Confirmation bias: all the shite furniture from 1800s has rotted to dust already
Edit for full disclosure: I’ve exclusively bought antique furniture. I’m basically a shill for big-auction
I think it’s survivorship bias, but yes
Sure. A lot has rotted away, but much modern furniture is designed with so much MDF and other manufactured wood products that aren’t resilient in the least. Moisture will destroy them, they take gashes super easy, and are soft wood.
I’d think the furniture our grandparents had would be more likely to have been solid wood.
That’s not to say there aren’t solid hardwood pieces being made today. But they are extremely expensive and are competing in a space with poor regulation of descriptions and all the flat pack Chinese imported stuff thats literally 10% of the price of good furniture that will last.
Solid hardwood furniture is a luxury.
I saw a headline that Ikea was considering a rental program because there’s a cultural understanding that flat packed* furniture especially that made of veneered chipboard is disposable.
And yeah at least Ikea puts in some effort to make their furniture decent. Much of what you find at retailers is just chip board shit, bookcases that’ll collapse under the weight of actual books, etc.
My strategy is, I’m a woodworker. I’m slowly replacing anything cheap and crap in my life with oak, cherry and walnut.
*had to correct myself from saying flatpak there, Linux has me trained.
Ikea has a lot of chip board furniture but they also have some decent solid wood furniture for a good price.
It’s usually pine but still for the price it’s a decent quality furniture that could last for a good time in good condition.
I would agree that using solid wood is a step up from veneered particle board in terms of longevity and durability. But they still use the same joinery system, those pin-and-latch things plus unglued dowels as alignment pins. These do offer the ability to disassemble the furniture in the future but every time you lean on, bump into, or otherwise apply a racking load to the piece, all that force is going to get transferred to the tiny amount of wood fiber surrounding those screw threads holding those latch pins in place, and eventually they’ll start to loosen. They’re still not as solid as a good old fashioned glued mortise and tenon, dado or dovetail joint.
I just moved into a house a couple years ago. While I’m mostly getting used furniture, I’m slowly looking into making my own and learning to repair what’s out there.
I’m really bad at staining or painting. I never feel like what I do comes out even.
Stain can be really difficult, and the real shit of it is cheap woods like pine, poplar and birch that you’d likely want to stain are the worst at it, they tend to come out blotchy. My recommendation is maybe add some tint to the top coat to steer the color in a direction you want but generally pick a wood that is the color you want already.
I bought a modern well made dresser from some exotic wood, cost me roughly €900 amd it got damaged after moving but i haven’t taken the time to repair it as it’s only visual.
That thing is solid af, it has more hidden supports than it needs. I could probably park a car on top and it would withstand the weight. (Obv. i haven’t tested that lol)
We went shopping for a tv cabinet and 99% turned out to be particle board but they still had the audacity to charge between €1200 and €1800 euro’s.
Yea. It’s really bad looking for something online. They may be under the “solid wood” category for material, but they still are 90% particle board.
I prefer spending extra knowing that I’ll have something for decades and not have to replace it in a year or two. Fortunately for me, about 80% of my homes furniture is from Habitat for Humanity. They are fantastic for having a good selection of quality stuff for cheap. Some might need a little repair, but they tend to only accept decent stuff in the first place.
Balsa is hardwood Yew is softwood
Yew is 16x stronger
Also the one from their grandma cost 3 months wage at the time and they probably got it as their wedding gift. Totally comparable to 25$ worth of composite 👍
Same with old appliances.
And old cars…
And old people
And old toys
Even sex toys?
I have a prehistoric dildo, it still works perfectly.
What do you mean, “just a rock”?
This is true. I’m getting close to 50 and I’m already a good 37% dust.
Part of the problem with those antique pieces is that they’re a bitch to move.
“This is yours now, son. A little bit of water spilled on it 3 weeks ago, so it will fall apart if you use it.”
Or, “this was a table when it began the long journey from my house to yours, but it couldn’t handle the vibrations of the journey (or didn’t appreciate being disassembled so that it wouldn’t have to stand up to the vibrations), so I now bequeath you this pile of fine wood (fine as in the pieces of wood used are very small)!”
Though, tbf, that hasn’t been my experience with IKEA furniture I’ve gotten. But it has been with the cheap Canadian Tire furniture I’ve gotten. Worst part is that it’s not even priced lower than the IKEA stuff. So now I’m willing to drive almost 2h to get to the nearest IKEA if I don’t feel like paying the even more ridiculous prices for the decent furniture sold at furniture stores.
Enjoy your affordable Swedish crap!
Easier to clean I guess
The only thing my kids will inherit from me is ADHD.
The one on the left is definitely more haunted, though.
You mean one portal to hell vs one support call line to Sweden.
The Lion, the Witch, and the SMÅGÖRA
The Blåhaj, the Witch, and the Smågöra
What’s the difference?
Too exhausted to grab images but…
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The amount I spent on college versus the amount that they spent on college
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their pension versus my pension
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cost of their home versus cost of my home
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amount of adults in their household that had to work to support a family versus amount of adults in my household that have to work to support a family
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Their CEO pay gap versus my CEO pay gap
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number of summers where they took a week-long family vacation versus number of summers that I took a week-long family vacation
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cost of a family trip to Disney for them versus no fucking way I could even consider affording that shit, let alone paying an overall subscription for quicker lines and somehow also individual extra charges per ride to get on those rides in less than three hours.
Re:costs, costs always go up. But relative costs are still crazy worse.
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one is significantly 1) more useful and 2) does not cost $4000 to move next time the shitty apartment you’re renting gets sold to be “renovated” into luxury (cardboard) condos.
Im leaving my grandkids a very cleanly optimized starter base in Factorio.
That’s an amazing gift
That’s very thoughtful.
Left: useless because it’s ugly as hell and won’t fit in anywhere. Right: useless because it falls apart if you sneeze at it.
Actually, the right looks like a Kallax, which are probably the sturdiest item in their catalogue given the walls are like 3cm (1.2 in) thick. I’ve taken them apart and reassembled them before, and unlike every other piece of Ikea furniture I’ve done that to, they’re actually just as stable and reliable as before.
The amount of dust it will collect in all those crevices !!
Just order your maid to dust it twice daily with a feather duster, duh
Here’s a picture of the furniture my grandparents left me:
Nice floor tho
My grandparents didn’t even update their will when my sister and I were born.
Neither did my grandparents. Likewise, my parents didn’t update their will when my children and nieces were born.
The attitude among all generations has been: your own kids inherit, and they distribute to their kids as they see fit.
I wasn’t in my grandparents wills, but I ended up with some of their furniture.
If you actually have good parents, there is no need to. Unless you’re over 18 the money typically goes to your parents anyway.
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A whole a house or just this room?
Anyway: Amazing.
All I got was the IKEA family card. Free coffee. Yeah.
Yeah but does the one on the left fit a rack server? I think not!
The one on the left can probably fit the very first rack server.
They left you the closet to Narnia?
I mean, not anytime soon, but hopefully eventually.
Then you have until eventually to acquire a giant hand carved wardrobe to leave them.
I have some work to do…
Now, I’m not sure what you do for a living, but personally, as a software engineer, I know that most people in my career line usually end up as either carpenters or farmers as their career peak. I’m more partial to the farming branch myself, but if you go carpenter, you can leave your grandkids some fancy ass furniture.
I’ve always thought woodworking would be a fun hobby. I expect to get into it one day.
Woodworker here, I’ve already built some things that will last longer than I will. Not so sure about “fancy ass” but they’re not particle board.
