What is Quality?

I have been trying to finish up the living room and was thinking about adding a tall Curio Cabinet. Today, I went to a local furniture store (awful stuff) and looked at a Curio I have had my eye on. It is American Drew and I was not sure if that is what we call "quality" these days. I could see the veneer pulling away from the clue in the cracks and the top looked funny as well. There was a piece of veneer missing at the very bottom as well.

http://www.furniturebuzz.com/product...e&utm_campaign

Lifting veneers? Yikes, that's not good.

Quality is all around us in furniture. Its not hard to find, really. But what has happened in the industry as a whole is that most retail customers are price-adverse to what has to be charged for quality goods. The pressure on the retailer (and the manufacturer) to lower the cost of the product is intense, so then what happens is construction shortcuts appear as well as less expensive raw materials to contain the cost.

For example, that piece you link to retails in that ad at $ 1,700. I can build you one exactly like that using the best solid wood construction, the finest joinery methods, and a beautiful finish but its going to be a thousand dollars more at a minimum.

Furniture of all kinds is a business that requires expensive material and skilled labor to make. It's a 'dumb' business in that sense - as even though technology advances in many other categories, there's no way to make Mahogany or Cherry lumber less expensive, and even with the finest production machines, time-saving in the workshop is minimal. For instance, I have one of my older cabinetmakers who can make a fully hand-cut dovetailed drawer faster than a less skilled worked can set up and use a dovetail jig.

I'm pretty harsh on manufacturer's and have a reputation for being demanding (but in a polite way!). I don't hesitate to pick up the phone and tell a maker his stuff is junk, or suggest ways they can do it better. I've picked up a pretty good knowledge of woodworking over the years as I've been in hundreds of shops and ask a lot of questions. Once you get that knowledge, its easy for trained eye to seek out quality in product. However, the average retail store owner doesn't immerse himself into the "Art" of furnituremaking and is only concerned about moving volume through his operation, and putting pieces on the floor his customers deem reasonably priced.

My little store serves that niche where customers know they can get quality goods. And if we don't have them - we make them from scratch. Not everyone likes the prices, or wants to spend the money, and I can appreciate and respect that. There are one hundred stores that carry product-to-price-point for every store like mine where Quality really is Job 1.

Here's the really cool thing about high quality furniture, though. It lasts. It takes more abuse, and more moving, and more of what life throws at it and stands up to the task. In the long run, it has a lower cost of ownership because it never has to be replaced in a lifetime of use.

That was pretty long-winded answer to an easy question, wasn't it? <G>