Finding the perfect piece of furniture is like picking out an engagement ring with your partner. You want something that is uniquely fit to your style, but will stand the test of time.
You’ve likely landed here, because you’re about to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars buying furniture. Congrats! Whether you’re building your dream home, furnishing your first apartment, or decorating your new office space, this is a huge adulting moment. Make sure you celebrate this milestone.
Furniture is one of those things we don’t purchase often. Sometimes, we get hand-me-downs from our relatives or friends. Sometimes we thrift what we can from local consignment stores, Facebook Marketplace, NextDoor, or Craigslist. Sometimes, the bravest of us, will dumpster dive to find hidden treasures.
For many of us, there comes a time when buying furniture becomes a necessity, and we can’t scrape by on scrounged-together second-hand items anymore. When that time comes, you want to make sure you’re making the right investment. The last thing you want is to spend thousands furnishing your home, only to end up hating what you bought. Or worse: having to throw it out within the first year. Trust us, we’ve been there.
That’s why we’ve pulled together these questions for you to ask yourself, before making your big decision. You should feel confident after considering each piece with these questions in mind that you’re making the right decision. Like we said before, finding the right furniture piece for your home is like finding the one.
The 6 Questions To Ask Yourself Before Making a Big Furniture Purchase:
Is this trendy? aka, will this go out of style in the next few years?
Raise your hand if you also fell into the boucle upholstery trend. Me too. GUILTY. Boucle arrived on the scene just a few years ago, but it’s already phasing out of style. Interior Design and furniture is quickly becoming like fast fashion, where trends can come in and out of style in years not decades. We should be fighting fast furniture at all costs. Number one, it’s bad for the wallet - who can afford to refurnish their homes every 3 years? Certainly not yours truly. Number two - it’s bad for the environment. Ever thought about what happens to those unwanted tables, chairs, and couches when you throw them away? Hello, ever-growing landfill.
When searching for the one, you need to stay true to yourself. Trust your taste. At the same time, opt for something that you’ll love for years to come, not just the eye candy of the moment. Look for shapes and textures that are classic with a personality. We’re not saying only choose the boring, safe designs. We’re saying make sure you really love what you’re buying, and not just doing it because you saw it on TikTok and it looked cool.
Can you withstand me, my partner, my kids, and/or my pets?
If you’re spending more than a few hundred dollars on a product, it better last! Durability is the most important factor of any piece of furniture, behind design and usability. Furniture is meant to be lived in. You need to make sure its lifespan is in years not months. That includes your kids spilling their mac and cheese on it, your puppy peeing on it, and your partner falling a little too hard into it after 1 too many drinks.
Ask yourself: Is this easy to clean? Will this rip or crack easily? Does it come apart and get put back together easily? Will it split or crack if I screw the screws in too tight? Do I need to do anything to keep it in good shape year over year? Oh also, read the reviews!!!
What is this made out of?
What your furniture is made from matters A LOT. Not just from a durability perspective (see question number 2), but also from a design perspective, a toxicity perspective, and a reusability perspective. Take for example wood vs. engineered wood veneer. One is made from a tree, the other is made from a tree ground up and bound with chemicals. Engineered wood veneer is made to look like real wood, but doesn’t have the same textural or sensory elements that solid wood has, so it can detract from design. It also is typically made with bonding adhesives like formaldehyde, which can off-gas and emit chemicals into your home. Finally, engineered wood doesn’t hold as high of a value if you were hoping to eventually resell it. There’s a reason people pay a premium for reclaimed wood - you just can’t recreate what Mother Nature crafted herself.
Besides engineered wood, some other materials to be wary of include: soft woods like pine which dent and scratch easily, plastic because of its limited durability and recyclability, and fabrics that stain easily.
How likely am I or my family to break this?
To ask this another way: if there is assembly required, are you going to mess this up? If you’re spending 12 hours putting together an IKEA dresser, you better not break it by accidentally drilling in a screw too hard. IKEA will likely send you a new dresser, but do you really want to spend a full 24 hours assembling it?! No, no you do not.
Make sure what you buy meets your durability needs, your assembly needs, and your everyday needs. Nobody wants to buy something only to have someone break it within the first few months, but after the warranty period expires.
Can this fit through my doorways and hallways to fit in the space I want it?
I won’t bog you down with the details of how I had to hire a company to cut my couch into 3 pieces to get it into and out of my last apartment and current home. That couch and I have a very serious loving relationship, and if I weren’t so attached to it, we wouldn’t be having this discussion.
Do yourself a favor and measure your doorways, hallways, ceiling heights, and anything else you need to measure to ensure that what you buy will fit into your home. Make sure at minimum the width and height of your furniture item can fit through the door and through the hallway. Be wary of corners. Be wary of short ceilings. Be wary of tight alcoves in staircases. Be way of elevator sizes. So much can go wrong here. Pro tip: you can take your door off the hinges to get an extra large item through the door.
Is this on budget?
Ok, we admit this is an obvious one. You’ve probably already asked yourself this question. Maybe you even set up a price filter on your Google search. But when buying multiple items at once, you’ll want to budget for the entire room, home, or apartment purchase. You can and should buy things over time, to ensure you’re making confident decisions. Something else to consider is what you want to splurge on. For example, maybe you want your kitchen and dining room to be an oasis because you spend all of your time there, but you literally only sleep in your bedroom. It’s probably worth splurging on a solid wood dining table with some really cool dining chairs and kitchen island stools, then settling for a bed that gets the job done rather than a Pinterest-worthy four-poster canopy bed.
Do you feel that much more confident about your big purchase now? You should! Remember, fill your home with furniture pieces you love and will continue to love for years to come.
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