Investing in furniture

AshnRobo

I believe in buying quality as an investment. I do, but that isn't to say high price tags don't make me think twice.

 I tend to give an item an expected life expectancy and divid that by price. To find an annual cost. I just have never bought furniture before. Everything both of us owned before the wedding was hand-me-downs or roadside finds. (We moved right after wedding and no longer have any of it.)

What is a typical life expectancy of furniture? I know how often you use it would matter. So for this specific item, it is a glider that I would like to have start in our nursery (daily use for at least a year or two possibly longer) and then move it into the living room as an occasional piece. 

 

gymbugmj2k

it truthfully depends on how the people (and pets) in your home treat your furniture.  the same quality piece could last 5 years in one home, and 50 in another.

do you dust/clean often? do you wipe up spills immediately? do you knock into furniture (yourself or whatever you're carrying/pushing/etc)? do you drop things on tables instead of placing them? slam drawers/doors?

if you're hard on your furniture it will show wear after a year or two (maybe sooner depending on the piece and quality of construction). if you treat your furniture gently, it truly can last 20-30 years easily. My hubby and I just bought a bedroom set...and while we are a bit worried about the construction of the drawers (they're not as much solid wood as we wanted), I asked him how much we'd beat up the dresser. we're laying shirts and pants in it, and opening and closing the drawer every morning/evening. is the heaviness of the wood REALLY going to matter if we treat it well?

Without knowing the quality of the piece, I would think something like a glider would easily last at least 5-10 years with 1-2 years of repeated use, and then occasional use after that.

AshnRobo

Thanks and you make a great point about how we use it. Great response. This will help us make our decision!

Brina105

I believe in quality furniture. But at the same time I also tend to like some trendy furntirue pieces and like to resdesign often. So here is my take. I tend to spend less on things that I know are "token" pieces, that will be around 5 years or less. Things I want to keep around longer I will invest in. They really don't make furntiture no matter the brand like they did 50 years ago, so we tend to buy a lot of older pieces and rehab them--which is a less expensive option to getting quality furntiture as well.

As for a glider. I think if you find one with solid wood construction and a nice mechanism, even if its a bit less expensive that's ok. The mechanism is what is going to be important since it is getting daily use- so ths is where you want to be sure they are using quality items, and metal vs. plastics etc.

Once it's an occasional piece, I doubt it will get much use, but i tink that depends on the style.I think the "typical" glider that is wood with the two seat cushions wouldn't get as much use as an upholstered rocker/turning chair for example...

SunAndRain

I too was thinking that we could eventually move the glider from the nursery to the living room but the truth is that a nursery glider looks like a nursery glider no matter which room it is in. Unless you get a fairly expensive one. I bought my dutailer used and wouldn't trade it for the world. But I'll resell or donate once we longer need it for lo.

We recently bought a bedroom set from Ethan Allen which I hope will last 25 years. It is timeless so it won't go out of style. I wouldn't likely buy couches from the same store because with three unruly cats and now a child, not to mention two careless adults, they will get beat upon no matter what. So I think our couch and loveseat, nice leather, were $3000 rather than the 8 or so thousand they probably would have cost at Ethan Allen. Again we figure the couches will last 10 years if we are lucky.

We also went with a solid wood but inexpensive dining room set. Again, in 10 years we'll consider something more fancy.

Overall, I'd look for solid wood.  Even rubber wood is better than particle board. 

marchbaby

I always like to buy nice quality b/c it looks better...however, with two boys and a 115 pound dog who still likes to chew, everything gets destroyed and it makes me ragey

My leather sofas have small chew marks that i'm trying to ignore, and  I have some bar stools etc that REALLY need to be replaced, the dog has chewed the hell out of them. I'm not replacing them until we can get him to stop chewing (he's a year old), and when I do replace them it will likely be with something cheaper.  I guess once the kids are grown and the dog is gone (and after him I likely won't want another one as he is a pain in the butt!) I can have nice stuff!