Furniture Store Article

Top 10 Furniture Shopping Mistakes From Fred Albert

Before you buy a cell phone, a dishwasher or a new computer you talk to friends, read reports, comparison shop. But do you invest the same amount of time and preparation in furniture shopping? After all, a good sofa or dining table will cost more than those items and will usually last longer. I asked designers, salespeople and industry experts to describe the most common mistakes furniture shoppers make. Here's a summary of their responses, along with tips on how to avoid becoming a victim. Lack of Preparation People often go furniture shopping without any sense of what they like, their long-term goals, or even something so basic as the dimensions of the room. Before you visit your first store, draw up a floor plan of the space you’re shopping for, including all measurements. (You can also prepare a plan using an online room planner such as Better Homes and Gardens’ Arrange-a-Room or the Jordan's Furniture Room Planner .) Take some photographs of the room, and go through design magazines and tear out photos of homes or furniture pieces that appeal to you. Bring paint samples from the room, along with swatches of carpet and fabric from the other furnishings. If you don’t have a fabric swatch, remove the cover from a cushion and bring it with you. Pack these clippings in a file folder or portfolio and bring it with you when you shop. Think about your long-term plans for the room: Do you like it the way it is, or do you want to change it? If it’s the latter, what kind of look or feeling do you want the space to have? Buy for the way you want the room to be, not necessarily the way it is; that way, you’re not tossing out your furniture in three years when you finally get around to decorating it the way you want it. Ignoring Scale Stores can play tricks with your sense of proportion. A piece that looks perfect in a store that’s half the size of a football field and has 20-foot ceilings may appear humongous in an apartment with 8-foot ceilings. Carry a compact tape measure in your purse or car and measure everything before you buy. If you’re still in doubt, go home and map out the piece in newspaper on your floor, or make a mockup with cardboard boxes. Not Bringing Home a Fabric Sample Fabric looks different under different lighting conditions. Before you buy a piece of upholstered furniture, ask for a fabric swatch and take it home. Then look at the material in the room where the piece will sit—preferably in the daytime and at night. Check how the color looks with other pieces of furniture in the room, and with the wall color. Not Testing the Furniture Never buy seating without testing it out. (I can vouch for this from—ouch!—personal experience.) Sit on it. Lay on it. If it’s a sofa you plan to use for napping or reading, stretch out on it in the store (taking your shoes off first, of course)—you might even bring a book and read for a while. If the furniture store does not have the piece you want on its floor and they plan to custom-order it for you, ask if a wholesale showroom nearby carries the same item. Charles Vigil of Masins Furniture in Seattle says he often accompanies customers to the local design center, so they can test an item before they buy it from Masins. Likewise, if you’re planning to buy furniture online, try to find the same item at a bricks-and-mortar retailer and test it in advance.