Some Trendy Furniture May Be Cheaply Made

When buying casual furniture, many check out discount stores and catalogs.


5 On Your Side Consumer Reporter John Matarese said the trouble is those trendy tables and couches don’t always hold up.
In the old days, when consumers needed furniture,they went to a family-owned furniture store. Now, many shop from glossy mail order catalogs and home improvement chains.
It’s likely because it’s affordable.
“We had it five or six months, and we noticed this crack on the face of it,” said Alan Layton, a furniture buyer.
Layton couldn’t believe it when the table he bought from a popular catalog company was splitting.
“We started to wonder what kind of quality the furniture was,” Layton said.
Matarese took the table to nationally known furniture restorer Joe Naiser and he was not surprised at what he found.
“This is from the wood shrinking. It did not crack on a joint, it cracked in the grain,” Naiser said.
He added that the wood in much of today’s furniture comes from humid Asia. The wood typically can’t handle the dryness in American homes.
“Any time you have an imported piece, you can run into problems with wood shrinking from humidity, and that leads to cracks,” Naiser said.
He added that there is another problem with mass-market furniture. Matarese took several pieces for Naiser to examine, so he could tear them up and show what was lying beneath the surface.
An assemble-it-yourself end table went together easily, but Naiser said if a vacuum cleaner or child’s toy chips its dark finish, the white wood inside would show.
“If you happen to get a nick or chip, not only does the finish come off, but you’ll see the lighter wood beneath it,” he said.
The box for bar stools from a major home improvement chain said the stools were leather.
When Naiser sliced them apart, he discovered they’re not real leather at all.
“This is a very good simulation, but it’s not leather,” he said. It’s vinyl.”
Even pricey furniture can be cheaply made, according to the Wall Street Journal’s Smart Money magazine. In a recent article titled “Pottery Barn Unstuffed,” the magazine spent thousands of dollars on pieces from Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware, and Crate and Barrel.
It claimed that a $400 Pottery Barn coffee table has an easily chipped veneer just one-fortieth of an inch thick.
It also found a $900 Crate and Barrel chair had thin cardboard shaping the arms.
It also claimed a $1,200 Crate and Barrel bed was held together by screws into particle board.
“It’s pretty easy to break,” Naiser said of particle board. He added that it can chip and snap. To protect yourself, Naiser said:
1 Look for solid wood rather than particle board.
2 Look for glued wood joints like these rather than nails or screws.
He also warned that assemble-it-yourself furniture will often loosen up after being sat on or moved. It may not be the kind of furniture you’ll want to hand down to the grandkids. Pottery Barn and Crate and Barrel say their furniture is put through rigorous testing, and is the best quality for the price.