I didn't think I'd get anything from the chapter in Sharon Harvey Rosenberg's The Frugal Duchess about furniture. I mean, I am the QUEEN of used furniture shopping. The hubby and I joke that there is a tiny blemish on every single piece in the house (often underneath table tops).
Well, I was wrong.
There were the basics like avoiding glued 'joints' and particle board but there was also this simple tip I wished I had known a decade ago...
"drawers of poorly-made furniture typically lack guides - the tracks that smoothly open and close the drawers." Specifically she advises to look for wood and metal guides.
Doesn't that make shopping for used (or even new) furniture easier? I used to spend hours looking at joints. Is it a dovetail (good)? Is that veneer (bad)? When really if the manufacturer doesn't even have guides installed, they aren't going to have quality joints.
Another aha moment was the bit about couch cushions and checking the cushion seams. "If the seams have become flattened or if the cushion appears to sag, don't buy the piece." How many times have you bought a couch only to have the cushions flat as a crepe (smothered with Nutella and crushed almonds) a year or two later? Yep, I've done that too. A quick test of the cushions would have prevented that bad buy (s).
Okay, I'm doing better. Two posts in and I've covered a page of the 229 page book.