What makes expensive furniture expensive?

Are you talking antiques or present day furniture in stores?

[quote] Is it mainly the design?

These days.. it's really more the labor. I have to admit I'm surprised when people buy my crafts or refurbs because it's things they could do themselves for much cheaper. But they come up with a lot of excuses why they can't.

But of course, design is part of it, too. Or I should say more aesthetic. Not that many people are into design. They just want to feel of something to fit into a room. Yes, there's some that want everything to be matchy-matchy but I find most desire unique pieces or conversation pieces - well, something other people haven't seen before or envy.

And of course, there's people that are more into brands.

[quote] Is the quality really far better in expensive furniture? As in, does it really last much longer?

Price and quality doesn't always go hand-in-hand. But yes, most "affordable" new furniture tends to be built out of inferior materials. But you can usually find decent used deals at your local uni housing at the end of term.

[quote] If it’s mainly the design, then buying a cheaper knock off should be fine, right?

If you're into a specific design and this isn't going to be an investment or legacy piece, then sure, a knock off would be fine. It all depends on your needs and whether said furniture will be durable enough for your intended use.

I mean, you could buy a cheap sling but if you're not an near anorexic waif.. it probably wouldn't hold up well enough for a good gangbang.

As with anything, higher prices don't automatically mean higher quality, but if you want a well-made product that's not going to fall apart you're going to have to buy from a manufacturer with a solid reputation. Generally speaking a Pottery Barn chair is going to be sturdier and better looking than an Ikea chair. But Pottery Barn furniture is not a high end brand that's going to feed your ego or impress your friends and clients.

R1, present day

[Quote] If you're into a specific design and this isn't going to be an investment or legacy piece, then sure, a knock off would be fine.

In today’s throwaway culture where everything is made in China, is “investment/legacy” really a thing anymore?

Be warned: furniture does not hold its value. If you can afford a super-comfortable couch and a bedroom suite made of solid wood and you want it, go for it. Just know it won't be worth a tenth of its value when you want to get rid of it, no matter how soon that is. Anyone who's cleared out their parents' house and tried to get rid of their quality furniture knows this. (I'm not just talking mahogany four-posters that won't fit in modern apartments; solid wood mid-century modern is just as hard to get rid of.)

The only stuff likely to retain its value are those famous timeless pieces by well-known designers, like the Wassily chair or the Eames chair and ottoman. Even those won't if they're only knock-offs.

Do people buy used furniture nowadays? I’d worry about bedbugs and such

I only buy good furniture at garage sales, thrift stores, or pick it up off the street when discarded, I don't pay retail, retail is for suckers. Good furniture can always be refurbished at a fraction of the cost New or retail. :-)

Solid Wood metal frame, bamboo furniture, etc does not have bedbugs, just buy new mattress or cushions or coverings, very simple. :-)

Most of my furniture is Georgian and Victorian, it's high quality as craftsmanship was much better back then.

r7 There's many treatments and tools (heatguns) you can use to combat bedbugs and such.

Furniture is expensive for many, most don't want to buy furniture online nor be stuck with financing and payment plans at their local furniture store, so picking up curbside, hand me downs or otherwise used are the only options for some... albeit, sometimes used is just as variable in prices and quality.

r5 There are still manufacturers outside of China and there are many more indepedent crafters/hobbyist.. quality and prices are variable.

It's not always 2 simple sofas the fine points and nuances of line and construction and material would be list on your country bumpkin cousins.

Here's a €62,000 sofa by Edra (again, not a name that will impress your country cousins) made in Italy to designs if the Campana brothers (again...). There's no equivalent at Ikea or Pottery Barn or Design Within Reach. You may laugh at the design or wonder what you would do if a slice of pizza went sauce side down stop the fine velvet, but you won't find a knock-off for 1/3 the price-- and if you did it would still be a walloping expensive sofa.

What do you do when it shows too much wear? Buy another, of course, a newer more unusual design, maybe. You may think it's ugly, and it would be in most low ceilinged suburban living rooms. In the right space it's sculptural, elegant, the deep dark shadows of it's knots and twists become anti-colors, swallowing light as ut swallows your ass (it's VERY fucking comfortable.) Horribly, Kendall Jenner has one so now many people do know of it I suppose.

Unless you make a bean bag version in pleather, it's never going to be cheap. Italians who make sofas by hand make respectable salaries, the factory owners and distributors and designers make even nicer salaries. Imagine the cost to ship these one at a time to different parts of the world - not a container of 64 to each of 20 Sofa World regional warehouses.

Much cheaper and more popular and increasingly made by many manufacturers are the modular sofas formed of 6 or 10 or more large rectangular blocks upholstered as giant cushions in all six sides. They piece together as a "system" and have a more modern look than the typical boxy sofa form. They cost $20,000 to 30,000 or so, but you can now find "cheap" versions for under $10,000. They are easier for multiple manufacturers to copy (more it less) and introduced economies that make them affordable to people who like their new sofas to cost less than their new cars. They began with high end European companies and now they are showing up in cheaper versions on online furniture companies - somewhat tonier variations on the Wayfair model, if you will.

It can be many things that shape the price, but interior designers usually work on some combination fixed price + time + commission. And nobody ever took a vacation on the commission, however wildly marked up, on a $1000 sofa.

I don't have things to make other people feel envy. More that likely anyone who comes into our house and afford to buy anything they want. I go for quality and craftsmanship in what my partner and I buy. Neve because someone else might be impressed by it.

R13, the problem is that sofa only makes sense in a huge house with massive rooms and high ceilings. That’s why they are shown in stores built like that.

Interestingly, while I love going into, say, Roche Bobois stores because the furniture looks so good, when I was in London, I stopped at Harrods. It also carries Roche Bobois (and other such high end brands). The display rooms there are not particularly large with high ceilings. Lots of brands are squished together like in most dept stores. The furniture did not make the same impact at all.

Most middle class houses don’t have the palatial aspects that any of this furniture would make sense in

Buy furniture that makes sense for your home and income. If you live in a middle class home, filling it with high end furniture will come off as weird. Everyone knows your general income because of where you live. No one is impressed if you suddenly have a $50k sofa.

Let's say you want a functional piece such as a china cabinet. There were so many wonderful furniture design periods in the 20th century, and so many woods that are impossible to find nowadays, or outrageously expensive if you can. Plus the craftsmanship. This is where a modest person would be insane to buy new, if he wants real oak, hickory, cherry, etc., when old 20th Century pieces can be had for a song. The workmanship and wood just isn't available anymore. The reason the 100 year old piece is still around today is that it is SOLID and someone cared for it. Often for less than the price of an Ikea Billy bookcase.

I don't think high quality furniture is produced at a price that anyone from the working class to middle class can afford. The only time I see new furniture that is truly high quality, the owner is bourgeois, upper-middle class or wealthy.

r14 Well, good for you.

Even if that humblebrag of virtue signaling plays out to the same ends. .

There are many people that enjoy showing off their engagement rings. . . their rims.... their sneakers... the latest season's outfits... some people that pride themselves on clear trash bags because it shows how green conscious they are, etc.

to be the first, to be the best, to have the most unique, to be a special, to be the superstar in their own little world.

Most of the things we know are a sign of our class privilege... even the poor can never be all that poor compared to someone else who has it worse.

Ain't nothing wrong with courting envy... in moderation, anyway.

^ know = own.

Tough question. All I know is, if someone returns leather furniture sets to Costco, they chop it up with axes.

If you want good quality furniture, buy it secondhand. Nothing affordable is built well these days.

R2 I'm chuckling, but you have a point there, as regards weight. If you're heavy, you do indeed need better support than average upholstery or mattresses provide. Best to buy the best you can afford... even if that entails altering your budget awhile, and saving up.

A rule of thumb for sofas also: if you wish to lounge, sleep, or nap comfortably, choose a three-seater, or a bench cushion. The fulcrum of your weight isn't comfortable between two cushions. This seems somewhat elementary to those who decorate, or sell furniture, but lost on the general consumer.

Another bit of good advice to those who may be overweight, and on a strict budget: often the sleeper sofa version is much better support than a regular sofa. It still may be uncomfortable to those who use it as a sleeper, but the cushions end up much firmer, due to the folded torture-inducing mattress beneath. Even cheap Ikea sofas are like this.

"leather furniture sets" = non-u

R22 Very true, sadly. I'd much rather re-upholster a good old frame with helical coil springs, whether they're eight-way hand-tied, or the modern drop-in variety.

Even if you must refinish something old, better quality, and it's good recycling. Even the spendy sort can be crap nowadays.

I bought a Henredon hutch I saw in AD back in the 80s It was $3600 then, I still love it and it's been in 6 of my places.

R26 That's a particularly renowned American brand, right up there with Baker.

Having been in both the antiques business, as well as the new furniture business, (and being a former Sotheby's employee) the only American brand that ever rivalled both Henredon and Baker, was Kittinger. Anyone looking for excellent vintage buys should do well seeking out these brands.

Another good brand was Kindel, but they lost their cachet a very long time ago.

The price of anything is determined by...

...what a buyer is willing to pay.

R29 Very true, yet nothing wrong at all with an informed consumer, who shall know the difference between dreck and top-notch.

Hancock & Moore was also a highly regarded American upholstery brand. I would say IMHO, as good as Saxon, or George Smith, for British equivalents. They often re-sold Baker designs with their own label.

The design showrooms to the trade often featured the same Baker frames, upholstered with Hancock & Moore's leather range. All of these are excellent vintage finds; though they will not come cheap, even used.

I wrestled with this idea just last week. I had an inexpensive loveseat purchased in 2002 that looked nice then, but the covering crumbled and cracked over the years of direct sunlight in my empty co-op in NY. They still make the design and knockoffs of it, but the one I had was a gift from my Mom, and the shape and scale suit my place just right. I probably could have purchased a replacement or copy of the piece for about the same cost, but instead left it with an upholsterer to cover in better quality leather, in a shade I won’t get tired of. I didn’t want to throw the small sofa away because it is a really good design and it is really practical. My Mom seems pretty happy that I am keeping it. I also had more control over the color and quality of the covering. It’s so easy to overspend on something trendy and then get sick of it, so I upgraded a piece that I have enjoyed. I hope I made the right choice.

R32 Sounds as if you made the best choice, especially since you still like it. If your mum is happy, that's another plus!

It used to be materials, workmanship, and design to a certain extent - things like wood joints vs. just glue and nails

Now, it seems like it's mostly designer brand name which people mistakenly believe equals materials, workmanship, and design, but often doesn't include any of the three.

Amazon sells knockoffs of stylish furniture at 1/20th the price of the originals. Even if a chair breaks, I can buy 20 of them.

mainly labor.

Most people can’t afford high end like you lot and on the other end most people don’t pick castoffs off the curb like someone else suggested. Middle America buys a lot of furniture online from Wayfair and Amazon without setting foot in a furniture store, or from places like Rooms to Go. There’s a lot less concern with having heirloom quality pieces and go for style over substance, even when that means disposable knockoffs that can be discarded when they want to follow the next trend. Not saying this is a good thing, but it’s reality for a lot of people.

No one is buying heirloom furniture nowadays.

No one want his parents’ bed or couch anymore

R38 That’s true. My friends tell me that companies who run estate sales caution not to expect any interest in “brown things”, meaning wood furniture like dining room sets and buffets, hutches, things like these.

R39, I’d be interested to know what people actually buy at all at estate sales.

They don’t like furniture, China, etc. What else is left except for special antiques for collectors and stuff like that

Well there are PLENTY of gays who LOVE buying all that crap at estate sales and bric a brac level antique stores. Also bohemian women.

I’ve hooked with with interior designer gays whose apartments are filled, ceiling to floor, with lots of yard sale finds.

Ok, I may get crucified, but you know which bring I think is total garbage (zero disrespect if you own it, I apologize)? Mitchell & Gold. I saw a few consignment pieces, I could not believe it. Wayfair quality, at least the pieces I saw.

I like the idea of taking old brown furniture and refurbishing it in a new color. It’s better than throwing it in the dumpster and the pieces are usually built much better than they are today.

R44 sweetie, "laminate" furniture is the OPPOSITE of quality "brown furniture".

R43: Not sure that I've ever sat on a Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams sofa or know much at all about the quality, but I always figured they simply had been clever at cornering the Aspirational Label Seeking Gay market of buyers who refer to things by brand more than purpose, the "Please, won't you have a seat on the MItchell Gold + Williams and I'll sit here in the Wassily." They took the lines that would appeal to the Design Within Reach catalogue subscriber and made everything just a very little bit underscaled and lighter looking and monochrome. Good for them in that they seemed to get very big and doing the right thing at the right time, even if the right thing was mostly marketing.

Their stuff just never seemed very different, just focused, and some of it was really quite ordinary and ugly (image.). This quotation from the company website may sum up some of the specialness of the brand:

[quote]To keep current on trends and consumer behavior, Bob [Williams] is an avid reader of fashion, gourmet, and shelter print and online publications each month, and travels extensively, both to visit our stores around the country and internationally.

Well there you have it, finger on the pulse.

Well, yeah it does say laminate there but it applies to solid wood furniture too, darling.

R44 That video is excellent.

I saw an ad for a side table, one of those skinny ones that would go in a hallway, from Overstock.com. It was really beautiful. I clicked on it only to find out it was $1800! I hardly doubt it was really worth that much, with craftmanship the way it is these days.

I have a Mitchell Gold sofa—yes, it was crazy expensive but I do love it

That furniture sold on Overstock, Wayfair, Macy’s (they sell the same stuff online. It doesn’t appear in their stores) can vary wildly in pricing. You can find the same thing going for a fraction of what it does elsewhere and should always search to get the best deal. Sometimes the item or maker name is different, but it’s the exact same thing. An $1800 table might be $500 somewhere else.