At Gibson Brothers Furniture Inc., we are passionate about furniture, and we pride ourselves on offering only high-quality pieces. One question many customers have asked over the years boils down to: “How can I recognize high-quality furniture and tell it apart from low-quality pieces?” In this article, we will go over exactly that, explaining the hallmarks of quality vs. poorly made furniture, so you can make the best choice.
High-Quality Furniture
- Quality wood furniture will be made of either solid wood or plywood that is at least eight layers thick.
- Good carpenters will avoid using wood that has many knots, as these are susceptible to cracking.
- Another sign of quality in wood furniture can be found in the joints—look for dovetail joints or mortice-and-tenon construction, and make sure the corners have reinforcing blocks.
- Quality upholstered furniture uses dense foam to stuff its cushions, and any loose fill cushions will have multiple compartments to prevent the stuffing from settling.
Low-Quality Furniture
- One of the biggest indicators that a piece of furniture is low-quality is low-quality materials in its construction. For example, anything made of fiberboard, particleboard, pressboard, or thin plywood is not going to last very long.
- You can also identify poor-quality furniture by poor joint construction—if pieces of wood are joined with staples or nails or there is visible glue anywhere, the piece is clearly not designed with longevity in mind.
- Low-quality upholstered furniture will have weak, squishy foam that doesn’t stand up to repeated use.