When you buy new furniture, you face a choice. Buy something fast, cheap and easy, or invest in something that lasts long. The 1-2 year-end table may be “good enough” and the work is done. But if you decide that something special is ready for the special space in your home, for example, the focus of the space is a statement of the dining table where your family can sit every night- Ask yourself what is defined? Where should I start “quality” exactly? Everyone can identify crevices, scratches, stains, and decide if they like a particular color without any special knowledge. However, it is a little difficult to see if work can last for two or 20 years just by looking at it. So I summarized it for you! Here are some of the most important things to keep in mind when buying high-quality furniture:
1.Wood quality
Furniture is usually made of solid wood, hardwood, plywood, or veneer, indicating the quality of the wood. Choosing solid wood is always better, as it naturally contains wood as a single piece. Plywood is made of low-cut lumber and is less dense than solid wood. You can tell by looking at the exposed surface of the furniture where you can see the rough wood inside. If you want to buy plywood furniture, make sure it contains at least 9 layers for added durability. You can also use veneer because it is hard to devour. The veneer can be thick or thin. Thick veneers can easily come off or separate. Therefore, it is better to go slim. Make sure it is not made of sawdust/composite.
2.Species for Wood
Of all the tens of thousands of different types of wood in the world, only selected subgroups are suitable material candidates for high-quality furniture. And many of the decisions are related to the hardness or density of the wood. Have you heard about the Janka hardness scale? Simply put, it is a measure of wood’s resistance to dents and wears. Higher rating = denser / more durable, lower rating = softer / less durable. As a general indicator, breaks give me less than 800 points. Of course, regular wood such as black walnut (1,010) and white oak (1,360) is the best tough and high-quality material, while softwood such as white pine (420) and poplar (540) is neck and scratch. It is susceptible to scratches. Once the wood has been tested.
3.Wood type
The other is the type of wood. Wood is usually called hardwood or coniferous, depending on the tree from which it is derived. Hardwoods are made from trees such as teak, sea sham, oak, sandalwood, mahogany, maple and walnut and are generally durable. Pineapples are coniferous and cannot live long. You can ask the seller what kind of wood to use.
4.Craftsmanship
High-quality furniture is often made by hand rather than being assembled in the factory. We have years of experience and craftsmanship and are talking about building and manufacturing by professionals who do not just meet someone on the street. Find a maker who has devoted his life to carpentry, finishing, and other aspects of furniture making. You can see that the quality is not too late.
5.Joint structure
The communal structure is the most important factor in determining the quality of furniture. Anything that is stapled or nailed can automatically fall into the category of poor-quality construction. The same is true if it is glued and you can see the glue. Some examples of good construction? (1) Dowel (cut a wooden hook into two opposite holes) (2) Duster joint (with square “teeth”), (3) Mortise and tenon (narrow one piece) Insert the point into the other hole). For the 90 degrees angle built into the part, the default connection (45 degrees) takes precedence over the batting connection (stack) so that the wood can flow from one surface to the next.
6.The finishing
Look closely at the layers used for scratches and abrasion or the surface layer of the laminate. Finishing tells you everything about the level of craftsmanship. Touch all surfaces and edges of the furniture to see if it is smooth.
Fabric and pillow
Choose natural materials such as linen, cotton blends, wool, and leather over synthetic materials such as acrylic and nylon. Linen or cotton blends are extremely resistant to dirt, wrinkles, or fading. Wool is also an excellent and durable option. They are washable and good in the long run. Leather is also a tough material, but it should be cleaned or vacuumed with a leather caretaker. There is some maintenance.
Detachable pillowcases should be prioritized. Durable pillows are more durable than fluffy. Also, choose a cover that is made entirely of a single fabric, rather than a cover that has many parts sewn together.
7.Make sure you can afford it easily
This is easy, but very important. It’s easy to focus on finding the most beautiful furniture you’ve ever seen, without seeing if you can afford it easily. I and I love furniture and design, so whether buying expensive furniture sacrifices a family vacation or the stress of endless interest in balance, there are more important things in life. I think you can agree. Don’t do that with high-interest rate credit cards. Save money for the next few years and buy if it doesn’t burden your household. If you can buy it with 100% excitement without stress or loss of lifestyle, you can enjoy the furniture even more.
That’s why there’s an IKEA sofa in the living room instead of the better sofa I’ve been waiting for. We just moved home and didn’t have a bank so we wanted a new bank right away, but as we know who moved to some states, the first few months after moving were actually I shed money. Leaving $ 1,000 in the new bank wasted budget and created enough tension to move, so IKEA saved. And what do you guess? We love IKEA sofas, it was a great purchase!
8.Longtime Uses guaranty
If you fall in love with an expensive sofa with a very modern and original upholstered fabric, this is probably not a wise purchase. I know it’s often said that if you get tired of it, you just wear it, but have you ever received a quote? It may be as much as buying brand new furniture. Rather, invest in non-fashionable pieces that will look affectionate for years to come and get pillows in the funky, modern fabrics you love.
Each of our high-end purchases (except the wrong purchase 10 years ago!) Has a classic and timeless design, and this high-end porcelain cabinet in the family room is one of my favorites. We bought it a few years ago, and it’s hard to imagine I fall in love or worry about becoming obsolete:
9.Wood characteristics
All wood has three basic properties: hardness, grain and color. The easiest way to describe wood is to start with hard or softwood. However, not all hardwoods are hard, and not all softwoods are soft, so even identifying furniture wood in this way can be misleading to the untrained eye. This is because the classification of hard and soft bushes is botanical and is not limited to what they look and feel. In general, hardwoods are flowering trees and conifers are conifers. These are conical seed trees such as cedar trees, cypress, douglas fir, cypress, gin, pine trees, and rooibos. There are exceptions to that. Hardwoods are more valuable than softwoods because they are generally rarer than most softwoods. However, I still don’t know the whole picture. For example, some hardwood, such as rubber, is price-competitive with softwood.
A practical way to identify wood is to use its grain and color. This is because the cell structure of a tree differs from tree species to species and determines its grain. Hardwoods have tubular cells called barrels that look like wood pores. For example, if the cell is large, the texture of the tree will be slightly rough or open. In this case, putty may be needed to smooth the surface of the wood. If the cells are small, the texture will be smooth. Bushes called compact grains do not require fillers and are already fairly soft. Examples of wood grain wood include oak, walnut, ash, mahogany, rosewood, and teak. Examples of closed-grain wood are beech, birch, maple, cherry, satinwood, and rubber.
Every tree has an annual growth ring consisting of cells formed during each growing season. Some grains have a well-defined ring, while others are lighter and less visible. There are also different types of rings. These include straight stripes, stripes, vertebrae, waves, curls, wrinkles, and eyes. Tree colors range from white and yellow to red, purple and black. In general, each species has its own grain and color, which helps identify wood and its properties. Furniture is selected and evaluated based on its grain and color characteristics. According to some general rules of thumb, hardwoods tend to be richer and finer than softwoods. Wood with a very distinctive pattern is often more valuable than wood with a dull or indistinguishable pattern. Weak grains are often characterized by personality.
10.Please check the dimensions
Catalog photos are misleading and never accurately describe the size and scale of an item, says Davin. “Be sure to check the dimensions before ordering something you’ve never seen before,” he says.
Ask yourself how your work fits in the desired room and how it is transported there. The latter is often overlooked. Davin has heard from many customers about attempts to purchase furniture that ended without returning home. “It doesn’t fit his forklift or front door,” he says. Before you buy, use painter’s tape to block where the piece fits in the room and measure all the doors and stairs you go to get home.
