Furniture...Why is it so expensive ?

[Timber Loftis]

If you are looking for good furniture at a reasonable rate, there's this store in Chicago call Dania Design: http://www.daniafurniture.com/

I don't know how they are to order from online w/ shipping, but I have picked up several living room pieces there for much cheaper than I found them elsewhere.

For instance, THIS is my sofa and it has a matching chair, and I got both for $2000 when individually I was pricing them out for $2000+ each at other places. We plan to get THIS STUFF together for a bedroom set during the months surrounding Christmas, as our gift to each other.

I haven't seen another company like this, one that makes furniture that is easily mistakable for high end stuff, yet costs 30=50% of what the high end stuff costs.

We picked up an IKEA piece this weekend for our kitchen. It was INCREDIBLY reasonably priced for our needs. However, the one issue I do have w/ Ikea is the amount of laminated furniture they have, and the laminate's tendancy to chip easily. Of course, you can compare that to how easy most wood items are to scratch these days, so...

Now, why is furniture so expensive? Well, raw parts for one thing. There are 2, and only 2, companies that make italian leather sofas, for instance. And leather is not so plentiful as you'd think. One of the companies (De Coro) recently opened a shop in China, where the sweatshop labor prices will greatly reduce the inputs of one of their costs. This has resulted in some much more reasonable leather prices. Still, it ain't cheap.

Another raw part you can't underestimate the value of is wood. Let's say you want a solid wood dining table. Well, you'd need two pieces of wood, each on the order of 3 feet (1m) large. How many trees around you have that large a diameter?

Regarding the notion that US furniture manufacturers can compete with China, there's NO CHANCE. You can't compete with their labor price, one of the downfalls of globalization and the "flattening world." The only thing a labor-intensive industry in the first world can compete against the 2nd/3rd world on is QUALITY, which is something for which you can always charge more.

[ 10-17-2005, 09:46 AM: Message edited by: Timber Loftis ]

[johnny]

Here's an idea for ya Larry....become a minimalist. All you need is a chair and a tv set, and tell everyone that it's the latest trend in Gstaad. [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]

[ 10-17-2005, 10:18 AM: Message edited by: johnny ]

[Cloudbringer]

I know! We've been shopping/saving for a computer desk/hutch for 3 yrs now and I finally have enough to buy the one I want... but it's so expensive! We could buy it unfinished and do the staining ourselves but we don't have anyplace convenient to do that and it's far to cold/rainy outside these days...so we have to pay for the finish work which adds several hundred dollars to the price.

[Larry_OHF]

That is a pretty good company, TL, thanks! You are right, they are pretty reasonable compared to others I have seen. I am eyeing that bunk-bed for the girls.

Hey...you know, I own seven acres of land in Lenoir, and my father-in-law is trying to get me to get into tree growing for profit...and tells me that there is no tree out there that is worth more than a fully grown black walnut tree. I know that I'd be dead before the trees would be worth anytyhing, but my two girls would be rolling in the cash if I was successful in growing the trees healthly. hmm.....

I already have two fully grown cedars on the land. I wonder how much I can get for them?

[ 10-17-2005, 11:46 AM: Message edited by: Larry_OHF ]

[Ziroc]

Yeah, these days, everything is pressed wood, which is cheap. My dad had loads of antique cherry which I now have, and its amazing. 3 pieces, over 100 years old.

Rooms to Go is o.k, but watch out, loads of it is crap. We got our bedroom set there.

[Ilander]

Cedars? They're pretty cheap, back home. Seems like you can make about $.40 a board foot off of them...I used to know the function for board feet, but I can remember it now...it's something that involves radius and length, obviously, though the radius is determined at the sawmill.

If you're able to transport the cedars (that it, you have no startup costs) to the nearest sawmill, you might be able to pay for your gas, depending upon the size of the trees.

And yes, Black Walnut IS about the most expensive wood there is...but it's DIFFICULT to get the stuff to grow straight...when those trees aren't competing with others for light (and thus have to grow straight up), they branch a LOT, and you can only get about 10 feet on average per log per tree.

Dad's sold some decent Walnut logs...and ruined others. We had an amazing quality log (was probably worth over a thousand dollars by itself) and he busted it by not sawing it properly...shame about that.

Anyway, another factor in that, Larry, is that if your FAMILY isn't going to be doing the logging, they're only going to get about 40% of the proceeds. Loggers rarely settle for less than 50% of the money.

[JrKASperov]

Actually, the cost is so high because manufacturers need to bribe the furniture in question. It is well known that when one leaves too much furniture in one room together they'll go and plot to overthrow you.

You're probably even facing the most willing furniture that they're even willing to sell themselves; an act that gets them out of favour with the furniture leaders. [img]tongue.gif[/img]