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Comment by cosmodisk | Hacker News Reader

I do notice this with a lot of things in the US. It looks like it's either super expensive stuff that looks great anywhere and is usually targeting upper middle class/elite, or tacky, tasteless crap on the other side of the spectrum. There's almost nothing in between.

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I feel like there's the Ikea (or Target/WalMart) furniture that's basically disposable, you can take it home in your small car, cheap, but will probably break if you move it or disassemble it. It's great in college or after when moving between multiple apartments. It's flat-pak, all the materials are thinner so the design follows that.

After settling down I wanted to invest more in furniture that wouldn't break or slide around. It definitely costs 3-5x more, looks better, but isn't great quality either. It's not flat-pak, cant be disassembled, wont fit in your car. I don't know if my calibration is off for what decent furniture should cost, or if everything started cheaping out years ago, but it seems like the worst of both worlds. The design is nice, but since it's wood veneer you can't really touch it up or repair it because the fiber board is showing through. I'm not sure where to find decent furniture. I feel like I'd have to pay through the nose for something bespoke.

I'm in Britain, so obviously not very well aware of what's available in the US, however how does something like this compare to what's available on your side of the pond: www.oakfurnitureland.co.uk [Edit]: turns out they do sell in the US as well.

(I'd love for someone else to chime in with other comparisons if mine seem off)

It looks like they have one location in the US. I grabbed a random item to compare:

Chest of Drawers £299.99 marked down from £379.99 which directly converts to $365/$465 https://www.oakfurnitureland.co.uk/furniture/original-rustic... The US store has it for $649.00 marked down from $799.00 https://www.oakfurnitureland.com/furniture/french-farmhouse-...

Pottery Barn is a nation wide upscale store. Here's a smaller Farmhouse 4-Drawer Nightstand for $599 https://www.potterybarn.com/products/farmhouse-4-drawer-nigh...

"Veneer" and "MDF" (medium density fiberboard) are both mentioned 4 times--often as selling points.

JC Penny is a nation wide department store that would be one of the "anchor stores" in a mall. Home Styles Bermuda 4-Drawer Chest $432 marked down from $480 https://www.jcpenney.com/p/home-styles-bermuda-4-drawer-ches...

Unassembled, put together with glue and screws, and painted.

Keep in mind that the 20% VAT in the UK is included in the British prices, while sales tax (where applicable) is not included in the JC Penney pricing.

re: Oak Furniture Land and VAT/Sales Tax/cheaper UK prices.

The furniture is likely manufactured in the EU, thus there import tariffs and shipping to the UK are much smaller than the cost to import and ship to the single US location, likely being the reason the same chest of drawers is almost double in price.

It seems like the main way to find decent quality furniture at non-ridiculous prices is older stuff at thrift stores/flea markets/garage sales. Gets harder and harder to find every year though.

IKEA does carry a few items that are actually made of wood, though most of those are pine. Not great but a step up from particleboard.

Home Depot of all places sells some reasonably nice self-assembly hardwood furniture. Some of them are available pre-painted or stained but a lot of them you have to finish yourself.

Swedes (where IKEA is from) are famous for saying their IKEA furniture is just what they use until their kids are old enough not to wreck the good furniture they have in storage.

The trick is finding better than IKEA quality furniture. You might wind up paying more for something that is still IKEA quality.

yeah, my perception is that there's a lot of companies trying to target the feeling of "outgrowing" your ikea furniture with their marketing, but aren't really selling anything better than ikea. it's just the same cheap crap, but with a different brand so you can say you didn't get it at ikea.

> Ikea [..] furniture that's basically disposable [..] but will probably break if you move it or disassemble it

Of all the entry-level furniture we've purchased since starting a family, it's always been the stuff from Ikea that's survived being disassembled, moved, and reassembled in a new location. We've heard the same from various moving companies too.

I've bought a dining table, and desk off wayfair that do well with disassembly (after 3 moves now), but they are probably double Ikea prices. That said, I still have every one of the 10 Kallax shelves I've bought over the years. they transport extremely well, and are actually great small home depot moving box holders.

When we self moved last year, I double stacked my short kallax shelves along the front of the box truck, then load them up with moving boxes, then our tall ones in front of that, and load them up with boxes, then the rest of our furniture in front of that. It made the truck a lot more organized, and no boxes were crushed under something heavy.

Ever-increasing income inequality means there’s really only two classes anymore: the rich, and everyone else. A bifurcated furniture market (tasteful, well-built stuff for the rich, disposable cardboard trash for everyone else) is just one natural consequence of that.

I understand the sentiment you are leaning towards, however cheap or inexpensive doesn't need to be tacky. It is laziness when it comes to product, interior design and etc.

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