When you’re investing in a piece of furniture that’s made to last, you want to know you’re buying from a company you can trust to give you just that. Quality-built wood furniture is becoming more of a rare commodity every day in that it is one of the few consumer goods that remains on the market that is still guaranteed to be long-lasting – not to mention stylish, versatile, practical and outright gorgeous.
Companies that build knock-off items that are made to imitate the look of high-quality wood furniture, however, try very hard to fool everyday consumers into purchasing inferior products. While people often fall victim of the enticement of a lower price, they soon find out that they’ll be paying more when these items prove to hold a very short lifespan.
Since imitation materials were invented specifically to fool the untrained eye into mistaking cheap copies for actual solid wood, it can be easy to confuse the two when you’re buying. In order to prevent you from mistaking a particleboard or pressboard table for the real thing, here are a few tips that anyone can use to differentiate valuable wooden furniture from inferior reproductions:
1. Handcrafted
Like most products, there’s an enormous difference in furniture quality depending on whether it was manufactured by a machine for mass production or whether it was painstakingly handcrafted to ensure the highest quality. There’s just no way that a machine can compare to a product that has been designed and built under the meticulous watch of a real woodworker.
If you know in advance that your piece of furniture was handcrafted by a person, then you’ve likely found a quality item. Alternatively, you can give yourself a better guarantee by simply ordering custom-made items from one of the industry’s top producers of handcrafted solid wood furniture – check out Woodcraft.ca for a leading example..
2. Made from Solid Wood
One way to easily separate low quality wood furniture from the real deal is to determine whether or not it is actually made from solid wood. Mass-produced items that are made to break down and be disposed of in only a short period of time are usually made from pressboard or particleboard, but these cheaper materials are designed to be disguised as real solid wood. Here are a few ways that you can test a piece of furniture to identify real from an imposter:
3. Cost
When you’re shopping for quality furniture, the easiest way to get a first impression regarding whether an item is made of handcrafted solid wood should be the price tag. Real solid wood furniture is almost always going to cost a little more due to the cost of the fine, durable materials and the hours that go into finely detailing the craftsmanship.
Materials that are made to look like wood are inexpensive because they do not have the ability to last long or support fine detail. When you purchase a quality piece of handcrafted solid wood furniture, you should consider it an investment because it can last you a lifetime rather than a few short years.
4. Carving Detail
Speaking of fine quality details, one of the features that you can often find present on solid food furniture is hand-carved designs. If a part of the furniture that you’re judging has been carved, then you can be sure that the item is made of solid wood because imitation materials like pressboard and particleboard cannot be carved.
5. More Weight
Most of the time, the weight of your furniture is a clear indication of the materials that it is made of. Many types of solid wood furniture are made from hardwood which should easily stand out for being pretty heavy. Ersatz particleboard or pressboard, on the other hand, will be noticeably lighter. If your furniture isn’t heavy, there’s a good chance that it isn’t made from real solid wood.
6. Dovetail Construction
One of the common features of solid wood furniture construction is the dovetail method. Even if it is difficult to tell the authenticity of it by merely looking at its façade, you can often open up a drawer to see a tongue and groove construction to connect the drawer to its front side. If you’re having difficulty determining what material a cabinet or chest of drawers are made from, finding dovetail construction may provide the answer.
7. Check for Veneer Edges
You can quickly check the sides and bottom of any piece of furniture to see if there are any thin edges to a veneer façade. This may be the easiest and quickest way to spot an imitation. Since many veneer or laminate additions are designed to look as much like real wood as possible, it can be difficult to determine its authenticity from the front.
8. Unfinished Wood
Alternatively, the bottom of your piece of furniture might contain visible unfinished wood. If you find that any side of your piece that is not usually visible contains the unfinished parts, then that is a good sign that your entire piece is made from solid wood. If you remain unsure, make sure to contact a professional who can assess the piece before you make a purchase.
Custom Options
Deciding on the right style of the coffee table or bedroom set for your home is difficult enough without having to worry about whether or not you’ll get taken by an inferior piece of imitation solid wood. One way that you can be sure that you’ll never buy a product that you’ll regret is to find a furniture manufacturer you can trust to create unique custom-built handcrafted items made specifically for your home.
When you order a custom made piece of furniture, you’ll gain the advantage of getting to choose many of the design features, such a variety of wood, type of stain, and even texturing. If you need an item crafted to specific dimensions, then all you have to do is make that request.
If you’re looking for quality furniture, trust a professional company that has a long reputation of success. Get in contact with a good furniture company today to find out more about what they offer.
