Posted on: June 4, 2007

When to Choose Style Over Substance

Designer looks at discount prices can be a bargain or a bust: On which pieces of furniture should you invest top dollar?

By Christina Owens
CTW Features

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, furniture designers must be red from blushing. With high-end designs trickling down to the masses, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to settle the debate of style versus substance.

“People buy high-quality furniture because of its longevity, but beyond that, the design,” says David Mehlhorn, vice president of sales for Thomas Moser, Auburn, Maine.

“There’s something about the form itself and the positive space and the negative space that morph it into a functional piece of art.”

While there may not be a lack of style and variety available in furniture of all prices, Steve Hodges, designer and president of Steve Hodges Associates Inc., Lexington, N.C., says there is a misunderstanding on both the part of the public and designers in translating what constitutes good design and why it’s important.

“The problem is we’ve become such a disposable society,” he says. “The problem with the furniture industry is it’s done a very poor job of educating the public with what quality is.”

And quality may not always mean trendy says Kimberley Seldon, principle designer for Kimberley Seldon Design Group, Toronto.

“Right off the bat, anything that’s trendy you should not overspend on,” she says.

“The more limited your budget is, the more you should rely on classic styling. What’s horrifying is to pay the upper-end price and realize you’ve got nothing but a bad reproduction.”

With a limited budget, however, there is still some wiggle room to mix both high and low-end pieces.

Randy Culler, principle designer for Randy Culler Designs, High Point, N.C., says it’s best to invest in any piece of furniture that pertains to seating.

“If it’s cheap and not put together well, you’re going to wear those pieces out in no time,” he says.

More specifically, says Mehlhorn, money is best invested in dining room chairs.

“Would you put more money into a dining room table or dining room chairs? I would say chairs,” he says.

“They move and wear in a different way. If you bought a middle-priced table and a middle-priced chair, you’ll replace the chairs more quickly than you’ll replace the table.”

And if pennies can be pinched anywhere, it’s with accent furniture, Seldon says.

“It’s far better to compromise on an end table that no one’s going to sit on than to compromise on a chair that people are going to sit in all the time,” she says.

And while most people may not understand the structural elements that go into a well-designed piece of furniture, the average person can still have an eye for good design while looking at more affordable pieces.

For wood pieces, such as a case piece, Hodges recommends looking carefully at construction.

“The first thing I’d advise any consumer to look at is the drawer construction,” he says. “Are the drawer interiors smooth? Are they sanded and sealed? Do you have graduated drawer heights?”

With upholstered furniture “the most important piece of information is hidden to you,” Seldon says. “What really matters is the spring detail inside, what type of wood it’s made of and how it’s joined together.”

Culler recommends going even further and lifting up the skirt of a sofa, for example, to examine the wood in addition to asking about the springs.

“From the frame aspect, you’re looking at something that’s made of solid wood,” he says, “hardwood frame construction and eight-way, hand-tied, tall coils. They put those coils in and they fill up the whole seat with the coils. They tie eight strands so that when it moves, it all moves in unison.”

Regardless of budget or design experience, affordable furniture doesn’t have to be without style, says Culler.

“People are more style conscious, which is great,” he says. “Anything that is of great quality or great style is always copied. And of course that’s a compliment.”

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