Consulting: Buyer Beware!!

Why does anyone need a Furniture Consultant? Because name brands mean NOTHING, ZERO, NADA in reference to quality!

There is no correlation between price and quality therefore you will probably be the victim of a sales pitch from a equally ignorant sales person that is repeating what he has been told. Did you know that MDF, medium density fiberboard, is actually sometimes necessary? When is it a good idea to use MDF in manufacturing? I want to buy solid wood furniture! Or do you really? Well these are just a few of the questions that you probably don't really know the answer to...but I do.  Let me help you to make an informed decision the next time you plan to spend thousands on furniture.

Commercial or Residential

Buyer-Beware of what you’re going to get when you make your next furniture purchase because there is no longer a correlation between price and quality!

How can I help?

1. A commissioned furniture salesperson is probably not looking out for your best interests. 
2. In today’s furniture quality is imitated but in reality is very poorly constructed.
3. By pointing out potential structural issues such as poor structural design and potential future problems that will arise depending on use.
4. Explanation of the pros and cons of almost everything about furniture, because there is a trade off on every choice to be made. i.e. gloss finish vs flat finishes or veneer on MDF vs solid wood.
5. There is a trade off with every aspect of finish and construction. If needed, I can provide a written report about the furniture or just provide a verbal opinion.
6. I can accompany purchasers when they meet with furniture stores to help ask the correct questions.

Why do I believe that there is a need for me to provide Furniture Consulting?

Several years ago I was working at a large law firm while they were in the midst of remodeling 8 floors in their building.  I had been refinishing several conference tables and doing furniture repair in their offices at least once a month for several years. The quality of their old furniture was very good and had lasted about 40 years.  It needed refinishing but they decided to replace most of the furniture with new.  I got a call from the assistant manager of facilities who was in a panic for me to come to repair some pieces of the brand-new furniture that was just being installed.  The problem was that the furniture that she had just bought was quite literally falling apart as some of the attorneys and administrators began loading their files into the drawers.  They had purchased hundreds of thousands of dollars-worth of very poorly constructed furniture and were now seeing the result of a lack of knowledge and understanding.  She was so proud of the fact that she had been able to outfit every office for about $1500 but the furniture was not able to handle the heavy use that was being put on it. Plastic parts were breaking, and several credenzas and book shelves were sagging under the weight of books and files. I naively asked, “Who made the decision to buy this furniture?” “I did!” the assistant office manager exclaimed. I thought to myself, “What a bad decision that she had unknowingly just made!  I asked “Who helped you to decide what furniture would best suit your company’s needs” I innocently prodded?  She replied, “The salesperson from the office furniture company” she confusingly replied. “Oops I thought to myself!” I said to myself that I can see a business opportunity in this scenario.

As I stated above, a salesperson may appear to be first and foremost interested in meeting your needs but it is probably humanly impossible to give a truly unbiased opinion when thousands of dollars in commissions are at stake. Understandably, a good salesperson is first and foremost motivated to make the most money for oneself and the company, not you!  Everything that they say and do is based on the proper motive of making the most profit possible for themselves and their company and that is what they are supposed to do. 

This is where I come in…The solution is that you need an expert on your side that is totally unbiased and looking out for your best interests and getting paid to make sure you make the best purchase possible with the budget that you have.

I have noticed over the last 15 years that it is almost impossible for the average furniture consumer to make a knowledgeable purchase regarding furniture.  It used to be that if you went to certain stores or bought certain brands of furniture that you knew for sure that you were buying quality. Now this is far from the truth. I have seen how the cheap furniture market has lowered the standards on all furniture.  I believe that it is because of the pressure of competition to sell cheap.  I will say that much of the cheap furniture on the market today looks good but has many issues that will arise with average use.  If you were looking at 2 sets of furniture that appeared to be the same quality and one costs $2000 and the other costs $6000, which one would you buy?  In today’s market there may be a quality difference between the 2 sets of furniture but how does the average person know?

After more than 40 years of being in the furniture restoration business I have the ability to not only repair and restore furniture but I also have the ability to recognize “real” quality and to foresee the problems that will arise just by looking at the construction, finish, parts and materials. I’m sure that I can help you or your company to make the best decision possible.