Here at Gibson Brothers Furniture Inc., we are committed to providing high-quality furniture that will last. We focus on American-made brands that deliver consistently great workmanship, and we know how to tell well-made furniture apart from the cheap stuff. In this article, we’ll go over three tell-tale signs of low quality or poorly constructed furniture so that you can avoid wasting your money on inferior products.
- Veneers- One sign that a piece of furniture is of lower quality is the use of veneers. A veneer is a thin layer of wood, usually about 3 mm thick, that is placed over a core of cheaper wood. While this is an effective way to make cheap furniture look more appealing, using veneers also makes the piece less durable and more prone to splintering.
- Poor Joints- Another sign of low-quality furniture lies in the joints. The best furniture will be joined together using dovetails or dowels, while lower-quality pieces will use nails or staples to hold the pieces together. Dovetail and dowel joints require more precision and give the finished piece greater stability and durability overall. Nails and staples, on the other hand, can work their way out of the wood over time as it expands and contracts with the changing climate conditions, and make for a less durable product.
- Finish- A third sign of a low-quality piece of furniture can be found in the wood finish. The finish is a coating applied to the finished piece to protect the wood from moisture and other damage. If you drag a fingernail over a table or other furniture item and it leaves a visible line in the finish, then that finish is not up to snuff, and you should keep looking for the right piece.