Mike Coleman has seen a lot in his five years selling vintage furniture.
He has been in million-dollar mansions and abandoned schools — and found the same exact chair in both places.
But one of the biggest things that stands out to him in the pieces he sources and sells? The quality.
“I’m still constantly finding pieces of furniture that are 75 years old, and for the most part, they are good to go,” Coleman, who owns Big Mike’s Vintage in Chicago, told Business Insider. “I would bet all the money in my pocket that any furniture you buy on Amazon today will not last more than five years, especially if it says ‘made in China.'”
“The mass production that the US saw in the mid-20th century and the quality that it cranked out was completely ridiculous,” he added. “Unimaginable.”
So what happened that made furniture experience such a sharp decline in quality?
“It’s a variety of things that have led to the degradation of quality,” CoCo Ree Lemery, a furniture designer and visiting professor at Purdue University, told Business Insider.
Innovation in materials, a desire to cut costs, and consumer preferences are among the factors that have led here: where customers don’t even expect pieces to last several years, let alone decades — and where those looking for quality are increasingly turning toward vintage and custom products.
Despite the decline in quality, consumers have options, and all hope is not lost for people looking to fill their homes with the kind of furniture their kids and grandkids will fight over.
Reselling high-quality, vintage furniture is a growing business.
taikrixel/Getty Images
How furniture materials got so…cheap
Innovation in materials during the 20th century disrupted the furniture business.
“The material landscape has fundamentally changed,” according to Lemery, who has designed furniture for brands like Pottery Barn, Williams Sonoma, and Jonathan Adler.
In the mid-1900s, a lot of furniture sold in the US was made of solid hardwood or plywood, sheets of wood that are glued together. But in the 1970s and 80s, engineered wood products started to appear and quickly spread.
Such products include things like medium-density fiberboard, oriented strand board, and particle board, which are generally made by breaking wood down into strips or fibers that are then compressed and binded together with adhesives.
But it’s not just the wood material that’s used. Even screws today are commonly made of brass, a softer metal, rather than steel. “It’s every component that then combines together to make something that is fundamentally less durable,” Lemery said.
Lemery said companies are always looking for the cheapest possible materials: “When you are on the driver’s end as a designer, you’re trying to keep those production costs as low as possible so that you can mark that piece of furniture up.”
There’s also a lack of diversity when it comes to quality. With hardly any manufacturing in the US, many furniture makers end up outsourcing to the same factories in China and India. Lemery said when she’d travel to the factories about four times a year to see the samples of her designs, she’d also see samples from several other brands — meaning, they were all being produced at the same places.
Innovations in furniture have not been all bad. There’s a certain level of accessibility that comes with being able to produce large pieces of furniture for relatively low prices, and furniture that can be shipped flat and built at home also has its benefits. A lot of solid wood furniture in the past could not be broken down into pieces — potentially a major inconvenience for someone who moves a lot.
A factory worker polishes the top of a desk in a US furniture factory, circa 1950.
James W. Welgos/Archive Photos/Getty Images
Consumers are partly to blame
Furniture manufacturers aren’t the only ones to blame for this shift in quality.
“I think that the market demand is for hot and now and cheap and that production follows demand,” Gayle DeBruyn, a professor at the Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University, told Business Insider.
In the mid-1900s, buying a piece of furniture was a process that could take months, from going to the local furniture place, picking out a model you like, and ordering one for your space.
Many consumers now are accustomed to the idea that when you buy something, you should be able to get it within days.
Consumers also expect physical objects to be relatively cheap. Lemery notes that you can buy some desks for less money than what it would cost to buy raw lumber and make one yourself. She said Americans tend to have a “demented” idea of what things actually should cost.
Partly in response to that consumer demand, fast furniture is becoming increasingly popular. Like fast fashion, fast furniture products are churned out quickly and cheaply, allowing consumers to follow trends on a whim rather than invest in their pieces. Brands like Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie saw huge growth in their furniture wings during the pandemic, Lemery said. Zara and Banana Republic now also have furniture and home goods lines.
“You see all these fast fashion outlets kind of getting into furniture as another revenue source, and they’re treating it the same way as they do fashion,” she said.
The trend rat race fosters the perception that every item is disposable or replaceable. And while some people feel content with donating furniture once they are done with it, much of it still ultimately ends up in a landfill.
Some companies are exploring circular design for furniture — or how to ensure pieces do not end up in the landfill once consumers are done with them. Ikea, who DeBruyn said is leading the industry in this regard, has committed to becoming a circular business by 2030.
The company says it wants to enable its customers to buy, care for, and pass on their products in more sustainable ways. That could mean designing furniture so that it can be broken down and the materials reused to create something new, which DeBruyn says is necessary for sustainability.
“The Goodwills in the world can’t handle all that furniture,” DeBruyn said. “The scale is crazy. They just don’t have a way.”
Discarded couches and trash along the train tracks along Grandee Ave and E 97th St in Watts on Thursday, May 4, 2023, in Los Angeles, CA.
Gary Coronado/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images
What you can do about it
Big Mike’s Vintage is among a growing number of businesses that sell curated vintage goods online, including on sites like Instagram and Facebook Marketplace. Coleman says his customers come to him in part because the products he sells have a level of quality that’s missing from what you can get at big box stores.
It’s not just about where you look for quality furniture, but also about rethinking the decision-making process before purchasing a piece.
When it comes to buying, DeBruyn wants to “inspire people to ask bigger questions and do more research before they decide.”
Ask yourself whether you actually like the piece you are buying or whether you are just trying to keep up with a trend. Ask what materials the piece is made of and how often it will be used. Consider if you plan to move soon and if the mobility of the item is important.
Sometimes, spending a bit more money on a piece of furniture will be worth it, especially for pieces that will be used a lot and need a high level of quality and functionality, like your dining room table or primary dresser. Instead of only looking at the big box stores, you can check out vintage retailers or even custom makers for pieces that you know you will keep for a long time.
Coleman, of Big Mike’s, said even he acknowledges that in today’s world, it’s impossible to buy vintage 100% of the time. After moving into a new place, he tried for weeks to find a vintage couch that would work. When he couldn’t, he turned to Ikea.
“Buy vintage and secondhand when you can and when you can’t, then hit the big box,” he said.
He also recommends getting to know your local vintage dealer and letting them know what you’re on the hunt for.
“I have a solid list in my head of regular customers that I hit up immediately when I find something they are looking for,” he said. When he can’t find it, he’ll refer them to another vintage seller who recently found what they’re looking for.
“The more that we can diversify our purchases and vote with our wallets — that vintage is important, and that handmade is important, and that there is a beauty to even mass-manufactured stuff — I think the more that we can diversify that, the better,” Lemery said.
It’s unrealistic for many people to fill their homes exclusively with brand-new, expensive, high-quality furniture. She hopes furniture consumption can simply get to a place where it’s a little more balanced.
“Where people have, in a single room, something that they got at a bargain, something that they invested heavily in, and something that they found vintage,” she said. “I feel like the perfect room is a combination of all the elements.”
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