re: WSJ - Significant increase in poor quality furniture in the US

Nadeau is absolute trash. Looks interesting, but it’s trash.

I bought a leather sofa and love seat from Bassett Furniture about 20 years ago. They have held up very well.

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Upholstered furniture like couches, sofas, lounge chairs etc are all made in the US. About half of them are made in NE Mississippi.

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Most of it has poplar for a frame and is actually pretty well made. Theyre are some manufacturers who use a lot of paper and sheating or worse to build frames from but if it is built out of poplar or oak or some variant the wood in it is good for years. Any metal may be suspect.

Most of the stuff sold in chain furniture stores is made in Asia and is made from Bananna wood which is also a fantastic material to build frames and even wooden furniture. It doesn't have a lot of character but it can be stained and finished to mimic almost anything and is about as sustainable as wood gets (it has to be steamed or boiled to use as lumber which probably uses a heap of energy compared to air dried lumber) but it is extremely workable and durable. We import almost none of it in unfinished lumber.

On the same subject there is no plywood made in the United States that is worth a tinkers damn. No matter how much it costs American and North American manufacturers will not make quality sheet goods. They surely have the ability but they do not do it. Chinese plywood is INFINITELY higher quality than anything manufactured in the United States or Canada. It may be glued together with glue made from human beings or somce toxic chemical that will kill you graveyard dead but it will be dead flat, nearly devoid of voids and square. North American plywood is none of these.

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China is definitely a culprit, but consumers also have no idea how to identify good construction and materials. Consumers look for trendy shite. So manufacturers skimp on good construction and materials, and instead use cheap stuff to go with trendy looks

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Most people do not want a living room suit for more than about 3-5 years. We replace our couches and recliners about every 3 years.

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Most women are looking to remodel and redecorate everything after 3 years anyway. It’s just a shame we are paying high end prices for low end crap

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Like fools my wife and daughter insisted we buy a house in a subdivision with a pool and club house and pickleball and the like...none of which none of us use as I predicted. Those homes are designed to last about 15-20 years if one is lucky. The kitchens are GORGEOUS in photographs but in reality are not any better than what is put in high end mobile and modular homes. That development is going on 10 years old and now and I would bet at least 75% have had a complete kitchen remodel and about 30% are on the second one. People are ate the frick up with remodeling and chasing trends. There are several delivery trucks a day from furniture stores and appliance stores in our neighborhood of about 75 homes. Bathrooms are the same way. Folks spend a FORTUNE keeping up with trends and one another and complain about being broke. If they bought high quality shite all they would do is haul it to good will or sell it on facebook and buy some more...

Long story short:
If something is messed up that can simply be unbolted, replaced, and bolted back in it may be worth repairing. If it’s something that requires soldering/welding or computer/wiring it’s probably best to get a new one.

Long story long:
My ice maker went out a few months ago. It just quit making ice. We looked at buying a new one vs getting this one repaired. Buying a new one was roughly 2x what the repair was originally quoted to me from the repair tech.

Well, after the repair it still didn’t work so the repair company had to repeatedly come out to troubleshoot and fix it. It’s now finally making ice 3 months after the initial repair but the automatic shutoff doesn’t work, so if we go on a long trip we will need to unplug the ice maker.

All in, I came out about $300 ahead of buying a new one and now have one that still isn’t 100% working.

That also said, at the exact same time the dishwasher and the washing machine broke. My wife and I repaired the washing machine ourselves for less than $100 in parts but decided to pay a different company to look and repair the dish washer. They fixed it, and with labor it came out to be around $150 with parts.

Yes.

Basset.

I purchased a custom USA-made U-sectional couch about six months ago. It has a kiln-dried solid wood frame, which prevents the wood from warping or developing small cracks over time. And it has reinforced corner blocks. This level of reinforcement guarantees that the sofa will last longer. Paid for it about $6000.
Before this purchase, I owned a couch that lasted over 15 years without any major issues. That kind of longevity is something I value when investing in furniture. So I hope this new one will last as long.
If anyone is interested, I bought the new couch from the What A Room store. You can check their customizable couches here.