I’m the Etsy Seller used as the example of drop shipping! I make everything by myself, with my sewing machine. I actually recently closed my shop, partly because it was too difficult to compete with drop shippers who had stolen my designs and photos. I was accused countless times of being a drop shipper (like in this video 😅). And Etsy offered no protection. When I’ve been accused by customers, who have already bought from me, Etsy would automatically refund them their order without checking to see whether I am the real maker. It’s so frustrating! The accusations didn’t stop until I included videos of me making the products in my listings but by then there were so many cheaper copies of my products. Etsy used to be an amazing place for me to sell what I made. Hopefully Etsy will put in place more barriers to drop shippers so that the actual artisans can thrive!
As far as I can tell, the more raunchy items (like, way more raunchy) haven't been affected by dropshippers as much. What appears to be dropshipped is often just a manufacturer based out of China
I wonder how much the decrease in homeownership affects furniture as well. I myself don't usually invest in nicer furniture because I'm a renter and I move so often. When there's no guarantee as to space, I feel like it incentivizes cheaper and more disposable options. Not to mention the difficulty in moving hardwood, especially into apartments with stairs
I'm the blogger you referenced at 31:51, and I just wanted to say thanks for referencing my post! I've been wondering why that page was getting way more views than usual this week. I worked hard to make that post as accessible and compact as possible while getting into the weeds of furniture construction, and I'm so glad it was helpful as you researched this video!
I sell handmade crochet and jewelry at local markets and let me tell you, depending on the vetting process of different events, there's plenty of drop-shipping happening irl in local "art" fairs as well (which then ppl who actually make their own shit have to compete with sweatshop pricing or turn their art or craft into their own personal sweatshop...)
I find that asking the vendors about what they’re selling, who made it/how it’s made reduces the risk of buying mass produced items. This, and uniformity of the products. And price, but sometimes prices are inflated to make the item seem legit, and sometimes small artists/crafters VASTLY underestimate the value of their work (I know several that I’m constantly begging to raise their prices. One is a glass blower.) Also sometimes makers will sell mass produced items if they’re worried that their owns won’t sell. Life as a maker is pretty tough, and I don’t blame these, as long as they’re honest about what’s theirs and what’s not.
My partner and I have been looking for nursery furniture for months. I'm not paying over $200 for particle board I have to put together myself. That is insane! A friend recommended a local used furniture store. It was filled, literally to the ceiling, with solid wood furniture. The owner came out and talked to us. He ended up having something perfect in storage that he had just fixed up. He texted me a picture the next day, brought it back to the store, and it only cost us $100. Solid wood, painted white. It's beautiful. Please please please look for local places like this!! It was the opposite of any other furniture store I've been in. He didn't want to get the biggest sale. He wanted us to find the right piece at the right price. It was very refreshing.
Love this! I've tried to sell antique furniture on FB etc and no one wants it. I had an antique bed from the 1800's that wouldn't even sell for $200 that a C&B COPY of was being sold for thousands. Vintage furniture could easily be modified or refinished, too. Makes no sense that more people don't buy second hand.
@@hr3134 coming from someone who's hugely into antiques and is currently in the process of furnishing their entire room in antiques, a lot of people have weird misconceptions about it. That it's haunted, will break easily, dirty, etc. Even though 99% of the time the antiques are better made than modern items. It's so strange
@@lovelylacie15I would buy an antique closet, desk or a cabinet but never a couch or nothing with cushions. I'm disgusted by what it could have collected for 50 ar 100 years. Even the couches my grandparents have in their summer homes disgust me. They are probably about 50 years old and still functioning but sooo nasty looking >_< with itchy fabric. They were made during the communism
omg yes! i was just thinking this a few hours ago bc i was searching for a cool table lamp online. they were all bland, beige, and boring. all of them. the only cute ones were the vintage ones, and those were super expensive
@@coolchameleon21the thrift stores around me have sooo many cute lamps i have to stop myself so often so definitely check for vintage lamps there if you have ones near you
Etsy having drop-shippers is really sad. Though some can tell which "handmade" goods are really made by an individual, some will ignore actual artisans from run-of-the-mill drop-shipper items.
@@mwv1217 I often get things from eBay that arrive with Amazon packaging. A few do have the same name as their eBay account but it's the ones that don't which surprise me. I suspected they ordered the item I want from eBay then use their Amazon account to get what I ordered; that's too many steps, though that's what I think happened.
My family used to be in the furniture industry- We're form Thomasville, NC and that's were Thomasville Furniture used to be made. My grandpa's parents, all 4 of is grandparents, all of his aunts and uncles, and most of his cousins designed, built, painted, sanded, delivered, or sold furniture from the 1910s until the 1980s. They were so proud to work there, and even when it shut down in 2014, my family was devastated. I love finding antique/vintage Thomasville pieces because I know at least 1 person in my family touched it and gave it there everything. I'm proud of the quality, I know it was made well by someone who genuinely cared and did their best. I wish there were still furniture companies like how Thomasville was were still around, but they're rare now.
Do you know of any places that still make genuine furniture in the south east US? I've been looking for quality furniture, and I've had a horrible time trying to find anything that isn't cheap disposable garbage.
@@alexlowe2054 I know a little bit about other North Carolina furniture brands- Bernhardt Furniture is also from NC and most of their furniture is made in NC too, only a little bit is made in other countries, and Hickory Chair Furniture is super nice (I was at a furniture store a few months ago and was looking at a chair from them), and the majority of their furniture is made in NC also. They can be a bit pricy but their products are well made.
So what you're saying is that I better hold on to that heavy, solid wood dresser I bought from my friend's MIL's estate sale until the day I perish lol
literally why im still using my wooden well-made childhood dresser. its bulkier than i'd like and i would love to get something smaller but also storing it is not realistic and its too valuable to get rid of so... im "stuck" using it.
Yes only if you like it. But if you no longer like it, find it a good home with someone who will appreciate it. We can't afford to keep losing the good stuff.
Yes. I have to move in the next year and I’m horrified about what I’m going to do/how much it will cost, but I’ve spent so much time (thankfully not a ton of money thanks to FB marketplace) curating a house full of sturdy, high quality, at this point vintage furniture.
My pride and joy is my 70s blue and green floral couch. It's victorian styled and cost me $40 at Goodwill. I saw it one day and almost cried just seeing it. I'd wanted a Victorian inspired couch for my whole life. We had a couch and lived in a crappy apartment. My husband and I sat on it, thinking itwould be uncomfortable. It's the most comfortable couch I've ever had. My back problems almost disappeared once we loaded it up and brought it home. It's my baby. It's needed a few spots of mending over the years, but I'm so happy with it.
I think a big part of the reason why cheap furniture is so popular is because people rent and move so often now. More expensive furniture, made from real wood and quality materials, is harder to move. It seems like it's so hard to get any good quality stuff these days without spending an arm and a leg or only if you get lucky in a thrift shop.
Yes, that. I spent quite a bit of money on furniture, 10 years ago...thinking I would continue to live in the place I had been renting for 10 years already at that point. Then I had to move and had to sell everything. Got barely anything for good quality pieces, because there was no big designer name attached to them. I swore to myself, I would never buy new or expensive furniture again, after that. Well, unless I should ever own property, which is not particularly likely. Been living with thrifted stuff ever since.
THAT. I've moved... 6 times in the last fifteen years, I think? Still the same work, but changing office with my new job, and I started at basic wages, so at first it was low quality-low price furniture because I couldn't afford much, then it was because I moved often AND moving heavy furniture is a pain. Also, I live alone, and any time I want to move stuff around, it's a pain, unless it's on wheels (which I'm doing more and more). Solid wood is a nice dream, but really not practical for me for now, price aside
I would LOVE to not move again, but housing prices are insane so people end up having to hope locations as they're priced out of their current housing.
Yah. I don't drive and have to move every 2 years with rent prices rising so I literally research ikea furniture by how well I think I can assemble and take apart something over and over. Their quality is very hit or miss. But I'm lucky we have a physical location in the burbs I can actually test the stuff before buying.
It's so bad. A lot of stuff that people buy when it's time to move out gets broken and thrown out. I have a lot of antique stuff from the 19th to the 20th century and I have a motto that if my stuff is on the street it's because I've been murdered
I grew up near High Point, NC which was one of the world's largest furniture markets until the 80's/90's when companies started looking for labor overseas. My dad always talks about how when the market moved overseas, it absolutely devastated the economy of local towns and pushed them into poverty. Now that area is mostly known for drugs. It's sad to see people's livelihoods taken from them. The furniture market is still pretty big in High Point. If you're looking for quality furniture, look for NC made furniture or even search vintage items made in NC. Thomasville and High Point are both still pretty big furniture markets and it's some of the best quality you'll find.
I am taking fire science in college right now, and there is a whole extra safety risk to most modern furniture as well. There is a recent study most fire departments use to teach personnel about flashover in structure fires. Flashover is when the fire reaches its hottest point, usually 1000F or higher. The study was to see how quickly a fire would reach flashover in a furnished living room, one living room had legacy furniture which is made 1950s and prior, and the other had modern furniture which was anything made post 1980. What the study found was that the legacy furniture living room took about 29 minutes to reach flashover, while the modern furnished living room took 3 minutes. That's a pretty extreme difference. It not only shows a very clear example of the reduction in quality that modern furniture has, but the potential harm to people's lives and property that come in tandem.
Just curious, does this have anything to do with the rampant use of flame retardant chemicals back then? I know they've been reduced or eliminated in recent years because they cause thyroid issues.
Yes thank you for sharing. Also tipping furniture is a danger. You have to anchor stuff now whereas before people didn’t worry that opening a dresser drawer would cause the unit to come down on you.
I recently got a couch & chair reupholstered that my grandparents bought in the early 1960s. Many people I know have been shocked that they look so great and are so comfortable, and that I would spend the money on this instead of buying new, but for me I was always sure I wanted to have these couches and I knew they were made so well and had great bones. The person who reupholstered them confirmed that the foundations were great and it was just about fixing a few pieces and replacing the springs and foam, and new fabric to cover. I was shocked though by how hard it was to find a reupholsterer to take on the project, even though I live in a major city; definitely a small industry unfortunately. I'm so glad I was able to get these pieces reupholstered though, I love that they have been in my family for generations and now have new life.
I'm reupholstering 2 couches. It's a nigthmare since the previous owner was knowing how to use an industrial nail. Héhé. My father was saying there was no value to putting new fabric on. Looking at the interior and how it's made is fabilus.
I reupholstered my dining room chairs as they were both rescues: one from my dads friends garden and one from the dump. They are great chairs! I’m going to start reupholstering another dump chair, it’s a carved armchair that is Victorian. I love it so much!
This is the real issue. As Mina said, furniture is an investment, but everyone thinks their investment is the best and should have a price to reflect that.
@ciaociara I just bought an antique Duncan Phyfe sofa for $50. The upholstery is in rough shape, but the cushions are not sagging at all and the overall structure is strong. So I lined up a professional to reupholster for $800 (includes the fabric). All in, it's still cheaper than I'd find on Houzz or some other site, and it will be something that is unique and I will love.
Once at an estate sale several years ago I bought a dining room set - table with 2 extension leaves and 6 chairs - for $60. Technically the sale was over but the people handling it were willing to get rid of it instead of having to load it into their trailer. The chairs were in a bit of a rough shape but I fixed it up a bit and I'm still using that dining set.
Pro tip: hotel liquidation warehouses. They have TONS of interesting designs that are chosen to (hopefully) stand up to many uses among a ton of guests. And because you'll be seeing it in the warehouse after loads of use, you can visibly tell if it's junk that's falling apart or still going strong! If you feel icky about used hotel upholstery, you can always get it professionally steamed and still pay less than for new Amazon garbage
My husband does some woodworking on the side, making planters and stuff like that, and he gets visibly upset when i show him things on etsy sometimes. "That stepstool is just some 2 by 6 cutoffs glued together, it doesnt even have screws in it why is it listed for 75 bucks thats insane" and he'll go on a rant about bad craftsmanship. Which is sweet to me, it shows that he cares about not cutting corners and about making a good product, but try to find actual solid wood stuff on etsy, especially for kids, which isnt plywood and still costing an arm and a leg, is a rough time.
Mine too! He custom made tiny wooden houses for a board game making contest. It wasn't long after before Etsy allowed other sellers to copy and make terrible, shoddy versions of my husband's houses. It's really sad and your husband sounds just like mine. He really cares about his handmade wood work.
the persuit of ever growing profits. When the market cant grow anymore, the only way to keep growing profits (which is the definition of success in a capitalist society) is to reduce manufactering, managing, services, etc cost to keep line going up.
My cousin in Chile is a carpenter and dows this amazing furniture pieces in real wood and people won't but from him because they compared the price to playwood. It's soul crushing.
This reminds me of a semi-viral tweet I saw some time last year but couldn't find again, something along the lines of "You can either buy a table for $8,000 that was made from a tree that was given a tender hug every day, or you could buy a $40 table that is made out of spit and wood chips"
right? my family has had the same couches for many years and we want new ones but all of the ones being sold now are so bland and not cozy at all. just weirdly shaped and hard.
The guy at the very end is lovingly named Mattress Mack-he’s a Houston-area furniture store owner and he still makes those commercials. Houstonians treat him like he’s royalty lol
Couches are just insane today. You really need to spend $7000 and up for a quality 2-3 seat couch. I spent $13,000 for my American Leather custom couch, and that was with my designer discount... But the quality is bar none, and it'll last me the next 30 or 40 years. I've invested over $40,000 in furnishing our 700 sqrft apartment, but I hopefully will never buy furniture again, just refinishing and reupholstering. You have to look at furniture like buying a house. Yes, you will have to spend some money on it down the road for upkeep, but your locking in the cost at today's prices. Cheap furniture can't really be reworked/isn't worth it, and you be will paying 40% more than you paid today to replace it in 5 to 10 years. In the long term, you will pay way more than buying quality.
estate sales are the best place to get good furniture. I know people get worried buying stuff from people who’ve passed. But this is furniture which has lasted a lifetime and the family doesn’t know what to do with.
I wanted to do this while searching for a bookshelf for my new place. H/e the size difference in estate sale furniture can be comical w the size of city apartments. Me and my spouse live in a much bigger space now but banking on an estate sale in our area for the right size furniture/look was unlikely and unfavorable w all the uncertain factors. The stars just didn't align 😩 I may end up looking for a lamp this way though 😄
I refinish furniture for my home and I’m always so disappointed at the amount of pressed wood in furniture. It feels almost impossible to find solid wood anything
I lucked into a solid maple desk from the '50s on Craigslist a few years ago...for $40. I'm keeping that shit forever. I also am the only person my age that I know of who upcycles furniture...like my childhood desk, which used to be my mom's, is now my kitchen island cart (I made a top with oak and poplar scraps). Point being, developing an eye for quality pieces that can be continually upcycled and reused at different stages of life is a skill that lots of younger folks don't develop because most public schools don't offer shop classes or home economics anymore. How can you identify quality if you're not even touching the things you're purchasing before you buy them, especially if you don't have any experience doing so? Yknow?
Yes! So true! Even in stores though, like Target, it can be hard to tell when something is prone to breaking. I got a bookshelf from them and when I disassembled it for storage, one of the "wood" shelfs split apart at the screw hole. I ended up throwing it out because it would have been hard to repair and I disassembled it because I didn't have room for it in my apartment. It was sad, but it probably would have just had more issues, and maybe someone rescued it from besides the dumpster, I kept all the hardware in a plastic bag tied to it, who knows. But yeah, no more "wood" furniture from Target for me.
plus, even if these companies say they replant trees, old wood forests' wood quality is completely different from new growth wood. we need to replant trees, but we also need to leave them alone longer. a lot of radical changes need to be done for a better world. we have the answers, but the few millionaires & billionaires that keep us caged in of course don't want to change things as long as they can keep getting a quick buck off working us to literal death...
My fiancé and I are remodeling and adding on to my house. Part of that was cutting the 1 huge bathroom into two bathrooms, which meant buying 2 new vanities. We were shocked and astounded by the price of vanities that were obviously MDF and not even that good quality. The hard part was there just aren’t any places to go look at the options. Stores just don’t carry them in stock anymore. We decided to take a chance and buy 2 from target online that were a bit fancier in terms of storage. Well, when we got them, they were a mess - joints not lining up, line details just stopping an inch from the edge, etc. Plus it smelled sooooo bad. When I looked for a customer support number, there was literally nothing. No company name, no phone number, just the instructions on how to put it together. The contractor was baffled. Fast forward 2 days - we decided to try a building supply overstock warehouse nearby. We found a solid wood, gorgeous (albeit simple) vanity and sink top for the same price as the “fancier” (garbage) one from target. I don’t know what the solution is, but all I can say is try to stay local!
Antique furnitureis often really heavy and difficult to move which means you can often get it for cheaper than you think. People often get scared away by the word antique thinking it will be expensive but I've got some really nice bigger pieces for $100-200. Dont go to dealers, instead try looking up your local auction house, antique shows, or estate sales. I you're in Vancouver try Love's auctioneers or Able auction's film set auctions.
This isn't about just this specific video, but I love how much effort you put into background and relevant research. It's so refreshing for a big channel like yours constantly quoting articles, essays, interviews, etc, that not only makes your arguments more convincing, but also more coherent. So many video essayists ramble on about a topic (no hate, as I have and still watch plenty of those), but your videos truly come across as, well, a carefully structured essay. Keep up the awesome work :)
It's not just the quality of furniture that dipped, but the level of craftsmanship as well. In the Philippines, many products used to be well-made with BETTER materials suitable to the tropical climate (Terracotta, Rattan, Buri, Bamboo, Piña, etc.). But since industrialization and commercialization came into the mix, so many of these local businesses died, without the skill being passed down either. Thankfully, there are a few who try to maintain these tradtional practices but not at the same levels as their predecessors sadly...
I love buying vintage furniture. One of my rules is no particle board. I find it lasts longer and i can always sand and restain if needed. Im glad you're addressing this topic on disposable furniture(fast furniture?)
I noticed in this video that made in China = low quality/cheaply made, but as someone who has spent time in China there are factories that can and do make high quality clothes and furniture. It just doesnt seem like a lot a lot of the higher quality items make it into the US
Yeah, factories anywhere can make good quality items. The thing is that drop-shippers are never competing on quality or brand, they're competing on flooding the space with the cheapest shit that just barely scrapes by without too many credit card chargebacks or claims of outright fraud.
Yeah, China has some of the most advanced manufacturing in the world (and obvious a huge cultural history of craft), it's just that the people reselling the furniture opt for "as cheap as possible" so they can max their profits. Plus the fact they're selling low quality stuff (and people basically accept it as a fact of life) means they can keep selling more of it when it inevitably needs replacing. It's pretty common to lay the blame on other countries producing what our companies want, instead of blaming the companies for going down that route in the first place - that's capitalism! etc
@@cactustactics As far as the long history of craft in China, well the majority of those industries were destroyed during the cultural revolution. Some survived but very minimal. This is also sad. But you are right that sellers here wanted cheap products and many times kept the higher prices.
@@JB-pd3ir that goes for every industrialising country though, artisanal work gets largely replaced by mass production. But those traditional skills and approaches still exist, especially where countries make an effort to preserve and support them. I see far more of that in China than in western countries tbh But my point was really that China produces stuff at all price points and levels of quality to meet demand, if people are seeing low-quality stuff, it's usually a case of you get what you pay for. Or often you get what someone else paid for, and then you paid that middleman a whole lot more on top, and you feel ripped off because you have been! Not by China tho
Yeah they tend to gatekeep higher quality items for domestic customers lol. For example, I saw the same tote bag listing on Amazon, AliExpress and Taobao but looking at the reviews, only Taobao sends you the same bag as the listing photos while the ones sold on Amazon and AliExpress has a plastic interior pocket instead of a fabric one like in the pics. I also found more variety in designs and quality in like phone cases and clothes on Taobao too
I first noticed this a couple of years ago when looking for furniture. The same items were all over the place with a different name. I then watched a video where a RUclipsr was researching a sideboard they found available from multiple sellers at different prices. It's made me hate buying things because it's become very hard to judge the quality of anything. I think buying older furniture is the way to go but it does make it more of a challenge. I have also recently listened to someone talking about design in an unrelated field but one thing they said is relevant to this too. Basically since design became computer based the quality of products has often radically declined as it's really easy for for businesses to predict the minimum material they can get away with. I think that's one of the reason we've got furniture these days that's basically cardboard. Older products had to do the job in a world when you couldn't predict so accurately so it actually had to be decent quality based on traditional methods of doing things and the knowledge of crafts people.
As an engineer, yeah. Once a product is functional and selling everything becomes about shaving off cost. Can we get away with less material? Cheaper material? Cheaper build processes? Keep doing that until the product barely functions and customers are getting pissed off. Cars, houses, appliances, clothing, furniture, airplanes, everything is just barely working now.
When I needed to buy a bookcase several years ago, I hemmed and hawed because I was afraid of spending a ton of money on a dud. So many bookcases aren't built to actually hold books, which can be really heavy, and I needed one that could hold 400+ volumes of manga. Pretty much all of the bookcases I could find in my $300-$400 budget were from Wayfair, and I wasn't sure about the quality. But my procrastination paid off: I ended up buying a wood bookcase that was a fixture for sale at a closing department store for $26.
So about 2 years ago, I thrifted this gorgeous green, damask printed, wing back chair and me and my husband knew we needed to get a couch to compliment it. We actually threw down the money for a blue leather tufted couch and went through all the research you outlined here. Especially about the leather. To get the color, we needed to special order it and had to wait like 5 months for it to be built and delivered. But when we sat down on the show room example, I meant to say "yeah I can see myself sitting on this" and ended up saying "yeah I can see myself falling asleep on this." XD Which is how I knew that was the one. It is, to date, our favorite piece of furniture. Its so comfy, its where guests beeline to when they visit, and pairs with the chair beautifully. Its funny bc we threw down a substantial amount of money for this couch to go with a chair I found for $20. But it was worth it. And yes I do fall asleep on it regularly.
I'm 50 and still using the hand me down bedroom furniture I used as a kid. My husband has a few family pieces too. Nothing fancy, it all just lasted. Sometimes I want to get new stuff for aesthetic reasons, but everything in the showroom is expensive garbage, so I just never upgraded!
I would say about 90 percent of what we have in our townhouse is family hand me downs and hand made tables…plus one I got free from work. I did buy one mid century desk from EBay because it had screw on legs.
I sell handmade punch needle rugs, home decor, and clothing. The allure of possibly getting discovered on Etsy is SO tempting, but the strong likelihood of someone stealing my work ultimately turns me away. It's a challenge to know what's actually handmade and what's dropshipped, even at many in-person markets. It's why I choose to only sell off my website and well-known juried shows & markets. I can at least control my own site and juried shows filter out dropshippers, bad quality work, etc.
On my site! (it's just my name, unfortunately I can't add it directly here because it gets auto-removed) :) I also want to add that if anyone is looking for high-quality furniture and decor, consider Amish/Mennonite shops or registered Craft Councils. I'm Canadian, and a member of my province's craft council. You can find all sorts of talented artisans in craft councils who use quality materials, take pride in their work, and make really unique stuff. It's also great for supporting local industry!
A big issue I’ve found with furniture and appliance reviews as that people only tend to write them right after they got the product! Especially because companies will send a reminder to write a review a few days after you receive the product. Over time, you forget where things even came from and begin not to care anymore so there’s few reviews that are a year or more on. This makes it impossible to tell whether the product is actually durable, or whether it just looks good out of the box. I would imagine people also tend to justify spending money more when they’ve just received the product (as the dent in their wallet is new) vs a few years on when it’s falling apart, they’ve made the money back and probably have their eyes on a replacement. Reviews are great for temporary experiences or perishable products such as restaurants, museums, movies, books, food, services (eg. Uber, moving companies), makeup, skincare. Here, the entire experience or product is notably finite and so you can generally review the entirety of it right after or a few months after. But for things that are expected to last “a lifetime” such as clothing, furniture, appliances, reviews fail to provide insight on their durability over time. This makes it so hard to know what to buy new. I think that’s why buying vintage or secondhand from FB marketplace and other stores can be a “safer” bet - if something’s lasted that long already, it’s likely it will keep its longevity for some time. You also get the advantage of asking the previous owner how it’s held up.
I'm in my second Semester studying product design in Germany and i wish i could beam this video straight into my proffs heads. there's such a lack of acknowledgement in uni about the enshittification of products, all my profs just take shit quality amazon and dropshipper products as this slight annoyance while they focus on high end designers as positive examples. Which is so frustrating for me bc i wanna make stuff that people can afford that isnt shit, and all i'm shown is the choice of : it's incredibly expensive or it's incredibly shit. We need the third option. We need AFFORDABLE prices and REASONABLE quality, this middle ground that's being completely eroded while both bad and good quality products are getting more and more expensive without improvement to quality or real sustainability!
GOD, I feel you. I'm finishing my first semester of Industrial Design here in Argentina and they're showing us examples of high-end design so far. I guess they're just trying to show us good design first but idk, realistically we all just want to do good products at the end of the day. Tho to be fair, first year in this uni is experimenting with a lot of other art disciplines and different mediums. Next year I'll start seeing more stuff related to industrial/clothing design. I would love to know how is your design university!
The problem is complex, but it can be summed up by a few words: Late stage capitalism. The cost of life to income gets worse and worse every year. Wages never keep up, so we have less purchasing power. We want the same ability to buy things that our parents had, so we turn to cheaper furniture because quality means you can afford 1 couch and no dining room table, chairs, desk, bedframe, ect. Cheap means you can afford it all. It's the cost of raw materials, the cost of transportation, the cost of labor, and the cost of land to build factories on and the cost to actually build the factory that have all gone through the roof. Some furniture is just absurdly overpriced, but overall, there isn't a market for middle ground, because it still means being able to afford half of the furniture you need, instead of everything when you buy cheap. The problem is, no one looks at purchases as long term costs, just up front. I've spent over $40,000 furnishing a 700 qr ft apartment, but everything is high quality, real woods, and with care, will last me the next 30 or 40 years with refinishing and reupholstering.
I had a similar issue studying interior design in Australia. We never really discussed the quality of products, and we were basically forced to use only high end products in our designs. What they considered to be low budget suppliers were still mostly well out of my price range as a consumer. I found it really frustrating that no one was interested in creating accessible interior design for the average person. You certainly can't make the same amount of money, but at least you can make a bigger impact on the world.
Sustainability is no longer a required category. Used to be that quality furniture was inherited, or at least sold off when the first owners were done with it. That's over. A few years ago I helped moving a friend's gran out of her appartment into a retirement home. My heart was bleeding when we demolished the bedroom, a really beautiful arrangement of laquered dressers, bedframe and nightstands, nothing broken or bent, minimal signs of usage. But they had tried and couldn't get anyone to take it away for free, so to the dumpster it went...
A year ago in an attempt to get that millennial green velvet couch I fell in a rabbit hole of identical couches. I even made a spreadsheet considering the cost, materials and customer reviews. And here I am still sitting on the 90’s futon couch I bought for $70 from friend of a friend that was moving. It has solid wood frame, never wobbles, fits in my living room and unfolds into guest bed. I’m thinking about making new mattress cover for it.
I think another big part of the enshittification of furniture is how often people move. 50 years ago most people moved less than 5 times in their lifetime. My grandparents haven't moved since the 1970's. Now with more and more people unable to buy a home, most people rent, and therefore move more often, and don't want to move heavy furniture. It's easier to move cheaper furniture, and you always have the option of just throwing it away and buying new.
I found a great American-made couch company called Home Reserve. It's completely modular so you have to put it together yourself, but it is very sturdy and made with higher quality material. And their customer service is excellent and they're real people you can call. It took years for me to find them. I love our couch.
Honestly moving to rural New Zealand has been weirdly nice because most Amazon stuff doesn't ship here so I'm forced to just buy whatever option the stores in town are selling. Like looking for a sleep mask on Amazon you get 10000s of results when its kinda nice to just go to the store and buy the sleep mask they're selling.
My desk is a traditional Austrian peasant table from 1814 (the date is carved into the table as is custom) and this thing is indestructible. Compared to my Ikea Billy book shelves which survived my last move, but probably would not survive any other move in the future 😭
My friend has just moved and they spend quite a lot of money on the house so the budget for furniture was significantly smaller then they had hoped for. I told them, “Lets go to a thrift store” they declined saying “they dont have the kind of big furniture I’m looking for” to which i replied “bet” so i took them to a large second hand store in my area that has KILLER prices on furniture that is also really good quality. There was this huuuuge dresser, like 3 meters wide with three matching mirrors that went for 80 euro’s, unfortunatly that was such a good deal it was snatched up right out from under our noses, which fair it was a really good deal. When my little sis is moving I’m taking her there too. You buy a good bed and a good vacuumcleaner, but everything else, if you put in enough effort, you can find a great second hand store near you that sells great furniture for wayyyy less then you expect
I find that watching furniture restoration videos really has given me a good eye for what to look for in quality secondhand furniture in thrift stores, on facebook marketplace, etc!! It’s also a fun way to spend time if you ever want to learn the tools to restore your own furniture~
I professionally recover old sofas. Just today I finished a sofa completly out of styrofoam and a thin layer of actual upholtery-foam. A big problem in upholstery is, that you can´t tell what exactly is in there!! (The sofa looks very nice now, and is comfortable too )
am I the only one noticing that there's so many small label fashion people married to carpenters? it seems to be such a classic couple, especially on instagram. but maybe I just notice that in the wish for a carpenter to build my ideal furniture lol
You'd want a woodworker or furniture maker, not strictly a arpenter; carpentry = building structures. Different scale and parameters. Though the reason is probably that carpentry is a job that can pay well and have steady work, which can supplement the ups & downs of being a small label. The steady income gives more leeway to experiment and not succeed on a particular design.
furniture shopping these days is an absolute nightmare! my poor parents had to return a sofa they purchased because the velvet fabric, poorly stapled in the back, was already falling off as the delivery guys were assembling it. such a disaster.
We had that happen with a chair. By the time it was in the house the fabric had ripped off. We returned it and bought something from the 1970s instead.
I picked a dining table from my grandparents house after they where gone. I moved it around europe, now I am moving again cross countries into a space where there is no room for it. For now it is with a trusted friend but I will pick it up one day and live with it again. I hosted my favourite evenings in a foreign country with it as the center, my dad ate from it when he was younger than I am now, my great grand father made it himself almost 100 years ago. This is the only piece of furniture that I "own", everything else are just objects for resting, working or storing.
This came just in time!! Currently I am looking for multiple furniture pieces and this is all a conundrum. When I was a kid it seemed like my parents got great long lasting furniture but now I’m worried that we will buy a couch set and get scammed out of thousands of dollars for something that is cheap and will only last a few years. I even was looking at a cardboard grid bed frame because I’m that disillusioned by the furniture industry. If I buy something I might as well make sure I can recycle it.
Why not get a simple metal frame and keep an eye out for something on FB. Where I live I regularly see queen bedframes/headboards being given away. Last time I bought one at Costco it was 20 dollars which was decade ago so maybe 60 now but at least it'll serve until you find something you love. Plus if you are looking at apartment living it's easier to move. You could even create your own headboard to add style to your room.
Thrift store manager here🙋🏻♀️ I can’t speak to chains like Goodwill or Value Village, but at your local charity shop there is a high chance that employees will keep an eye out for specific furniture pieces for you, especially if you come in often and give them a $ amount you are willing to spend. We don’t usually have massive buildings like the corporate stores do, and therefore often don’t have a huge volume of furniture pieces at once, but our favorite thing is helping someone find their perfect piece. (I even have a few customers who always buy specific types of items when they’re in, and I’ll set aside those items in the back until next time I see them💕)
Little tiny wood dresser will cost you 129 - 149 USD plus tax. At the cheapest furniture store like Big Lots. I recently sold my vintage nightstands on Facebook marketplace. They went so quick. People are desperate to find real wood items for reasonable prices. I sold them because I will be moving and where I live it's basically a bunch of apartment complexes where you might end up on the 3rd floor. I ended up downgrading to plastic dressers which are very lightweight and easy to carry up three flights of stairs during moving.
i moved from midtown manhattan to miami almost a year ago and being surrounded by this many trees has been * amazing * for my mental health. i’ll always love nyc but the move was great for me (and my toddler child who now has a yard to run around). i can’t wait to see where you end up moving!
I have so many trees and gardens at my home in queens in NYC. Huge yard. I think New Yorkers forget how much better the quality of life is if you’re just willing to commute a bit to manhattan when you need to. Just live in the suburban areas of the boroughs.
@@nataliaalfonso2662 we lived in astoria before moving to midtown. i’ve lived in 3/5 boroughs in new york. there are trees in queens yes, but it doesn’t compare to nature outside of new york. living in nyc and living outside of nyc are both great options, it isn’t a competition 😊
@@graceascurra astoria……… IS URBAN LMFAO. I didn’t say anything is a competition. It’s just I lived in Miami too, and grew up spending half my years in Miami and half in NYC. Obviously…. There are way more trees in NYC, when you’re in the SUBURBS. Not the inner city urban areas of the boroughs; THE SUBURBS. Like bayside? FOREST hills? (hence the name forest) little neck douglaston….. prospect park, riverside….. Like the areas with so many trees and flowers there are literal botanical gardens and stuff.
@@graceascurra do you understand that astoria was literally known as “crackstoria” when I was growing up? It an URBAN area. Suburbs babe. Suburbs. We’re in a very literal…. Deciduous coastal rainforest. So everything I said about people literally totally ignoring the possibility of living actually completely in nature within NYC stands. I had one tree and a bunch of gardenia shrubs in Miami. I have sooo many trees, an a tire pollinator garden, food garden, blueberry shrubs, so many rose bushes, peonies, hydrangeas azaleas…. So many huge fat rhododendrons… Several oaks… this is all just on or right around my house in queens. You can’t compare the nature of a deciduous four seasonal northeast forest biosphere with subtropical swamp. And to be clear: neither of us has even mentioned the “borough of parks.” The most forested area of NYC. Staten Island. Bc why would we lol? But there covered in trees too. A freaking hundred year old oak fell on my house 3 years ago. And there are 4 more all around. And those are just the city trees. Not any of the ones on my property.
aside from buying vintage, one thing i do a lot when looking for furniture/home items is looking around at stuff from closing or remodeled businesses. commercial use stuff is generally made to be ultra durable and you can often find it extremely discounted or free. like if looking for a dining table/seating, check around for restaurant booths... if you need to furnish a home office, get things like desks, file cabinets, office chairs and shelving units made by industrial brands like hon and steelcase from defunct office buildings. retail displays like pegboard, grid or slat walls, and spinner racks can be amazing for organizing your craft room garage or office and it's often just tossed out back during remodels. never buy the flimsy clothing racks they sell at home goods stores, get the good z racks that the stores actually use themselves. chairs and seating from salons, offices or waiting rooms are made better and sometimes super cute! i particularly look for stuff that's primarily steel in construction, it's surprisingly easy to restore or refinish. it also helps to think outside the box a little in repurposing that kind of stuff, like a mobile medical cabinet could be a kitchen/microwave cart, craft table/tool bench... industrial steel lockers with shelves would be great as a storage unit for clothes, towels and bedding, extra pantry space etc i myself got some cool unique outdoor furniture for free from a closed down froyo shop, and my giant sectional sofa is from a hotel lobby and still holding up great years later
I'm a perfumer and it's so frustrating to see in this industry an increase in mass production/dupe style perfumes (not that mass production hasn't always been prevalent but it feels like it's gotten worse? idk). I've gotten comments about my prices from people complaining I don't price like dossier and it's like yeah.. because I make everything by hand and use my own funds to source all my supplies and materials like. I hate feeling like I'm expected to compete with things made in a factory for two dollars by people who are being severely underpaid.
We're a family business who still make high-quality custom solid wood furniture! 😅 Haha sorry Mina! I watch your content religiously and I was going through our analytics on here and this came up as suggested and I thought it was a funny coincidence since I always watch you in my free time, great video as always!
I really appreciate you mentioning how much easier it is to thrift things when you live in an area with big box secondhand stores and have access to a car. I would love to buy secondhand more often, but the reality is where I live (not the US) secondhand stores are small with very limited selections that often don’t meet my needs. I don’t have access to a car (nor the funds to rent one) so my options for searching far and wide for items or even transporting larger items are pretty limited. Instead, I try to just buy fewer things overall. Suburban America so often gets treated as the norm that I think it’s important to recognise that the situation isn’t the same everywhere
When I was in highschool my mom picked me up one day and told me she had a surprise. We went to an old office that was closing down and desperate to get rid of their old furniture. We got a solid walnut credenza straight out of the mid-century for FREE! Even though I obviously didn't have room for a credenza in my bedroom or eventual dorm she kept it in the garage for me until I was ready. I did in fact pay thousands of dollars to have it shipped and stored from Montana to NYC but it is a beautiful media table and literally my favorite thing I own. It was a bitch and a half to get to my walkup but I plan on owning it for the rest of my life :)
one product being sold by a dozen companies for different prices happens in the food industry as well. i work in a manufacturing company and we'll do 2 8-hour shifts of packing a single product, but every few hours, we pause to change the labels. when people want to boycott one of our brands, they're just buying one of our others. we have an absolute monopoly on some of our products with literally zero outside competitors, but people think they have a choice about where their money is going.
My husband and I bought a new house, and I told him when we moved in, I want to get rid of all crappy Amazon/Ikea/Target/Walmart things. I would rather go without vs buying something shitty and cheap because I need it now! What I’ve been doing for the last 3 months is stalking thrift stores and finding good quality wood furniture. If it’s scuffed up, or missing something, I can just sand it, refinish it etc. I like the natural light wood look anyway so this has been working out nice. For quality cookware I’ve been going to Home Goods, Marshall’s, TJ Max and buying quality All Clad brand pots and pans per piece vs buying the whole set. It’s going to take me forever to find the full set, but it’s cheaper and worth it this way! It’s better to buy a few quality pieces when you can afford it, vs buying a shitty Walmart cookware set for $20, that has a bunch of add on things you’ll never use/will only last you a fews before it starts to break or look horrible. Also kinda fun to hunt for these very specific pieces amongst all their other products lol.
Im only at the beginning of the video but I had to take a moment to wish you seamless and happy moving out ! I've done the exact same thing when I've been tired of living in a big city for eight years, the rhythm, the prices, the lifestyle, everything worn me out ! I knew I had to move to a smaller, greener city and I've never looked back since. Every time I go back to the big city now I realize how much anxiety inducing it is in the long run and how long I kept that up ! But when you're inside of it, you don't really realize it until you get a wake up call. I wish you a lot of success and I wish you a slower, greener life, everyone deserves it !
from NC, parents worked as furniture salesmen for companies like century at warehouses and such. i now work as an intern at a furniture company in NC and the process has changed a lot. most people don’t know but central to western NC used to be “the furniture capital” until the mid 2000s. crazy to see something so close to home mentioned!
Want decent furniture for cheaper than the new garbage sold online or in stores? Go to estate sales, antique stores, flea markets, garage sales, auctions, charity shops etc. You can get better deals if you go to smaller areas outside major metropolitan areas.
I would love to hear her talk about how department stores like Dillards get their brands. I've been doing a lot of formalwear thrifting and one of the many rabbit holes here is how many different brands of Ralph Lauren there is now
Yard sales or the curb/gutter are the best places for furniture! Growing up my family only ever got furniture this way and it allowed us to have way better quality stuff than we ever could have afforded. My friend recently moved and she has furnished her whole house for maybe $300 total. She found an amazing dining table with 2 extra leaves for and a beautiful hand crafted dresser for free at the same house, both solid wood. Got an antique handcrafted chair for $25 and a pottery barn couch in perfect condition free. Find the rich neighborhoods in your city and drive around Saturday mornings with friends and finish up with the best and cheapest lunch you’ll ever get from the ladies selling tamales out of their house during their yard sale.
I think what also enables this kind of market is how people live now at the hands of the economy. Now more than ever people don't live in the same place for very long, and investing in furniture that you want to bring with you every time is outside of most people's price point at this day and age. There have been multiple times where rebuying the entire home in my friend's experiences has cost infinitely less than bringing any of the furniture that they've ever bought in their entire lives. Especially when they can't afford to buy a home because prices keep shooting up, and then their apartment leases or home rentals keep maximizing the annual 10% increase in California.
the way a lot of companies sometimes will intentionally make their products cheaply and poorly so the customers can continuously buy products reminds me of the lightbulb story. in this one firehouse, they got a lightbulb that never burns out-and still works and is on to this day-and while the company who made the lightbulb did get a lot of money from that, it wasn’t consistent. so the company decided to make the lightbulb cheaper so it would burn out quicker which would convince the customers to buy more products. and that was YEARS ago, and sadly, that is how most furniture companies still operate today
Often, low quality products are more about saving money than intentionally building a cheaper product. The lightbulb story is incredibly misleading, on multiple counts. No, the lightbulb standards were not designed to force customers to constantly buy new lightbulbs. Yes, there is a firehouse with the oldest lightbulb. No, that lightbulb is not magic. It will eventually burn out, just like every other lightbulb. The laws of physics haven't changed. The reason that lightbulb has lasted for over a hundred years is because of two factors. First, it literally never turns off, because turning lights on and off will shorten their lifespan. Second, the lightbulb is very dim, about as bright as a dim candle, because brighter lightbulbs have shorter lifespans. Lightbulbs can still be manufactured to last for an incredibly long time, but the things that make a lightbulb last for an incredibly long time are also the things that make for a very crappy lightbulb. The final factor in the lightbulb discussion is that it wasn't a single company. It was a group of companies, a cartel. Their worst offense wasn't setting limits on lightbulbs, which increased their brightness. The worst problem was that they also directly conspired to raise prices. The companies of the Phoebus Cartel intentionally manipulated markets for their own profit. The best thing you can do to prevent that sort of market manipulation is to avoid these types of dropshippers, and to buy things from local businesses, rather than large corporate enterprises designed to maximize profit by charging you as much money as they can get away with. Unfortunately, things like the Oil cartels are manipulating markets at a level that most consumers can't do anything to fix.
Where I live I can’t spend a week without seeing a disassembled billy bookshelf next to a trash bin or directly onto the sidewalk. And most of the time it’s fine or just need tiny repairs, yet people prefer to throw it away and I just don’t get it. I hope the issue of “fast furniture” gets talked about more in the future because just like clothes, they should last at least half a lifetime and not just a few years
OK I have a funny story about the furniture tidbits about midcentury modern? I went to the art museum and they had a whole floor exhibit with chairs through the ages and it was amazing and so fun to read about the pieces. They had a few rooms set up, Ikea style, and it was fun to learn about the inspiration for the designers, like the new technologies at the time like radio, the influence of the shape of steamboats, etc. And then, just a lone folding chair, upside down, and it was pretty recent. I went to this exhibit a week after the Alabama Brawl where the guy retaliated swinging the folding chair. I could not resist sending it to my friend like #neverforget. It was everything that weekend lol.
Weird fact. A couple of months ago I was high watching a movie from the 80s. I noticed years ago people often had furniture in their home from decades past. This began to change in the 90s and you see it in film where people have the most current styles in their homes regardless of their class. I realized it was all because of increased trade with China back in the 90s. It has been ongoing ever since. Just fascinating how that trade agreement changed so much in our society. It's just constant crap though.
The most bang for your buck will always be buying used. Estate sales are the best, but fb marketplace will help you find some real gems too! Floyd Detroit is a great middle range furniture maker as well.
Hi, loved the video! Another option for sustainable furniture is to make friends with a woodworker! I work in a woodshop and the amount of people using the space to repair/make furniture is so common. I think also learning to make furniture yourself, even chairs or tables, is an extremely valued skill, especially in this economy. Look for wood secondhand too! Sincerely, an industrial designer
So I don't live in a huge city like New York, and I have had some really good look in the past at consignment shops and thrift stores, but the place I HIGHLY recommend looking into is actually Habitat for Humanity's ReStore - not only do they have a LOT of furniture (at least the one I've gone to), but they'll also frequently have fixtures and furniture hardware. We found a fantastic wooden (yes the bf knows how to check these things) end table that's got a locking filing cabinet drawer, and I believe it was less than thirty dollars. Also, thanks so much for breaking down how to tell a couch is decent quality! I am hoping to put our current couch out to pasture when we move, and we'll be wanting to find a good replacement.
Local furniture shops are the BEST if you are buying new. When we moved into our new house, I bought a dresser from the local small business furniture store. It was more expensive but it is real wood and is really good quality. I also got our dining table set from another local store; again, solid wood that is going to last forever. Worth every penny to me.
Lol I have a story for almost everything I own. The majority of my furnite is from a woman that passed away. My grandma used to work as a cleaning lady in her home and when the woman passed away, she inherited almost all of her beautiful furniture to my grandma. I got to keep a lot of it and I'm so happy, because its massive wood and fits my style perfectly. The rest I collected over time. From a second hand warehouse or even off the side of the street or it just kinda fell into my lap. It feels like having a collection of unique things, rather than soulless corporate stuff. I would be devastated if I had to start over, whenever I need something and go to a store I end up just not buying anything because everything looks cheap and samey...
Being from Nebraska, all my furniture was from Nebraska Furniture Mart. Place was great. I ran into your problems when I moved to another state and realized other places don't have a magical furniture store that has all your desires in one place.
Nebraska Furniture Mart is a magical place!!! My brother and I live out of state, but have contemplated buying enough furniture from there to fill our houses and then just hiring a moving truck to delivery it to our states.
TY, Mina! Paige Wassel, Caroline Winkler, Nick Lewis, Noah Daniel - other amazing RUclipsrs whom I wholeheartedly recommend to anyone interested in figuring out quality furniture and design in general.
Thrift store, garage sale, or good old curb. This is the BEST way to find affordable solid wood furniture. Also vintage furniture will off gas any VOCs. I think I've spent less than $500 on all of thr furniture in my apartment, most of it was free, there are few hand me downs but most was from people moving or discarding it. And most of the cost of furniture was for my Target end tables, Ikea kitchen table and Ikea adjustable desk. And it's not cheap furniture either: Ethan Allen couch, vintage credenza, tufted oversized headboard, and Ashley dresser. Like she says in the video, people hate moving furniture!. For fabric furniture that isn't coming from a thrift store that sanitizes it or has an unknown origin (such as besides the dumpster), my advice would be that if it looks clean, spray it down with lysol and whatever else would make you feel comfortable and let it sit outside in a covered area where it won't get wet for one week.
Stuck in bed from Knee surgery rn and im so bored. Seeing that u posted has actully been the highlight for my day like finally smth to keep me actully entertained and not just distracted 🙏🩷🩷🩷
I have a 1950s rental flat with site-built kitchen and wardrobe interior and it's Amazing. Like, it looked really shabby when I moved in, but just by some cleaning and repainting it looks really good! It's dense, high quality wood and under all those layers of 60 years worth of paint jobs it still looks nice. It's funny to think that this was designed to be cheap and mass-produced with the same cookie-cutter design in all of the kitchens in the entire neighbourhood, but it ended up being better quality than a lot of modern kitchens. Sure the countertops are a bit low and it was not designed for multiple home appliances, but it still works! Currently I live in another country in a 90s house, and I really miss it.
I think about this all the time when looking at new built housing listings and all the pantry closets and clothes closets have the same white wire shelves that look cheap as hell and you can’t do anything to make them look nicer but replace them.
I’m moving abroad into my first apartment in 3 months. Up until this point I’ve only lived with my parents in my childhood home, and with all the hassle that is college and emigration this was nice to watch as a “start here” to decorate my apartment.
We have lived in our house for 5 years. We have currently have like four pieces of house stuff that we will never get rid of, 2 thrifted that we could never get new, a dining table that probably is 100 pounds of solid wood, and a vintage hanging swing lamp. 2 of our pieces we had made for us with all wood from people who made it there hobby during Covid. Amazing.
I had to chuckle at the drooping couch comment at the end; I was looking for a sofa for like 6 months bc of the points mentioned in your video(they're mostly all crap and expensive) and ended up buying a 60s leather sofa from a friends dad, who's an antique shop owner. I was so done looking for an affordable sofa that I just decided to buy it without even trying it first. It cost me 200€ and it's saggy as hell lol. BUT, the frame is made of wood and the filling is not foam, so I'm just gonna take the cushions to the upholsterer down the street when I have the money. For now it will do. I live in Finland and there's this company called Hakola, they make wonderful sofas locally and considering they make them all here and from quality materials, they are remarkably affordable. I'm hoping to one day be able to afford their Jumbo3 sofa. Having watched this video, I'm starting to be inclined to have furniture made by a carpenter instead of buying new (like shelving systems for example), down the line when I'll hopefully be making more money in years to come.
Pretty much every piece of furniture I buy is from Facebook Marketplace. It's my go-to unless I need something that's a very particular size. The one new piece I have is my LoveSac couch which was VERY pricey, but very worth it for me. I can replace pieces/components as needed and if I get sick of the color, I can even just reuse the base and buy new slipcovers for it. It's basically a forever couch.
I'm so thankful my mom is really into interior design and also loves vintage furniture because I get to take a lot of the things she no longer wants. I kinda despise modern furniture, I just find it all to be really boring.
dropshipping leading to the enshittification of etsy will always make me angry
They sold their soul
They used to be on such a high horse about their ethics, too. Then the money started rolling in.
right!!!! etsy is essentially useless now
@@OhGeeWillickersMister Yes they did!! I've said that from the day Etsy announced "shareholders".
I used to sell on etsy. Quit in 2020 for this exact reason. I miss what it used to be
I’m the Etsy Seller used as the example of drop shipping! I make everything by myself, with my sewing machine. I actually recently closed my shop, partly because it was too difficult to compete with drop shippers who had stolen my designs and photos. I was accused countless times of being a drop shipper (like in this video 😅). And Etsy offered no protection. When I’ve been accused by customers, who have already bought from me, Etsy would automatically refund them their order without checking to see whether I am the real maker. It’s so frustrating! The accusations didn’t stop until I included videos of me making the products in my listings but by then there were so many cheaper copies of my products. Etsy used to be an amazing place for me to sell what I made. Hopefully Etsy will put in place more barriers to drop shippers so that the actual artisans can thrive!
I hope your business and self are able to flourish soon
wish you the most success in your business!!
I'm so sorry this happened to you, I hope Mina sees your comment
As far as I can tell, the more raunchy items (like, way more raunchy) haven't been affected by dropshippers as much. What appears to be dropshipped is often just a manufacturer based out of China
I’m sorry that happened to you. Sucks that Mina hasn’t addressed this.
I wonder how much the decrease in homeownership affects furniture as well. I myself don't usually invest in nicer furniture because I'm a renter and I move so often. When there's no guarantee as to space, I feel like it incentivizes cheaper and more disposable options. Not to mention the difficulty in moving hardwood, especially into apartments with stairs
Yes! Plus people seem more likely to move around for work these days.
This is such a real thing!
This is a great point.
So true!
THIS
I'm the blogger you referenced at 31:51, and I just wanted to say thanks for referencing my post! I've been wondering why that page was getting way more views than usual this week. I worked hard to make that post as accessible and compact as possible while getting into the weeds of furniture construction, and I'm so glad it was helpful as you researched this video!
I sell handmade crochet and jewelry at local markets and let me tell you, depending on the vetting process of different events, there's plenty of drop-shipping happening irl in local "art" fairs as well (which then ppl who actually make their own shit have to compete with sweatshop pricing or turn their art or craft into their own personal sweatshop...)
exactly!!! i complain to the market organizers (mostly about pyramid schemes) and it works!!
That’s so true! It makes me sad when i see a vendor and their things are obviously dropshipped
The amt of Scentsy booths ive seen at my local art fairs is wild lol!
I find that asking the vendors about what they’re selling, who made it/how it’s made reduces the risk of buying mass produced items. This, and uniformity of the products. And price, but sometimes prices are inflated to make the item seem legit, and sometimes small artists/crafters VASTLY underestimate the value of their work (I know several that I’m constantly begging to raise their prices. One is a glass blower.)
Also sometimes makers will sell mass produced items if they’re worried that their owns won’t sell. Life as a maker is pretty tough, and I don’t blame these, as long as they’re honest about what’s theirs and what’s not.
I've noticed this! I wish handmade actually meant handmade.
My partner and I have been looking for nursery furniture for months. I'm not paying over $200 for particle board I have to put together myself. That is insane! A friend recommended a local used furniture store. It was filled, literally to the ceiling, with solid wood furniture. The owner came out and talked to us. He ended up having something perfect in storage that he had just fixed up. He texted me a picture the next day, brought it back to the store, and it only cost us $100. Solid wood, painted white. It's beautiful.
Please please please look for local places like this!! It was the opposite of any other furniture store I've been in. He didn't want to get the biggest sale. He wanted us to find the right piece at the right price. It was very refreshing.
Love this! I've tried to sell antique furniture on FB etc and no one wants it. I had an antique bed from the 1800's that wouldn't even sell for $200 that a C&B COPY of was being sold for thousands. Vintage furniture could easily be modified or refinished, too. Makes no sense that more people don't buy second hand.
@@hr3134 coming from someone who's hugely into antiques and is currently in the process of furnishing their entire room in antiques, a lot of people have weird misconceptions about it. That it's haunted, will break easily, dirty, etc. Even though 99% of the time the antiques are better made than modern items. It's so strange
jokes on me, this kind of place around me UPCHARGES
Unfortunately there are no furniture thrift shops here in Poland. At least I've never seen one.
@@lovelylacie15I would buy an antique closet, desk or a cabinet but never a couch or nothing with cushions. I'm disgusted by what it could have collected for 50 ar 100 years. Even the couches my grandparents have in their summer homes disgust me. They are probably about 50 years old and still functioning but sooo nasty looking >_< with itchy fabric. They were made during the communism
It‘s so mindbuggling because sites will have thousands of something like desk lamps but they’re essentially all the same 😭
Ikea has so many things that look the exact same
the illusion of choice
Just btw it’s boggling not buggling! But buggling is very cute haha
omg yes! i was just thinking this a few hours ago bc i was searching for a cool table lamp online. they were all bland, beige, and boring. all of them. the only cute ones were the vintage ones, and those were super expensive
@@coolchameleon21the thrift stores around me have sooo many cute lamps i have to stop myself so often so definitely check for vintage lamps there if you have ones near you
Etsy having drop-shippers is really sad. Though some can tell which "handmade" goods are really made by an individual, some will ignore actual artisans from run-of-the-mill drop-shipper items.
it also distorts what consumers think they should pay for actual handmade goods!
3 people dropped shipped stuff from Walmart that I ordered from ebay. I hate Walmart with a passion
I will purposely switch to Vintage rather than handmade and go to Vintage sellers instead
@@mwv1217 I often get things from eBay that arrive with Amazon packaging. A few do have the same name as their eBay account but it's the ones that don't which surprise me.
I suspected they ordered the item I want from eBay then use their Amazon account to get what I ordered; that's too many steps, though that's what I think happened.
It's been making me so mad; I went there for handmade items and now literally no site is safe.
My family used to be in the furniture industry- We're form Thomasville, NC and that's were Thomasville Furniture used to be made. My grandpa's parents, all 4 of is grandparents, all of his aunts and uncles, and most of his cousins designed, built, painted, sanded, delivered, or sold furniture from the 1910s until the 1980s. They were so proud to work there, and even when it shut down in 2014, my family was devastated.
I love finding antique/vintage Thomasville pieces because I know at least 1 person in my family touched it and gave it there everything. I'm proud of the quality, I know it was made well by someone who genuinely cared and did their best. I wish there were still furniture companies like how Thomasville was were still around, but they're rare now.
Where are you usually able to find Thomasville pieces?
I remember the commercials 😊
Do you know of any places that still make genuine furniture in the south east US? I've been looking for quality furniture, and I've had a horrible time trying to find anything that isn't cheap disposable garbage.
@@alexlowe2054I’m also interested, if anyone has any info
@@alexlowe2054 I know a little bit about other North Carolina furniture brands- Bernhardt Furniture is also from NC and most of their furniture is made in NC too, only a little bit is made in other countries, and Hickory Chair Furniture is super nice (I was at a furniture store a few months ago and was looking at a chair from them), and the majority of their furniture is made in NC also. They can be a bit pricy but their products are well made.
So what you're saying is that I better hold on to that heavy, solid wood dresser I bought from my friend's MIL's estate sale until the day I perish lol
literally why im still using my wooden well-made childhood dresser. its bulkier than i'd like and i would love to get something smaller but also storing it is not realistic and its too valuable to get rid of so... im "stuck" using it.
Only if you like it!
Yes only if you like it. But if you no longer like it, find it a good home with someone who will appreciate it. We can't afford to keep losing the good stuff.
It's definitely better for the environment and your wallet if you do!
Yes. I have to move in the next year and I’m horrified about what I’m going to do/how much it will cost, but I’ve spent so much time (thankfully not a ton of money thanks to FB marketplace) curating a house full of sturdy, high quality, at this point vintage furniture.
My pride and joy is my 70s blue and green floral couch. It's victorian styled and cost me $40 at Goodwill. I saw it one day and almost cried just seeing it. I'd wanted a Victorian inspired couch for my whole life. We had a couch and lived in a crappy apartment. My husband and I sat on it, thinking itwould be uncomfortable. It's the most comfortable couch I've ever had. My back problems almost disappeared once we loaded it up and brought it home. It's my baby. It's needed a few spots of mending over the years, but I'm so happy with it.
I think a big part of the reason why cheap furniture is so popular is because people rent and move so often now. More expensive furniture, made from real wood and quality materials, is harder to move. It seems like it's so hard to get any good quality stuff these days without spending an arm and a leg or only if you get lucky in a thrift shop.
Yes, that. I spent quite a bit of money on furniture, 10 years ago...thinking I would continue to live in the place I had been renting for 10 years already at that point. Then I had to move and had to sell everything. Got barely anything for good quality pieces, because there was no big designer name attached to them. I swore to myself, I would never buy new or expensive furniture again, after that. Well, unless I should ever own property, which is not particularly likely.
Been living with thrifted stuff ever since.
THAT. I've moved... 6 times in the last fifteen years, I think? Still the same work, but changing office with my new job, and I started at basic wages, so at first it was low quality-low price furniture because I couldn't afford much, then it was because I moved often AND moving heavy furniture is a pain. Also, I live alone, and any time I want to move stuff around, it's a pain, unless it's on wheels (which I'm doing more and more). Solid wood is a nice dream, but really not practical for me for now, price aside
I would LOVE to not move again, but housing prices are insane so people end up having to hope locations as they're priced out of their current housing.
Yah. I don't drive and have to move every 2 years with rent prices rising so I literally research ikea furniture by how well I think I can assemble and take apart something over and over. Their quality is very hit or miss. But I'm lucky we have a physical location in the burbs I can actually test the stuff before buying.
It's so bad. A lot of stuff that people buy when it's time to move out gets broken and thrown out. I have a lot of antique stuff from the 19th to the 20th century and I have a motto that if my stuff is on the street it's because I've been murdered
I grew up near High Point, NC which was one of the world's largest furniture markets until the 80's/90's when companies started looking for labor overseas. My dad always talks about how when the market moved overseas, it absolutely devastated the economy of local towns and pushed them into poverty. Now that area is mostly known for drugs. It's sad to see people's livelihoods taken from them.
The furniture market is still pretty big in High Point. If you're looking for quality furniture, look for NC made furniture or even search vintage items made in NC. Thomasville and High Point are both still pretty big furniture markets and it's some of the best quality you'll find.
The whole thing is just devastating and so sad.Many politicians helped make this all possible and it is just so sad.
I am taking fire science in college right now, and there is a whole extra safety risk to most modern furniture as well.
There is a recent study most fire departments use to teach personnel about flashover in structure fires. Flashover is when the fire reaches its hottest point, usually 1000F or higher. The study was to see how quickly a fire would reach flashover in a furnished living room, one living room had legacy furniture which is made 1950s and prior, and the other had modern furniture which was anything made post 1980.
What the study found was that the legacy furniture living room took about 29 minutes to reach flashover, while the modern furnished living room took 3 minutes.
That's a pretty extreme difference. It not only shows a very clear example of the reduction in quality that modern furniture has, but the potential harm to people's lives and property that come in tandem.
Just curious, does this have anything to do with the rampant use of flame retardant chemicals back then? I know they've been reduced or eliminated in recent years because they cause thyroid issues.
Wow this is fascinating, thanks for sharing.
Yes thank you for sharing. Also tipping furniture is a danger. You have to anchor stuff now whereas before people didn’t worry that opening a dresser drawer would cause the unit to come down on you.
The houses themselves burn faster as well. Old houses take a lot of work, but you are less likely to be killed in a house fire.
That is soo important! Thank you for sharing!
I recently got a couch & chair reupholstered that my grandparents bought in the early 1960s. Many people I know have been shocked that they look so great and are so comfortable, and that I would spend the money on this instead of buying new, but for me I was always sure I wanted to have these couches and I knew they were made so well and had great bones. The person who reupholstered them confirmed that the foundations were great and it was just about fixing a few pieces and replacing the springs and foam, and new fabric to cover. I was shocked though by how hard it was to find a reupholsterer to take on the project, even though I live in a major city; definitely a small industry unfortunately. I'm so glad I was able to get these pieces reupholstered though, I love that they have been in my family for generations and now have new life.
I'm reupholstering 2 couches. It's a nigthmare since the previous owner was knowing how to use an industrial nail. Héhé. My father was saying there was no value to putting new fabric on. Looking at the interior and how it's made is fabilus.
I reupholstered my dining room chairs as they were both rescues: one from my dads friends garden and one from the dump. They are great chairs! I’m going to start reupholstering another dump chair, it’s a carved armchair that is Victorian. I love it so much!
I love buying vintage furniture. Usually at estate sales, no one wants to move a giant couch, so I have bought couches for as cheap as $20.
💯💯💯
niceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
This is the real issue. As Mina said, furniture is an investment, but everyone thinks their investment is the best and should have a price to reflect that.
@ciaociara I just bought an antique Duncan Phyfe sofa for $50. The upholstery is in rough shape, but the cushions are not sagging at all and the overall structure is strong. So I lined up a professional to reupholster for $800 (includes the fabric). All in, it's still cheaper than I'd find on Houzz or some other site, and it will be something that is unique and I will love.
Once at an estate sale several years ago I bought a dining room set - table with 2 extension leaves and 6 chairs - for $60. Technically the sale was over but the people handling it were willing to get rid of it instead of having to load it into their trailer. The chairs were in a bit of a rough shape but I fixed it up a bit and I'm still using that dining set.
Pro tip: hotel liquidation warehouses. They have TONS of interesting designs that are chosen to (hopefully) stand up to many uses among a ton of guests. And because you'll be seeing it in the warehouse after loads of use, you can visibly tell if it's junk that's falling apart or still going strong! If you feel icky about used hotel upholstery, you can always get it professionally steamed and still pay less than for new Amazon garbage
My husband does some woodworking on the side, making planters and stuff like that, and he gets visibly upset when i show him things on etsy sometimes. "That stepstool is just some 2 by 6 cutoffs glued together, it doesnt even have screws in it why is it listed for 75 bucks thats insane" and he'll go on a rant about bad craftsmanship. Which is sweet to me, it shows that he cares about not cutting corners and about making a good product, but try to find actual solid wood stuff on etsy, especially for kids, which isnt plywood and still costing an arm and a leg, is a rough time.
Mine too! He custom made tiny wooden houses for a board game making contest. It wasn't long after before Etsy allowed other sellers to copy and make terrible, shoddy versions of my husband's houses. It's really sad and your husband sounds just like mine. He really cares about his handmade wood work.
Nothing wrong with solid plywood! Its what eames used.
Screws don’t necessarily mean quality. The type of wood and how much hand-crafting should be considered too.
@Magund1 It's definitively quality when compared to the alternative of glued together plywood furniture, which is the point that they are discussing.
@@Magund1 screws mean low quality. Quality wooden furniture is joined invisiby with wood joints.
The "what happened to quality?" from the thumbnail made me think how we could ask about that from almost anything nowadays
the persuit of ever growing profits. When the market cant grow anymore, the only way to keep growing profits (which is the definition of success in a capitalist society) is to reduce manufactering, managing, services, etc cost to keep line going up.
My cousin in Chile is a carpenter and dows this amazing furniture pieces in real wood and people won't but from him because they compared the price to playwood. It's soul crushing.
What’s his business name?
Link him! X
Where can we find his stuff!
Where in chile❤
Drop his website or Instagram if he has one
This reminds me of a semi-viral tweet I saw some time last year but couldn't find again, something along the lines of "You can either buy a table for $8,000 that was made from a tree that was given a tender hug every day, or you could buy a $40 table that is made out of spit and wood chips"
I despise the lack of character that furniture and decor has nowadays. It’s so dystopian
right? my family has had the same couches for many years and we want new ones but all of the ones being sold now are so bland and not cozy at all. just weirdly shaped and hard.
literally 😢
And if you go to secondhand stores it's all full of used low-quality furniture which is even worse 😢
"IKEA is the furniture communism would have invented if communism worked."
@@personzorzso we have capitalism furniture?
The guy at the very end is lovingly named Mattress Mack-he’s a Houston-area furniture store owner and he still makes those commercials. Houstonians treat him like he’s royalty lol
i’m crying i’m watching from the exact couch in the thumbnail 💀
How do you like it? I just ordered it last week 😭
@@emilygruber9421 it's pretty firm but otherwise i like it! easy to assemble too
I have the couch from Joybird in velvet and I’m very sad because I thought I did enough research to not be buying crap!
me when my bookcase shows up as the bottom tier of the case study
Couches are just insane today. You really need to spend $7000 and up for a quality 2-3 seat couch. I spent $13,000 for my American Leather custom couch, and that was with my designer discount... But the quality is bar none, and it'll last me the next 30 or 40 years. I've invested over $40,000 in furnishing our 700 sqrft apartment, but I hopefully will never buy furniture again, just refinishing and reupholstering. You have to look at furniture like buying a house. Yes, you will have to spend some money on it down the road for upkeep, but your locking in the cost at today's prices. Cheap furniture can't really be reworked/isn't worth it, and you be will paying 40% more than you paid today to replace it in 5 to 10 years. In the long term, you will pay way more than buying quality.
estate sales are the best place to get good furniture.
I know people get worried buying stuff from people who’ve passed. But this is furniture which has lasted a lifetime and the family doesn’t know what to do with.
I wanted to do this while searching for a bookshelf for my new place. H/e the size difference in estate sale furniture can be comical w the size of city apartments. Me and my spouse live in a much bigger space now but banking on an estate sale in our area for the right size furniture/look was unlikely and unfavorable w all the uncertain factors. The stars just didn't align 😩 I may end up looking for a lamp this way though 😄
I refinish furniture for my home and I’m always so disappointed at the amount of pressed wood in furniture. It feels almost impossible to find solid wood anything
forever grateful my mom held on to the hard wood cradle me and my siblings used so that i can use it with future kids instead of a plastic bassinet.
I lucked into a solid maple desk from the '50s on Craigslist a few years ago...for $40. I'm keeping that shit forever. I also am the only person my age that I know of who upcycles furniture...like my childhood desk, which used to be my mom's, is now my kitchen island cart (I made a top with oak and poplar scraps). Point being, developing an eye for quality pieces that can be continually upcycled and reused at different stages of life is a skill that lots of younger folks don't develop because most public schools don't offer shop classes or home economics anymore. How can you identify quality if you're not even touching the things you're purchasing before you buy them, especially if you don't have any experience doing so? Yknow?
Yes! So true! Even in stores though, like Target, it can be hard to tell when something is prone to breaking. I got a bookshelf from them and when I disassembled it for storage, one of the "wood" shelfs split apart at the screw hole. I ended up throwing it out because it would have been hard to repair and I disassembled it because I didn't have room for it in my apartment. It was sad, but it probably would have just had more issues, and maybe someone rescued it from besides the dumpster, I kept all the hardware in a plastic bag tied to it, who knows. But yeah, no more "wood" furniture from Target for me.
plus, even if these companies say they replant trees, old wood forests' wood quality is completely different from new growth wood. we need to replant trees, but we also need to leave them alone longer. a lot of radical changes need to be done for a better world. we have the answers, but the few millionaires & billionaires that keep us caged in of course don't want to change things as long as they can keep getting a quick buck off working us to literal death...
Totally!! 😢that’s why i almost never buy new furniture 😅, i love my real vintage bookcases ❤️📚
My fiancé and I are remodeling and adding on to my house. Part of that was cutting the 1 huge bathroom into two bathrooms, which meant buying 2 new vanities. We were shocked and astounded by the price of vanities that were obviously MDF and not even that good quality. The hard part was there just aren’t any places to go look at the options. Stores just don’t carry them in stock anymore. We decided to take a chance and buy 2 from target online that were a bit fancier in terms of storage. Well, when we got them, they were a mess - joints not lining up, line details just stopping an inch from the edge, etc. Plus it smelled sooooo bad. When I looked for a customer support number, there was literally nothing. No company name, no phone number, just the instructions on how to put it together. The contractor was baffled. Fast forward 2 days - we decided to try a building supply overstock warehouse nearby. We found a solid wood, gorgeous (albeit simple) vanity and sink top for the same price as the “fancier” (garbage) one from target. I don’t know what the solution is, but all I can say is try to stay local!
All I can do is shop around in my free-time and occasionally strike gold. I will have a cohesive living room in 500 years.
Haha that's my exact same strategy lol
Maybe a vampire bites you and you'll actually have 500 years for decorating
Antique furnitureis often really heavy and difficult to move which means you can often get it for cheaper than you think. People often get scared away by the word antique thinking it will be expensive but I've got some really nice bigger pieces for $100-200. Dont go to dealers, instead try looking up your local auction house, antique shows, or estate sales. I you're in Vancouver try Love's auctioneers or Able auction's film set auctions.
This isn't about just this specific video, but I love how much effort you put into background and relevant research. It's so refreshing for a big channel like yours constantly quoting articles, essays, interviews, etc, that not only makes your arguments more convincing, but also more coherent. So many video essayists ramble on about a topic (no hate, as I have and still watch plenty of those), but your videos truly come across as, well, a carefully structured essay. Keep up the awesome work :)
I would like to second that.
@@Gabytron Me too!! Third that!! I even reference her work in my university, college courses!!
Ppl rambling on sounds more like a commentary vid than a video essay
Fourth this! It's the reason this channel is on my top faves list.
Absolutely. It's lovely to have some real research instead of just vague opinions based on someone's personal observations.
It's not just the quality of furniture that dipped, but the level of craftsmanship as well.
In the Philippines, many products used to be well-made with BETTER materials suitable to the tropical climate (Terracotta, Rattan, Buri, Bamboo, Piña, etc.). But since industrialization and commercialization came into the mix, so many of these local businesses died, without the skill being passed down either.
Thankfully, there are a few who try to maintain these tradtional practices but not at the same levels as their predecessors sadly...
I love buying vintage furniture. One of my rules is no particle board. I find it lasts longer and i can always sand and restain if needed. Im glad you're addressing this topic on disposable furniture(fast furniture?)
Particle board makes me so angry. I spend 400$ on a credenza. It got here, and it turned out to be all particleboard. 🫠
I noticed in this video that made in China = low quality/cheaply made, but as someone who has spent time in China there are factories that can and do make high quality clothes and furniture. It just doesnt seem like a lot a lot of the higher quality items make it into the US
Yeah, factories anywhere can make good quality items. The thing is that drop-shippers are never competing on quality or brand, they're competing on flooding the space with the cheapest shit that just barely scrapes by without too many credit card chargebacks or claims of outright fraud.
Yeah, China has some of the most advanced manufacturing in the world (and obvious a huge cultural history of craft), it's just that the people reselling the furniture opt for "as cheap as possible" so they can max their profits. Plus the fact they're selling low quality stuff (and people basically accept it as a fact of life) means they can keep selling more of it when it inevitably needs replacing. It's pretty common to lay the blame on other countries producing what our companies want, instead of blaming the companies for going down that route in the first place - that's capitalism! etc
@@cactustactics As far as the long history of craft in China, well the majority of those industries were destroyed during the cultural revolution. Some survived but very minimal. This is also sad. But you are right that sellers here wanted cheap products and many times kept the higher prices.
@@JB-pd3ir that goes for every industrialising country though, artisanal work gets largely replaced by mass production. But those traditional skills and approaches still exist, especially where countries make an effort to preserve and support them. I see far more of that in China than in western countries tbh
But my point was really that China produces stuff at all price points and levels of quality to meet demand, if people are seeing low-quality stuff, it's usually a case of you get what you pay for. Or often you get what someone else paid for, and then you paid that middleman a whole lot more on top, and you feel ripped off because you have been! Not by China tho
Yeah they tend to gatekeep higher quality items for domestic customers lol. For example, I saw the same tote bag listing on Amazon, AliExpress and Taobao but looking at the reviews, only Taobao sends you the same bag as the listing photos while the ones sold on Amazon and AliExpress has a plastic interior pocket instead of a fabric one like in the pics. I also found more variety in designs and quality in like phone cases and clothes on Taobao too
I first noticed this a couple of years ago when looking for furniture. The same items were all over the place with a different name. I then watched a video where a RUclipsr was researching a sideboard they found available from multiple sellers at different prices. It's made me hate buying things because it's become very hard to judge the quality of anything. I think buying older furniture is the way to go but it does make it more of a challenge.
I have also recently listened to someone talking about design in an unrelated field but one thing they said is relevant to this too. Basically since design became computer based the quality of products has often radically declined as it's really easy for for businesses to predict the minimum material they can get away with. I think that's one of the reason we've got furniture these days that's basically cardboard. Older products had to do the job in a world when you couldn't predict so accurately so it actually had to be decent quality based on traditional methods of doing things and the knowledge of crafts people.
As an engineer, yeah. Once a product is functional and selling everything becomes about shaving off cost. Can we get away with less material? Cheaper material? Cheaper build processes? Keep doing that until the product barely functions and customers are getting pissed off. Cars, houses, appliances, clothing, furniture, airplanes, everything is just barely working now.
And they actually cared about it lasting, making heirloom pieces. Heirloom is an archaic term anymore.
When I needed to buy a bookcase several years ago, I hemmed and hawed because I was afraid of spending a ton of money on a dud. So many bookcases aren't built to actually hold books, which can be really heavy, and I needed one that could hold 400+ volumes of manga. Pretty much all of the bookcases I could find in my $300-$400 budget were from Wayfair, and I wasn't sure about the quality. But my procrastination paid off: I ended up buying a wood bookcase that was a fixture for sale at a closing department store for $26.
So about 2 years ago, I thrifted this gorgeous green, damask printed, wing back chair and me and my husband knew we needed to get a couch to compliment it. We actually threw down the money for a blue leather tufted couch and went through all the research you outlined here. Especially about the leather. To get the color, we needed to special order it and had to wait like 5 months for it to be built and delivered. But when we sat down on the show room example, I meant to say "yeah I can see myself sitting on this" and ended up saying "yeah I can see myself falling asleep on this." XD Which is how I knew that was the one.
It is, to date, our favorite piece of furniture. Its so comfy, its where guests beeline to when they visit, and pairs with the chair beautifully. Its funny bc we threw down a substantial amount of money for this couch to go with a chair I found for $20. But it was worth it.
And yes I do fall asleep on it regularly.
Could you share where you bought the couch from? I'd love to know!
I'm 50 and still using the hand me down bedroom furniture I used as a kid. My husband has a few family pieces too. Nothing fancy, it all just lasted. Sometimes I want to get new stuff for aesthetic reasons, but everything in the showroom is expensive garbage, so I just never upgraded!
I would say about 90 percent of what we have in our townhouse is family hand me downs and hand made tables…plus one I got free from work. I did buy one mid century desk from EBay because it had screw on legs.
I sell handmade punch needle rugs, home decor, and clothing. The allure of possibly getting discovered on Etsy is SO tempting, but the strong likelihood of someone stealing my work ultimately turns me away.
It's a challenge to know what's actually handmade and what's dropshipped, even at many in-person markets. It's why I choose to only sell off my website and well-known juried shows & markets.
I can at least control my own site and juried shows filter out dropshippers, bad quality work, etc.
where can I see the rugs?
On my site! (it's just my name, unfortunately I can't add it directly here because it gets auto-removed) :)
I also want to add that if anyone is looking for high-quality furniture and decor, consider Amish/Mennonite shops or registered Craft Councils.
I'm Canadian, and a member of my province's craft council. You can find all sorts of talented artisans in craft councils who use quality materials, take pride in their work, and make really unique stuff. It's also great for supporting local industry!
A big issue I’ve found with furniture and appliance reviews as that people only tend to write them right after they got the product! Especially because companies will send a reminder to write a review a few days after you receive the product. Over time, you forget where things even came from and begin not to care anymore so there’s few reviews that are a year or more on. This makes it impossible to tell whether the product is actually durable, or whether it just looks good out of the box. I would imagine people also tend to justify spending money more when they’ve just received the product (as the dent in their wallet is new) vs a few years on when it’s falling apart, they’ve made the money back and probably have their eyes on a replacement. Reviews are great for temporary experiences or perishable products such as restaurants, museums, movies, books, food, services (eg. Uber, moving companies), makeup, skincare. Here, the entire experience or product is notably finite and so you can generally review the entirety of it right after or a few months after. But for things that are expected to last “a lifetime” such as clothing, furniture, appliances, reviews fail to provide insight on their durability over time. This makes it so hard to know what to buy new. I think that’s why buying vintage or secondhand from FB marketplace and other stores can be a “safer” bet - if something’s lasted that long already, it’s likely it will keep its longevity for some time. You also get the advantage of asking the previous owner how it’s held up.
I'm in my second Semester studying product design in Germany and i wish i could beam this video straight into my proffs heads.
there's such a lack of acknowledgement in uni about the enshittification of products, all my profs just take shit quality amazon and dropshipper products as this slight annoyance while they focus on high end designers as positive examples. Which is so frustrating for me bc i wanna make stuff that people can afford that isnt shit, and all i'm shown is the choice of : it's incredibly expensive or it's incredibly shit.
We need the third option. We need AFFORDABLE prices and REASONABLE quality, this middle ground that's being completely eroded while both bad and good quality products are getting more and more expensive without improvement to quality or real sustainability!
GOD, I feel you. I'm finishing my first semester of Industrial Design here in Argentina and they're showing us examples of high-end design so far. I guess they're just trying to show us good design first but idk, realistically we all just want to do good products at the end of the day. Tho to be fair, first year in this uni is experimenting with a lot of other art disciplines and different mediums. Next year I'll start seeing more stuff related to industrial/clothing design. I would love to know how is your design university!
The problem is complex, but it can be summed up by a few words: Late stage capitalism. The cost of life to income gets worse and worse every year. Wages never keep up, so we have less purchasing power. We want the same ability to buy things that our parents had, so we turn to cheaper furniture because quality means you can afford 1 couch and no dining room table, chairs, desk, bedframe, ect. Cheap means you can afford it all. It's the cost of raw materials, the cost of transportation, the cost of labor, and the cost of land to build factories on and the cost to actually build the factory that have all gone through the roof. Some furniture is just absurdly overpriced, but overall, there isn't a market for middle ground, because it still means being able to afford half of the furniture you need, instead of everything when you buy cheap. The problem is, no one looks at purchases as long term costs, just up front. I've spent over $40,000 furnishing a 700 qr ft apartment, but everything is high quality, real woods, and with care, will last me the next 30 or 40 years with refinishing and reupholstering.
I had a similar issue studying interior design in Australia. We never really discussed the quality of products, and we were basically forced to use only high end products in our designs. What they considered to be low budget suppliers were still mostly well out of my price range as a consumer. I found it really frustrating that no one was interested in creating accessible interior design for the average person. You certainly can't make the same amount of money, but at least you can make a bigger impact on the world.
Sustainability is no longer a required category. Used to be that quality furniture was inherited, or at least sold off when the first owners were done with it. That's over. A few years ago I helped moving a friend's gran out of her appartment into a retirement home. My heart was bleeding when we demolished the bedroom, a really beautiful arrangement of laquered dressers, bedframe and nightstands, nothing broken or bent, minimal signs of usage. But they had tried and couldn't get anyone to take it away for free, so to the dumpster it went...
oh i'm seated as hell for this one
A year ago in an attempt to get that millennial green velvet couch I fell in a rabbit hole of identical couches. I even made a spreadsheet considering the cost, materials and customer reviews. And here I am still sitting on the 90’s futon couch I bought for $70 from friend of a friend that was moving. It has solid wood frame, never wobbles, fits in my living room and unfolds into guest bed. I’m thinking about making new mattress cover for it.
As someone who has been scoping furniture for a move, I have been thinking about this for a while!!
facebook marketplace always has tons of gorgeous vintage furniture
I think another big part of the enshittification of furniture is how often people move. 50 years ago most people moved less than 5 times in their lifetime. My grandparents haven't moved since the 1970's. Now with more and more people unable to buy a home, most people rent, and therefore move more often, and don't want to move heavy furniture. It's easier to move cheaper furniture, and you always have the option of just throwing it away and buying new.
I found a great American-made couch company called Home Reserve. It's completely modular so you have to put it together yourself, but it is very sturdy and made with higher quality material. And their customer service is excellent and they're real people you can call. It took years for me to find them. I love our couch.
Ooooh, I'm shopping for a new couch; I'm going to look into them! Thanks for sharing the rec!
I really think modular furniture is the way of the future (for better or for worse!)
Honestly moving to rural New Zealand has been weirdly nice because most Amazon stuff doesn't ship here so I'm forced to just buy whatever option the stores in town are selling. Like looking for a sleep mask on Amazon you get 10000s of results when its kinda nice to just go to the store and buy the sleep mask they're selling.
My desk is a traditional Austrian peasant table from 1814 (the date is carved into the table as is custom) and this thing is indestructible. Compared to my Ikea Billy book shelves which survived my last move, but probably would not survive any other move in the future 😭
Wow….a 210 year old table!!!
My friend has just moved and they spend quite a lot of money on the house so the budget for furniture was significantly smaller then they had hoped for. I told them, “Lets go to a thrift store” they declined saying “they dont have the kind of big furniture I’m looking for” to which i replied “bet” so i took them to a large second hand store in my area that has KILLER prices on furniture that is also really good quality. There was this huuuuge dresser, like 3 meters wide with three matching mirrors that went for 80 euro’s, unfortunatly that was such a good deal it was snatched up right out from under our noses, which fair it was a really good deal. When my little sis is moving I’m taking her there too. You buy a good bed and a good vacuumcleaner, but everything else, if you put in enough effort, you can find a great second hand store near you that sells great furniture for wayyyy less then you expect
I find that watching furniture restoration videos really has given me a good eye for what to look for in quality secondhand furniture in thrift stores, on facebook marketplace, etc!! It’s also a fun way to spend time if you ever want to learn the tools to restore your own furniture~
ugh it can be so hard to shop in etsy anymore with the amount of drop-shipped items that make it to the top of search results
literally I have stopped shopping there for that reason, it's sad bc they used to be such a good platform.
I professionally recover old sofas. Just today I finished a sofa completly out of styrofoam and a thin layer of actual upholtery-foam. A big problem in upholstery is, that you can´t tell what exactly is in there!! (The sofa looks very nice now, and is comfortable too )
am I the only one noticing that there's so many small label fashion people married to carpenters? it seems to be such a classic couple, especially on instagram. but maybe I just notice that in the wish for a carpenter to build my ideal furniture lol
You'd want a woodworker or furniture maker, not strictly a arpenter; carpentry = building structures. Different scale and parameters.
Though the reason is probably that carpentry is a job that can pay well and have steady work, which can supplement the ups & downs of being a small label. The steady income gives more leeway to experiment and not succeed on a particular design.
Thrifting and refinishing furniture is definitely a big win if you can do it. Also reading top 5 articles from consumer review sites. Love this topic!
furniture shopping these days is an absolute nightmare! my poor parents had to return a sofa they purchased because the velvet fabric, poorly stapled in the back, was already falling off as the delivery guys were assembling it. such a disaster.
We had that happen with a chair. By the time it was in the house the fabric had ripped off. We returned it and bought something from the 1970s instead.
I picked a dining table from my grandparents house after they where gone. I moved it around europe, now I am moving again cross countries into a space where there is no room for it. For now it is with a trusted friend but I will pick it up one day and live with it again. I hosted my favourite evenings in a foreign country with it as the center, my dad ate from it when he was younger than I am now, my great grand father made it himself almost 100 years ago. This is the only piece of furniture that I "own", everything else are just objects for resting, working or storing.
This came just in time!! Currently I am looking for multiple furniture pieces and this is all a conundrum. When I was a kid it seemed like my parents got great long lasting furniture but now I’m worried that we will buy a couch set and get scammed out of thousands of dollars for something that is cheap and will only last a few years. I even was looking at a cardboard grid bed frame because I’m that disillusioned by the furniture industry. If I buy something I might as well make sure I can recycle it.
Why not get a simple metal frame and keep an eye out for something on FB. Where I live I regularly see queen bedframes/headboards being given away. Last time I bought one at Costco it was 20 dollars which was decade ago so maybe 60 now but at least it'll serve until you find something you love. Plus if you are looking at apartment living it's easier to move. You could even create your own headboard to add style to your room.
Thrift store manager here🙋🏻♀️ I can’t speak to chains like Goodwill or Value Village, but at your local charity shop there is a high chance that employees will keep an eye out for specific furniture pieces for you, especially if you come in often and give them a $ amount you are willing to spend. We don’t usually have massive buildings like the corporate stores do, and therefore often don’t have a huge volume of furniture pieces at once, but our favorite thing is helping someone find their perfect piece.
(I even have a few customers who always buy specific types of items when they’re in, and I’ll set aside those items in the back until next time I see them💕)
Little tiny wood dresser will cost you 129 - 149 USD plus tax. At the cheapest furniture store like Big Lots. I recently sold my vintage nightstands on Facebook marketplace. They went so quick. People are desperate to find real wood items for reasonable prices.
I sold them because I will be moving and where I live it's basically a bunch of apartment complexes where you might end up on the 3rd floor. I ended up downgrading to plastic dressers which are very lightweight and easy to carry up three flights of stairs during moving.
The way Mina is always making the exact content that I love and crave and helping me vent my anger while also being informative…. Is impeccable
i moved from midtown manhattan to miami almost a year ago and being surrounded by this many trees has been * amazing * for my mental health. i’ll always love nyc but the move was great for me (and my toddler child who now has a yard to run around). i can’t wait to see where you end up moving!
I have so many trees and gardens at my home in queens in NYC. Huge yard. I think New Yorkers forget how much better the quality of life is if you’re just willing to commute a bit to manhattan when you need to. Just live in the suburban areas of the boroughs.
@@nataliaalfonso2662 we lived in astoria before moving to midtown. i’ve lived in 3/5 boroughs in new york. there are trees in queens yes, but it doesn’t compare to nature outside of new york. living in nyc and living outside of nyc are both great options, it isn’t a competition 😊
this is really funny to read as a miami native that moved to NYC. florida greenery always felt very synthetic to me
@@graceascurra astoria……… IS URBAN LMFAO. I didn’t say anything is a competition. It’s just I lived in Miami too, and grew up spending half my years in Miami and half in NYC. Obviously…. There are way more trees in NYC, when you’re in the SUBURBS. Not the inner city urban areas of the boroughs; THE SUBURBS.
Like bayside? FOREST hills? (hence the name forest) little neck douglaston….. prospect park, riverside…..
Like the areas with so many trees and flowers there are literal botanical gardens and stuff.
@@graceascurra do you understand that astoria was literally known as “crackstoria” when I was growing up? It an URBAN area.
Suburbs babe. Suburbs.
We’re in a very literal…. Deciduous coastal rainforest.
So everything I said about people literally totally ignoring the possibility of living actually completely in nature within NYC stands.
I had one tree and a bunch of gardenia shrubs in Miami.
I have sooo many trees, an a tire pollinator garden, food garden, blueberry shrubs, so many rose bushes, peonies, hydrangeas azaleas…. So many huge fat rhododendrons…
Several oaks… this is all just on or right around my house in queens.
You can’t compare the nature of a deciduous four seasonal northeast forest biosphere with subtropical swamp.
And to be clear: neither of us has even mentioned the “borough of parks.” The most forested area of NYC. Staten Island. Bc why would we lol? But there covered in trees too.
A freaking hundred year old oak fell on my house 3 years ago. And there are 4 more all around. And those are just the city trees. Not any of the ones on my property.
aside from buying vintage, one thing i do a lot when looking for furniture/home items is looking around at stuff from closing or remodeled businesses. commercial use stuff is generally made to be ultra durable and you can often find it extremely discounted or free. like if looking for a dining table/seating, check around for restaurant booths... if you need to furnish a home office, get things like desks, file cabinets, office chairs and shelving units made by industrial brands like hon and steelcase from defunct office buildings. retail displays like pegboard, grid or slat walls, and spinner racks can be amazing for organizing your craft room garage or office and it's often just tossed out back during remodels. never buy the flimsy clothing racks they sell at home goods stores, get the good z racks that the stores actually use themselves. chairs and seating from salons, offices or waiting rooms are made better and sometimes super cute!
i particularly look for stuff that's primarily steel in construction, it's surprisingly easy to restore or refinish. it also helps to think outside the box a little in repurposing that kind of stuff, like a mobile medical cabinet could be a kitchen/microwave cart, craft table/tool bench... industrial steel lockers with shelves would be great as a storage unit for clothes, towels and bedding, extra pantry space etc
i myself got some cool unique outdoor furniture for free from a closed down froyo shop, and my giant sectional sofa is from a hotel lobby and still holding up great years later
I'm a perfumer and it's so frustrating to see in this industry an increase in mass production/dupe style perfumes (not that mass production hasn't always been prevalent but it feels like it's gotten worse? idk). I've gotten comments about my prices from people complaining I don't price like dossier and it's like yeah.. because I make everything by hand and use my own funds to source all my supplies and materials like. I hate feeling like I'm expected to compete with things made in a factory for two dollars by people who are being severely underpaid.
We're a family business who still make high-quality custom solid wood furniture! 😅
Haha sorry Mina! I watch your content religiously and I was going through our analytics on here and this came up as suggested and I thought it was a funny coincidence since I always watch you in my free time, great video as always!
I really appreciate you mentioning how much easier it is to thrift things when you live in an area with big box secondhand stores and have access to a car. I would love to buy secondhand more often, but the reality is where I live (not the US) secondhand stores are small with very limited selections that often don’t meet my needs. I don’t have access to a car (nor the funds to rent one) so my options for searching far and wide for items or even transporting larger items are pretty limited. Instead, I try to just buy fewer things overall. Suburban America so often gets treated as the norm that I think it’s important to recognise that the situation isn’t the same everywhere
When I was in highschool my mom picked me up one day and told me she had a surprise. We went to an old office that was closing down and desperate to get rid of their old furniture. We got a solid walnut credenza straight out of the mid-century for FREE! Even though I obviously didn't have room for a credenza in my bedroom or eventual dorm she kept it in the garage for me until I was ready.
I did in fact pay thousands of dollars to have it shipped and stored from Montana to NYC but it is a beautiful media table and literally my favorite thing I own. It was a bitch and a half to get to my walkup but I plan on owning it for the rest of my life :)
The green "velvet" couch haunts my dreams
one product being sold by a dozen companies for different prices happens in the food industry as well. i work in a manufacturing company and we'll do 2 8-hour shifts of packing a single product, but every few hours, we pause to change the labels. when people want to boycott one of our brands, they're just buying one of our others. we have an absolute monopoly on some of our products with literally zero outside competitors, but people think they have a choice about where their money is going.
My husband and I bought a new house, and I told him when we moved in, I want to get rid of all crappy Amazon/Ikea/Target/Walmart things. I would rather go without vs buying something shitty and cheap because I need it now! What I’ve been doing for the last 3 months is stalking thrift stores and finding good quality wood furniture. If it’s scuffed up, or missing something, I can just sand it, refinish it etc. I like the natural light wood look anyway so this has been working out nice. For quality cookware I’ve been going to Home Goods, Marshall’s, TJ Max and buying quality All Clad brand pots and pans per piece vs buying the whole set. It’s going to take me forever to find the full set, but it’s cheaper and worth it this way! It’s better to buy a few quality pieces when you can afford it, vs buying a shitty Walmart cookware set for $20, that has a bunch of add on things you’ll never use/will only last you a fews before it starts to break or look horrible. Also kinda fun to hunt for these very specific pieces amongst all their other products lol.
Im only at the beginning of the video but I had to take a moment to wish you seamless and happy moving out ! I've done the exact same thing when I've been tired of living in a big city for eight years, the rhythm, the prices, the lifestyle, everything worn me out ! I knew I had to move to a smaller, greener city and I've never looked back since. Every time I go back to the big city now I realize how much anxiety inducing it is in the long run and how long I kept that up ! But when you're inside of it, you don't really realize it until you get a wake up call. I wish you a lot of success and I wish you a slower, greener life, everyone deserves it !
from NC, parents worked as furniture salesmen for companies like century at warehouses and such. i now work as an intern at a furniture company in NC and the process has changed a lot. most people don’t know but central to western NC used to be “the furniture capital” until the mid 2000s. crazy to see something so close to home mentioned!
Want decent furniture for cheaper than the new garbage sold online or in stores? Go to estate sales, antique stores, flea markets, garage sales, auctions, charity shops etc. You can get better deals if you go to smaller areas outside major metropolitan areas.
I would love to hear her talk about how department stores like Dillards get their brands. I've been doing a lot of formalwear thrifting and one of the many rabbit holes here is how many different brands of Ralph Lauren there is now
The brands and/or manufacturers are the same exact product with a different name.
Yard sales or the curb/gutter are the best places for furniture! Growing up my family only ever got furniture this way and it allowed us to have way better quality stuff than we ever could have afforded. My friend recently moved and she has furnished her whole house for maybe $300 total. She found an amazing dining table with 2 extra leaves for and a beautiful hand crafted dresser for free at the same house, both solid wood. Got an antique handcrafted chair for $25 and a pottery barn couch in perfect condition free. Find the rich neighborhoods in your city and drive around Saturday mornings with friends and finish up with the best and cheapest lunch you’ll ever get from the ladies selling tamales out of their house during their yard sale.
I think what also enables this kind of market is how people live now at the hands of the economy. Now more than ever people don't live in the same place for very long, and investing in furniture that you want to bring with you every time is outside of most people's price point at this day and age. There have been multiple times where rebuying the entire home in my friend's experiences has cost infinitely less than bringing any of the furniture that they've ever bought in their entire lives. Especially when they can't afford to buy a home because prices keep shooting up, and then their apartment leases or home rentals keep maximizing the annual 10% increase in California.
Loved how real that intro was. I was listening in my car and thinking, “good for you gurl! I don’t know you but good luck”
the way a lot of companies sometimes will intentionally make their products cheaply and poorly so the customers can continuously buy products reminds me of the lightbulb story.
in this one firehouse, they got a lightbulb that never burns out-and still works and is on to this day-and while the company who made the lightbulb did get a lot of money from that, it wasn’t consistent. so the company decided to make the lightbulb cheaper so it would burn out quicker which would convince the customers to buy more products. and that was YEARS ago, and sadly, that is how most furniture companies still operate today
Often, low quality products are more about saving money than intentionally building a cheaper product.
The lightbulb story is incredibly misleading, on multiple counts. No, the lightbulb standards were not designed to force customers to constantly buy new lightbulbs. Yes, there is a firehouse with the oldest lightbulb. No, that lightbulb is not magic. It will eventually burn out, just like every other lightbulb. The laws of physics haven't changed.
The reason that lightbulb has lasted for over a hundred years is because of two factors. First, it literally never turns off, because turning lights on and off will shorten their lifespan. Second, the lightbulb is very dim, about as bright as a dim candle, because brighter lightbulbs have shorter lifespans. Lightbulbs can still be manufactured to last for an incredibly long time, but the things that make a lightbulb last for an incredibly long time are also the things that make for a very crappy lightbulb.
The final factor in the lightbulb discussion is that it wasn't a single company. It was a group of companies, a cartel. Their worst offense wasn't setting limits on lightbulbs, which increased their brightness. The worst problem was that they also directly conspired to raise prices. The companies of the Phoebus Cartel intentionally manipulated markets for their own profit. The best thing you can do to prevent that sort of market manipulation is to avoid these types of dropshippers, and to buy things from local businesses, rather than large corporate enterprises designed to maximize profit by charging you as much money as they can get away with. Unfortunately, things like the Oil cartels are manipulating markets at a level that most consumers can't do anything to fix.
Where I live I can’t spend a week without seeing a disassembled billy bookshelf next to a trash bin or directly onto the sidewalk. And most of the time it’s fine or just need tiny repairs, yet people prefer to throw it away and I just don’t get it. I hope the issue of “fast furniture” gets talked about more in the future because just like clothes, they should last at least half a lifetime and not just a few years
OK I have a funny story about the furniture tidbits about midcentury modern? I went to the art museum and they had a whole floor exhibit with chairs through the ages and it was amazing and so fun to read about the pieces. They had a few rooms set up, Ikea style, and it was fun to learn about the inspiration for the designers, like the new technologies at the time like radio, the influence of the shape of steamboats, etc. And then, just a lone folding chair, upside down, and it was pretty recent. I went to this exhibit a week after the Alabama Brawl where the guy retaliated swinging the folding chair. I could not resist sending it to my friend like #neverforget. It was everything that weekend lol.
I used to save Mina Vids for when I had time to just sit down and watch it but now I make time for Mina videos. Work can wait.
Weird fact. A couple of months ago I was high watching a movie from the 80s. I noticed years ago people often had furniture in their home from decades past. This began to change in the 90s and you see it in film where people have the most current styles in their homes regardless of their class. I realized it was all because of increased trade with China back in the 90s. It has been ongoing ever since. Just fascinating how that trade agreement changed so much in our society. It's just constant crap though.
The most bang for your buck will always be buying used. Estate sales are the best, but fb marketplace will help you find some real gems too!
Floyd Detroit is a great middle range furniture maker as well.
Hi, loved the video! Another option for sustainable furniture is to make friends with a woodworker! I work in a woodshop and the amount of people using the space to repair/make furniture is so common. I think also learning to make furniture yourself, even chairs or tables, is an extremely valued skill, especially in this economy. Look for wood secondhand too!
Sincerely, an industrial designer
So I don't live in a huge city like New York, and I have had some really good look in the past at consignment shops and thrift stores, but the place I HIGHLY recommend looking into is actually Habitat for Humanity's ReStore - not only do they have a LOT of furniture (at least the one I've gone to), but they'll also frequently have fixtures and furniture hardware. We found a fantastic wooden (yes the bf knows how to check these things) end table that's got a locking filing cabinet drawer, and I believe it was less than thirty dollars.
Also, thanks so much for breaking down how to tell a couch is decent quality! I am hoping to put our current couch out to pasture when we move, and we'll be wanting to find a good replacement.
they also often have tools there as well, got a table saw from them for $50
0:17 that’s my desk oh….
I literally just bought a couch after months of looking and never find one 'good enough for my money' , but i needed a couch after 8 months
Local furniture shops are the BEST if you are buying new. When we moved into our new house, I bought a dresser from the local small business furniture store. It was more expensive but it is real wood and is really good quality. I also got our dining table set from another local store; again, solid wood that is going to last forever. Worth every penny to me.
Lol I have a story for almost everything I own. The majority of my furnite is from a woman that passed away. My grandma used to work as a cleaning lady in her home and when the woman passed away, she inherited almost all of her beautiful furniture to my grandma. I got to keep a lot of it and I'm so happy, because its massive wood and fits my style perfectly. The rest I collected over time. From a second hand warehouse or even off the side of the street or it just kinda fell into my lap. It feels like having a collection of unique things, rather than soulless corporate stuff. I would be devastated if I had to start over, whenever I need something and go to a store I end up just not buying anything because everything looks cheap and samey...
Being from Nebraska, all my furniture was from Nebraska Furniture Mart. Place was great. I ran into your problems when I moved to another state and realized other places don't have a magical furniture store that has all your desires in one place.
Nebraska Furniture Mart is a magical place!!! My brother and I live out of state, but have contemplated buying enough furniture from there to fill our houses and then just hiring a moving truck to delivery it to our states.
I dug a papsan chair out of a dumpster! I just washed the cushiona and it was good as new.
TY, Mina!
Paige Wassel, Caroline Winkler, Nick Lewis, Noah Daniel - other amazing RUclipsrs whom I wholeheartedly recommend to anyone interested in figuring out quality furniture and design in general.
Thrift store, garage sale, or good old curb. This is the BEST way to find affordable solid wood furniture. Also vintage furniture will off gas any VOCs. I think I've spent less than $500 on all of thr furniture in my apartment, most of it was free, there are few hand me downs but most was from people moving or discarding it. And most of the cost of furniture was for my Target end tables, Ikea kitchen table and Ikea adjustable desk. And it's not cheap furniture either: Ethan Allen couch, vintage credenza, tufted oversized headboard, and Ashley dresser. Like she says in the video, people hate moving furniture!.
For fabric furniture that isn't coming from a thrift store that sanitizes it or has an unknown origin (such as besides the dumpster), my advice would be that if it looks clean, spray it down with lysol and whatever else would make you feel comfortable and let it sit outside in a covered area where it won't get wet for one week.
I love thrifting vintage furniture and household items since they have way more personality!
Stuck in bed from Knee surgery rn and im so bored. Seeing that u posted has actully been the highlight for my day like finally smth to keep me actully entertained and not just distracted 🙏🩷🩷🩷
I have a 1950s rental flat with site-built kitchen and wardrobe interior and it's Amazing. Like, it looked really shabby when I moved in, but just by some cleaning and repainting it looks really good! It's dense, high quality wood and under all those layers of 60 years worth of paint jobs it still looks nice. It's funny to think that this was designed to be cheap and mass-produced with the same cookie-cutter design in all of the kitchens in the entire neighbourhood, but it ended up being better quality than a lot of modern kitchens. Sure the countertops are a bit low and it was not designed for multiple home appliances, but it still works! Currently I live in another country in a 90s house, and I really miss it.
I think about this all the time when looking at new built housing listings and all the pantry closets and clothes closets have the same white wire shelves that look cheap as hell and you can’t do anything to make them look nicer but replace them.
I’m moving abroad into my first apartment in 3 months. Up until this point I’ve only lived with my parents in my childhood home, and with all the hassle that is college and emigration this was nice to watch as a “start here” to decorate my apartment.
I love floor models! I bought a nearly $10000 couch from Bo Concept for just under $5000 because it was a floor model. It’s a 10/10 years out.
5000k tho?????????????
@@transsexual_computer_faery yeah, it’s a damn fine couch
We have lived in our house for 5 years. We have currently have like four pieces of house stuff that we will never get rid of, 2 thrifted that we could never get new, a dining table that probably is 100 pounds of solid wood, and a vintage hanging swing lamp.
2 of our pieces we had made for us with all wood from people who made it there hobby during Covid. Amazing.
I had to chuckle at the drooping couch comment at the end; I was looking for a sofa for like 6 months bc of the points mentioned in your video(they're mostly all crap and expensive) and ended up buying a 60s leather sofa from a friends dad, who's an antique shop owner. I was so done looking for an affordable sofa that I just decided to buy it without even trying it first. It cost me 200€ and it's saggy as hell lol. BUT, the frame is made of wood and the filling is not foam, so I'm just gonna take the cushions to the upholsterer down the street when I have the money. For now it will do. I live in Finland and there's this company called Hakola, they make wonderful sofas locally and considering they make them all here and from quality materials, they are remarkably affordable. I'm hoping to one day be able to afford their Jumbo3 sofa.
Having watched this video, I'm starting to be inclined to have furniture made by a carpenter instead of buying new (like shelving systems for example), down the line when I'll hopefully be making more money in years to come.
Pretty much every piece of furniture I buy is from Facebook Marketplace. It's my go-to unless I need something that's a very particular size. The one new piece I have is my LoveSac couch which was VERY pricey, but very worth it for me. I can replace pieces/components as needed and if I get sick of the color, I can even just reuse the base and buy new slipcovers for it. It's basically a forever couch.
I'm so thankful my mom is really into interior design and also loves vintage furniture because I get to take a lot of the things she no longer wants. I kinda despise modern furniture, I just find it all to be really boring.