How High End Furniture Saves you Money in the Long Run
If you bought your dream home during our Spring Parade of Homes, or are just ready to make some changes to your furnishings, here are some recommendations about choosing top quality furnishings and why they may be your best bet from our guest blogger Lili from Paul Schatz Home Furnishings.
How can you tell high-end furniture from its lesser quality competition? When you know the difference, you can begin seeing the disparities from the beginning.
Walk into a store and flop down on a couch in a similar manner to the way you’d treat a couch in your living space. Hear that crunch? Feel that sag? If you begin questioning it in the store, how will it live up to the abuse your family gives it for years to come?
Yes, there is a difference in quality. To understand the difference, you must first realize what makes a strong, long lasting piece of furniture in the first place.
Wood Furniture
There are two kinds of woods used in furniture making: hardwood and softwood. Hardwood is known as a deciduous tree, or one that flowers, while softwood comes from a coniferous tree, one that keeps its needles year-round. In reality, some hardwoods are softer than softwoods; an aspen tree, for instance, is softer than a cedar.
Good quality wood furniture can be high-design, too, like this Cattelan Italia coffee table you’ll see on the Artisan Home Tour in John Kraemer and Sons home #7.
To have structurally sound furniture, any wood will do the trick. However, the key to quality is in its longevity. Is the piece scratch resistant? Will it be susceptible to cracks?
You can test it for scratches. Draw a line with your fingernail across the wood; if it makes a visible mark, it won’t stand up to a lot of use.
You can also look at how it’s made. If plywood is used, a minimum of nine layers should be in place. Avoid particleboard, pressed wood, or fiberboard.
Also, look to the method of construction. High-quality pieces will use quality construction. Anything held together with staples, glue, or thin nails will give you trouble over time. Look for joints that are either dovetail or mortise and tenon joints at the corners, and are reinforced at the angles. You should never hear squeaking or find drawers or cabinet doors that stick.
Upholstered Furniture
When selecting a sofa or chair with removable cushions, unzip them and have a look inside. Ask about the density rating, a mark of 1.8 pounds or higher points towards a well-built item. You should also look for a block of foam wrapped with cotton, dacron or down, sealed with a protective inner cover. Foam only cushions will show their wear quicker and be less comfortable from the beginning.
Next, feel your way around the sofa or chair. Squeeze the arms and back. You should not be able to feel the frame through the padding. Sit on every spot on the sofa; you should never tip or sink. Remove the cushions and press down on the deck underneath; you should feel resistance to pressure and feel even spacing all around. Are the cushions reversible? You’ll get twice the wear.
Another quality tip-off: studs that are perfectly spaced, like this chair you’ll see on the Artisan Home Tour in Home #15 by Hendel Homes.
Shopping For Quality
The best place to start is by educating yourself on what makes high-quality furniture different from the rest. Start with understanding the construction. Use this checklist as you shop.
Wood
Good: solid wood or nine layers or more for plywood
Bad: particleboard, pressboard, fiberboard, easily scratched surfaces
Joints
Good: dovetail or mortise and tenon joints, reinforced corners
Bad: staples, nails, glue
Drawers
Good: metal glide rails, floating bottoms, stops Bad: wood on wood sliding
Springs
Good: hand-tied coil springs, even resistance
Bad: springs more than a few inches apart
Upholstery
Good: aligned patterns, firm foam wrapped in padding, protective inner cover, reversible cushions
Bad: bare foam, loose fill, skimpy padding
Also, focus in on the brand. Stickley furniture, for instance, has a name you can rely on that only produces quality products.
Don’t be afraid to ask the salesperson to show you the difference. If they believe in their product, they will walk you through each feature, showing you its construction and how well it was made.
Quality furniture like these chairs showing off in a 2015 Artisan Home by Swanson Homes are sure to be handed down to the next generation. Check out Swanson Home’s next Artisan Home #17 this June, it is sure to be filled with gorgeous furnishings.
Moving Past The Price Tag
You’ve found the perfect piece. It’s beautiful. It’s high quality. You know it will last for years. Then comes the sticker shock. When you look at the high price tags that go along with high-quality furniture, it can be the sole reason you turn away, especially if you are a young couple filling up your first home, or trying to manage a budget from month to month. Can you really afford that kind of investment? Let’s look at it a different way.
Have you ever purchased a low-quality piece of furniture?
From the moment you brought it home, you knew something wasn’t right. It sagged. It wasn’t comfortable. It began to show its wear.
But because it was yours, you used it week after week, month after month. You moved it with you when you upgraded to a bigger home. You transferred it from room to room.
And depending on the quality, you may have attempted to make it a little better over time with a coat of paint or a throw to hide the wear marks.
Yet nothing can change the fact that it’s simply a bad piece of furniture. You take no pride in owning it. You would never pass it down to your kids. And after a short amount of time, you either throw it away or give it away to someone willing to take it from you.
Compare that with a well made chair from a high end furniture company like Stickley.
If you take care of it, your furniture should last you for 50 years or longer. When you remodel your home, you can reupholster or refinish it to create a new appearance. You never have to buy new because high end furniture retains its worth every single day.
And when you are ready to move to something else, it’ll be easy to hand it down or sell it to people closest to you. It has value, and people will be willing to pay for it.
Lili has been with Paul Schatz Home Furnishings for well over 10 years. Lili has a great design talent for understanding the wants and needs of each client in creating their space. She also has a wonderful way about herself at making each and every one of her clients feel special. When Lili isn’t working on one of her many design projects, you can find her taking long walks or dining with good friends.