I'm going to store clothes, papers and other things in this chest.
I'm looking for
1. General illustrated instruction in order to understand how to recognize a quality product. For instance some pages say to look for dovetail joints, but an illustration would be the most helpful way to convey what I should look for.
2. Specific stores to visit in NYC. I'd like to browse the websites first, and then visit the store to look at the items. However, the websites don't usually list the details of the item besides the wood type and dimensions, so I don't how to to recognize a quality product based on that. I don't want to visit too many stores, especially if they're far apart, so the stores should probably be big to contain many different items.
3. Basic criteria follow. Note that I don't know much about furniture's manufacture so I'll just mention the things I'm looking for, I don't know how applicable they are in reality. The chest shouldn't be painted and should be minimally or appropriately treated (shouldn't smell or leach the coating). I was wiping my desk with a wet tissue and it stained the tissue with lacque. I don't know whether that's ok, but I it's best avoided.
It should be dark in color and sturdy. It should have nice handles that are comfortable to grip (I think those round buttons aren't well designed). If it has rounded edges and corners that's a plus, but if that's hard to find it's not that important. If it's environmentally friendly, that's a plus.
I would appreciate any suggestions regarding the above.
Last edited by nnbc1; 03-25-2012 at 08:53 PM.