Why Buy Custom Furniture?
Why buy custom? While I’m going to dig deeper into this question, the simple answer is: QUALITY.
You buy custom furniture because you control the quality. You control who the person is that designs and builds your one of a kind piece. You approve your final design. You decide what materials are used for your project. When you purchase mass produced, factory built furniture, you have zero control.
While browsing the news today, I stumbled upon an article in The Washington Post entitled, “Why Furniture Got So Bad”, by Rachel Kurzius. This article digs deep into what has changed in the quality of furniture over the years. I’ll link the full article at the end of this post for your reading pleasure but a few things stood out to me in this article.
Furniture production has been almost entirely been sent overseas and because of this furniture build quality has gone down because it needs to be shipped. The higher the shipping costs, the lower the build quality. Lighter, thinner pieces are needed to save on shipping.
The material used are very misleading. Even very high end retailers use wording like, “all wood”, “solid wood”, etc. In reality they are using particle board with a wood veneer to cover it. Or they may use Rubberwood which is a “wood” product produced using the byproducts of latex manufacturing and then, again, covered in wood veneer. Side note, this product is prone to decay.
Unfortunately, we’ve all been programmed to be a throw away society now. We jokingly say “they don’t make ‘em like they used to.” Sadly it’s actually true. But there is a solution. Stop purchasing overpriced, poorly constructed furniture that you expect to throw away in a year or two. Instead, find a skilled craftsman that can design and build exactly what you want. Will you pay more? Absolutely. Will it be considerably more than retail? It may be. BUT, it will last a lifetime. You can own something that you can pass on from generation to generation.
If I can be that craftsman for you, please let me know how I can help.
KC
