Top 5 Things to do While Choosing Furniture

Shopping for furniture, especially online, can prove tricky sometimes especially if you’re looking through furniture like ours. In order to hopefully make the process as smooth as possible for you, we’ve compiled a list of the top 5 things you should do (or have in mind) while shopping for furniture.

1. Ignore how it looks in the picture

Well, not completely ignore it. When it comes to choosing furniture like ours, you wanna look at the shape of it. Completely ignore the wood and color of it. Those things you can swap out if you’d like. One thing we have noticed time and time again is people don’t tend to like the furniture just based off how it looks in the picture. Unfortunately for us, our builders love to show their furniture in Quarter Sawn White Oak with a Michael’s Cherry stain. All. The. Time. We’d love to show everything in all of our wood types with all of the different combinations you can do to it but that would mean you’d have to look at 9 million+ pictures. That’s just for one piece mind you.

2. Consider your wood type

Most come in having no idea what kind of wood their furniture should be made out of. Some want to match the wood they already currently have in their house, but have no idea what kind of wood it is. If you are able to, due a bit of research on the wood types.

Your wood type plays a major role into how your furniture will look as well if it will function just right for you. An example of what we’re talking about is you typically don’t want Brown Maple for your dining table because it is one of the softest hardwoods, meaning it can be dented easily. Hard Maple on the other hand will stand up to the abuse that a dining table is use to. Another example is consider the environment you’re placing the piece. Hickory moves a ¼ of an inch in the presence of humidity.

3. Have a style in mind

If you’re trying to match a piece to something you already have, keep that style in mind. Better yet, take a picture of it so you can actually see what it looks like. This way, if you find something close to what it looks like, you can most likely have it customized to match the piece you have.

4. Know the room your furniture is going into

One that burns people and can be a hassle at times is thinking they know the room it is going into and coming to find out they were wrong on some things. This could mean they measured something out wrong, they thought it was going to fit but it couldn’t make it through, etc. The best advice to avoid all of these things is to plan ahead. Carefully measure out your space and make sure everything will fit.

This means the piece can make it through your door ways, it will fit just right in the spot you want it, and you won’t have a problem down the road if you’re moving for example. Nothing is worse than getting something you’ve waited months for just to find out you measured wrong and it can’t fit through your front door.

5. Have all the information you could ever need

There is no such thing as being over informed. What you don’t want is to be uneducated on what you’ll be getting. Make sure you are talking to is knowledgeable on what they’re giving you. Ask questions such as:

1. What’s the difference between “this wood” and “that wood”?
2. Why is there a price difference between “this wood” and “that wood”?
3. I live in a humid area, is that a problem?
4. How durable is your finish? (best asked when looking for a table)

This are just some basic example questions. Always make sure if you’re unsure on something, ask about it. Make sure you get educated on what it is exactly you are getting.

Choosing out just the right piece of furniture for yourself can be a tricky task, but with some preparation and asking the right questions, you can make it a no brainer. Have any more tips on what you would do when looking for furniture? Leave us a comment in the comment section!