North Americans spend billions of dollars a year on furniture, but they鈥檙e often not getting what they paid for. A big part of the problem is misleading labels, experts say.
Terms such as 鈥済enuine leather鈥� and 鈥渞eal wood,鈥� which seem straightforward enough, can be industry code words for composite materials.
And once items arrive on your doorstep, furniture 鈥� unlike most other consumer goods 鈥� is often too cumbersome to return. It鈥檚 also the type of product that people buy infrequently, and so they might be unsure what to look for.
鈥淭he language that companies sometimes use to sell their furniture is so funny and misleading that even I was duped by an online ad into thinking I was getting something made of solid wood,鈥� says Jen Levin, who owns the Maine-based Chilton Furniture Co. with her husband, Jared. They specialize in Shaker-style wood furniture.
鈥淚 am extremely particular about wood, and my husband laughed his head off when he learned I鈥檇 been fooled into buying furniture made of some kind of composite.
鈥淎nd guess what? It would have been such a pain to return the chairs that I ended up keeping them,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 embarrassing to admit.
鈥淭he minute I pulled them out of the box I knew they were wrong. They were too lightweight, and if you look at where the chair leg meets the seat, there was a little space where the so-called 鈥榳ood grain鈥� stopped and the leg was just a pulpy white.鈥�
Levin and other furniture experts advise consumers to ask questions about what they鈥檙e buying. The term 鈥渢op-grain leather鈥� indicates a higher quality product than 鈥渂onded鈥� or 鈥済enuine鈥� leather. 鈥淪olid wood,鈥� or better yet a specific type and quality of solid wood, indicates higher quality than 鈥渞eal wood鈥� or, for example, 鈥渃herry-coloured wood,鈥� terms often used to misrepresent lower-quality wood furniture.
鈥淭he difference is truly in the details,鈥� says Tracy Paccione, senior vice-president of merchandizing for Ethan Allen furniture. But, she says, 鈥渢here are some things you can look for to distinguish high-quality furniture from the rest.鈥�
Wood
鈥淲e recommend looking for quality construction details, such as dovetailed drawer corners, mortise-and-tenon joinery on furniture tops and rails, and floating anti-warp cleats on dining table tops and headboards,鈥� Paccione says. 鈥淚ntricate wood carvings or hand-applied accents can only be achieved with great attention and skill. They are good indicators that the piece was made with care.鈥�
Leather
When looking for leather furniture, ask if the piece is fully upholstered in genuine leather, Paccione says. Some upholstered leather pieces may be vinyl-matched, meaning they are partly upholstered in a vinyl that matches the leather. Paccione says Ethan Allen 鈥渙nly uses top-grain and full-grain leather for its upholstered furniture pieces.鈥�
Know your leather lingo:
鈥� 鈥淏onded leather鈥� is a material that has been reprocessed from many leather pieces, which typically have been ground up, reconstituted and glued together into a sheet. It is typically less resilient than hide, and is more likely to crack and peel.
鈥� 鈥淕enuine leather鈥� is made from a hide, but the term doesn鈥檛 necessarily mean it is well made. Bonded leather that contains only hide parts can be marketed as genuine leather.
鈥� 鈥淭op-grain leather鈥� comes from the most durable part of the hide. It is lightly sanded or buffed to minimize natural markings.
鈥� 鈥淔ull-grain leather鈥� is unaltered by sanding or buffing, so it retains the hide鈥檚 natural markings and is often thicker and more durable.
Fabric
When choosing upholstery, think about your lifestyle, Paccione says.
鈥淒oes it need to withstand pets and the kids on a sofa, or is it being used for an accent piece in the bedroom? Look for details about the fabric鈥檚 wearability, or consider high-performance fabrics that are specially treated with protective finishes,鈥� she says.
Joinery
Joinery can be a tip-off to the quality and longevity of a piece of furniture. 鈥淟ook for a smooth glide when operating the drawer, and be sure it doesn鈥檛 tilt down and fall or pit when pulled out entirely,鈥� Paccione says.
Both she and Levin say features to look for include: dovetail joinery on all four drawer corners, dovetail guides and anti-tip rails to prevent the drawer from tilting downward when it鈥檚 pulled out, and thicker drawer sides and back.
鈥淲ood-on-wood joinery is top of the line,鈥� Levin says. 鈥淚n the long run, metal will loosen in wood, and nothing is really going to fix that.
鈥淏ut with wood-on-wood joinery, the joint becomes stronger over time.
鈥淒etails like that are important to look for because looks and description can be deceiving,鈥� Levin says.
