Last summer you fell in love. Now, just three short seasons later, your beloved has let you down. Time has revealed that your love affair — not to mention the object of your affection – wasn’t nearly as timeless or as durable as you thought. S
uccessful furniture shopping requires a careful balance between emotion and intellect. If you’re planning to update your home with some new furniture this summer, here are important areas to examine when assessing furniture. If the piece measures up to these standards, chances are you’ll still be able to love it next summer.
Furniture Construction
If you’re shopping in a showroom, be sure to ask the sales person about the material beneath the paint technique. If you’re shopping online, be sure it’s with a company that can answer this basic question – what is the furniture or frame made of? Solid hardwood like oak, saligna and even select pine provide strong, solid foundation for the furniture. Avoid things like plywood and chipboard, especially in an area that is prone to a lot of moisture like a bathroom and if you live on the coast, like I do, where the humidity is particularly high.
Wood should be kiln-dried, which imparts strength and durability. Of course, the strongest wood in the world is no good if it’s cut too thin. Many manufacturers use 16mm timber, Bay Tree uses 25mm timber, meaning the wood is nearly 65 percent thicker and stronger.
Another point to consider in the making of furniture is how it is put together. In factories where furniture is mass produced, the furniture is very often simply nailed together with pneumatic tools to save on time and labour. This process is indeed quick but means that when it ends up in your house, it very quickly becomes rickety and even starts to ‘come apart at the seams’ so to speak. The correct way to join pieces of wood together is to first of all glue it with a high quality wood glue, and then either use dowels (small wooden plugs) or screws to assemble it. This feature is not so easy to look for with painted furniture, but, in this case, the old saying holds true – ‘if the price seems to good to be true, it probably is’.
How did this happen, you wonder. How could you have so badly misjudged the quality and style of the dining-room set you bought just one year ago?
For most people, furniture-buying decisions are either based on emotion – ‘falling in love’ with a piece – or on the lowest price. Neither way is likely to lead to a happy, satisfying long-term relationship with your furniture. This is especially true of painted furniture, where poor construction and quality can be hidden beneath layers of clever paint technique.
