I’m new to the home furnishing stuff, I barely understand the different between a side table and a console.
So . . . Ok I went to Crate & Barrell to look at sofas and to get a five seat section goes for $2700 (+tax and delivery), and that’s for cotton fabric or polyester ‘microsuede’.
$2700 for polyester? Why so dear $$$? I can get a decent used car for that (with some left over for oil changes and gas for the next six months too).
I checked out Ikea and it was cheaper, though not that cheap, and had a but do-it-yourself-particle-dorm-room feel to it and is not very lasting.
And I noticed a beautiful furniture company called Ligne Roset, everything they make looks good, some incredibly good, but the cost is beyond comprehension, a simply coffee table (nice though it looks) going used on craigslist for a fraction of the retail but still over $1000.
Ok, why so much? And what is the connection between furniture and North Carolina? And is Ligne worth the extra money? At the prices I’ve seen at Crate & Barrell, I’m tempted to pick up a book on carpentry and stop by the lumber yard this weekend and make my own.
Crafting a good piece of furniture is a bit more involved than nailing some 2X4’s together. It has to be sturdy, level, comfortable, and good-looking. (Those last two are somewhat a matter of taste or personal choice, as I’ve seen some stuff that sure wouldn’t suit me.) Edges have to be shaped properly, the construction has to handle several hundred (maybe a couple thousand) pounds of weight, the assembled parts have to fit tight and right, uphostery and stuffing have to feel good and hold up, and it has to look nice in a home setting. Of course, there is still the “Mercedes effect” – high end stuff that’s 10% better but three times as expensive as good standard quality.
The problem with a car is that it won’t fit into most living rooms.
It takes a huge amount of time to upholster a couch correctly. I have no idea if it can be done by machines or not, but you pay for quality.
As for making it yourself, unless you are a skilled carpenter (and upholsterer) and have a fully equipt woodworking shop, I wouldn’t bother. It’s not as easy as you think it would be. Sure you could probably slap together some 2x4’s in a frame and plop on a piece of foam, but I bet it won’t last as long or be as comfy as one you buy.
Look around for second-hand furniture places, especially those that sell furniture that has been rented for a few years. You don’t need to pay the full new price for furniture. (My wife and I didn’t when we were furnishing our house about 11 years ago.)
Ligne Roset makes damn good modern style furniture, that’s why it costs so much.
A $3,000.00 sofa that lasts for 20 years comes out to $2.88 a week. If you aren’t sure that you want to stick to that specific style, a $750.00 sofa that only lasts 5 years will also come out to $2.88 a week, but it won’t offer the same level of comfort and (obviously) durability.
The best way to understand this is to go buy the cheapest couch you can find and use it for a year. After a year, is it still as comfortable as when you first bought it? Is it in good shape? Does it creek when you sit down? Are there pieces of wood and metal that stick out or poke you when you’re not sitting in just the right position?
I generally subscribe to the “you get what you pay for” creed. There’s certainly an issue of diminishing returns, but a $500 couch is only $500 for a reason. Something was compromised, be it material quality, construction quality, design, or even quality control.
And speaking of design, when you buy from a store like Crate & Barrel, part of what you’re paying for is a designer (or team of designers) who sit in a room and think up the latest trends in home furnishings.
I buy all my stuff at Ikea for that very reason. I know it won’t last forever but by the time I have worn it out (most of my stuff has at least five years on it and is going pretty strong) I will want to change up my place anyway.
The problem I have with furniture is that I have no way of knowing whether I am paying for quality or name. With wood furniture, I know quality but with a sofa? I know people who have paid thousands for couches only to have them last the same year as gallan above.
At least with Ikea, my expectations are set as low as the cost.
$500 still feels far too expensive for something that’ll last a year before breaking down. If I bought an appliance for $500 and it was going to crap a year later, I’d be plenty pissed and I view electronics/machines to be more complex than sofas.
I figure furniture is overpriced because they figure they’re only going to get you once every 7-10+ years and there’s no guarantee you’ll be buying from them the second time so… getcha while they can.
Around here, the best furniture values are at estate auctions, especially large pieces like couches. I’ve seen near-new high quality stuff go for cheap. I think it’s because of the hassle of hauling it. When you buy new furniture, it’s usually delivered, free or for a small charge. Buy at an auction, you need a truck and someone to help load and unload.
Where do you live? I know that in Connecticut and the surrounding states, there is a chain called Bob’s Stores that sells inexpensive furniture. I’ve never shopped there, but from the commercials you can get a three-piece living room set for around $800.
Also, my parents used to buy a lot of furniture from the outlet store attached to the big local furniture store in town. Mostly it sold former display pieces. Sometimes that meant a minor scratch or dent, but it was cheaper than new.
Ikea’s not even that bad if you like the look, which I do. My bed from them has lasted 7 years and will probably last another 7. My sofa broke after 4 or 5 years (the seat detached from one arm), and when I bought a new sofa of the same model, I found that improvements had been made in the design, so it should last at least another 4 or 5 years if not more.
And you asked about North Carolina in the OP. For years, there was (were?) a lot of furniture manufacturers in the state. I suspect that now some of that production has been outsourced to China, but I know someone who went to a local storefront that had catalogs from the North Carolina furniture companies. They picked out what they wanted from the paper catalogs and it was delivered from North Carolina cheaper than if they had gone through a local showroom.
How many appliances do you own that can withstand 200-500 pounds of weight being dropped on them every single day for a year? Maybe your fridge, but those are usually at least $1000 as well, and the cheap ones break down just as fast as the cheap sofas.
Even decent quality furniture should last decades, so the market will bear a pretty hefty cost for it.
And around here, the best deals are at garage sales, or sometimes just free on a tree lawn. But that gets back to the truck problem AuntiePam mentions.
I bought an Ikea couch for $700-some on sale two years ago - I’m very happy with it, although the upholstery on one segment isn’t looking at nice because that’s where my dog likes to lick it and that’s the one piece that can’t be turned over. However, it can all be taken off and dry-cleaned, and if I want to I can replace all the upholstery because Ikea sells it separately. It remains extremely comfortable. In five years maybe it won’t be, but I’ll probably be ready for something different then.
probably because of excessive markup and lack of widespread adoption of plastic furniture. All those export-import execs involved in the China trade need their fancy salaries paid on time.
I personally am more pissed off at plastic shoes that are less than a dollar in bulk on Alibaba ending up as a “bargain” in Walmart at $9 plus tax. A real bargain too - in other stores shoes much worse than that sell for $14.
Moral of the story is, whether on Wall Street, Main Street or Capitol Hill, the thieving bastards are uniformly out to get us.
You pay for quality. Good leather, or fabric, hardwood, steel, and skilled labor all cost more than cheap shit from overseas. Try doing this: Decent furniture should last for a minimum of ten years, so just divide the cost by 520 and see how much it costs you per week, or by 52- per year. It isn’t so bad then. Designer looks will cost more, so you pay some cool tax there, as you should. I suggest you invest well in your primary use pieces and chintz out on the rest that doesn’t really matter much if you want to save dough. A good Lay-z-boy should last for at least ten years without any issues, and many last far longer than twice that time. You can’t say the same for junk from rooms-to-go. So buy your nice chair and grab that ikea coffee table.
