wrote:
| I bought the same Ikea coffee table three times in three
| countries (https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/lack-coffee-table-
| black-brown-0...).
| nemo44x wrote:
| You can get great furniture today that is made from stain grade
| hardwood and uses high quality fabrics. But it's expensive. It
| always has been. Quality, heirloom furniture was never the domain
| of regular people. It's through mass production and engineered
| materials everyone has couches, tables, chairs, shelves,
| dressers, etc.
|
| You want nice counter height chairs made of five hardwood and
| leather and joint work instead of screws? You're looking at
| $1000/chair at the bottom and can go way up from there. Most
| people aren't spending $4k on chairs for a kitchen island. This
| is where the cheaper mid market comes in where you get 4 chairs
| for $1k and they're fine. Just not jointed or if the better wood
| or nicer seat, etc.
| williamsmj wrote:
| I just moved cross-country in the US and my mover specifically
| carved out particle board Ikea furniture as "best effort", i.e.
| they will do their best to make sure it arrives in one piece, but
| they are not responsible for damages, and we should manage
| expectations accordingly.
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