Assemble it yourself furniture has been a hot commodity since the early 1900s with stores like IKEA reshaping the way consumers buy furniture. Ready-to-assemble furniture was created as a way for any household to obtain furniture for extremely affordable prices. Is this type of cheap and convenient furniture too good to be true?
In our expert opinion, it is.
The truth is that DIY furniture only comes with one advantage — the low cost — and that itself comes with its disadvantages. The experts at Living Designs Furniture are here to explain the disadvantages of self-assembly furniture and why you should avoid purchasing these types of pieces in your home.
3 disadvantages of self-assembly furniture
Before we dive into this section, we just want to make one thing clear. When we talk about the cons of assemble-it-yourself furniture, we are mainly discussing furniture that is meant to be lived on, such as chairs, couches, bed frames, and other bigger, more functional pieces. Buying a bookshelf kit has a lot less risk involved than buying and assembling a sofa which is traditionally more of an investment piece.
Questions to ask when buying furniture should revolve around how this piece will fit into your lifestyle, what materials make up the piece, and how much you are willing to spend. These answers will help you to determine whether you’re better off investing in a high-quality piece of furniture than settling for a cheaper alternative. (Hint: in most cases, you’re better off investing!)
The low costs add up over time
Is it cheaper to build your own furniture? Yes…and no. While it is cheaper to buy assemble-it-yourself furniture in the short term, we can guarantee that you will be spending more money in the long term. Here’s why.
Ready-to-assemble furniture is not made of durable materials. We’ll discuss quality more at length in the next section, but the truth is that these pieces are not designed to last more than a few years. If you buy one piece of low-quality furniture, you’ll have to keep spending more money to replace it as it is more susceptible to wear and tear.
A high-quality piece of furniture that may be a little more expensive is more likely to last, and, if you buy from the right manufacturer, may never need to be replaced. Personally, we would rather spend a little more the first time on a good piece of furniture than double or triple the amount on cheap replacements. Plus, you need to consider all the time it takes to build these pieces of furniture.
The quality of the pieces
Ready-to-assemble furniture manufacturers, like IKEA and Amazon for example, use lower-quality materials to keep production costs low. So, what is IKEA furniture made of? We’re using IKEA as an example as it is one of the most well-known fast furniture brands in the world. Some of IKEA’s furniture is made from a wood-plastic composite because it is “low maintenance, low price, and light.” This composite is a hybrid of two or more materials to create something new.
However, buying furniture that is not made with sturdy materials is one of the most common furniture buying mistakes a consumer can make, especially regarding upholstered pieces such as sofas and chairs. These types of furniture are meant to be lived on, and if they can’t withstand daily usage, they’ll eventually break. No matter how strong a company claims a certain material is, it will never be as sturdy as professionally-crafted furniture.
Furniture assembly should be left to the professionals
Although DIY furniture assembly can be done by anyone (that’s the point), people make mistakes, and mistakes made while putting furniture together can be very unforgiving. Did you skip a step? Now the piece won’t function properly. Did you misplace a screw? Now your chair might be wobbly. The list goes on.
Believe us when we say that even the handiest people do not measure up to professional furniture craftsmanship. A person that has honed and mastered the art of making furniture has the expertise and ability to create durable, long-lasting pieces that can perform properly for a longer span of time. We don’t want to doubt your skills, but we can guarantee that trusting a professional to assemble your furniture will save you time, money, and a lot of headaches.
The bottom line is that the furniture you have to put together yourself is not always worth the struggle or your hard-earned money.
Skip the assemble-it-yourself furniture and find quality, affordable pieces at Living Designs Furniture
We can understand the allure of assemble-it-yourself furniture: the low prices, the shopping convenience, and even the sense of accomplishment. However, if you really want to find the most affordable furniture Houston has to offer, with the best quality available, you’re better off shopping with Living Designs Furniture.
We may not have a cafeteria full of meatballs, but we do have a showroom full of beautiful, durable furniture that will last while still looking great in your home. And hey, you don’t have to put it together yourself! Our expert craftsmen take care of everything.
In fact, our in-house craftsmen can also help you to create the most stunning custom furniture Houston has ever seen for sturdy, one-of-a-kind pieces for your home. In our opinion, that sounds a lot better than sporting mass-produced, unoriginal designs from ready-to-assemble furniture manufacturers.
Visit our showroom in Downtown Houston today to browse our in-stock inventory or ask about our customization options!
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