If you’re like most people, you don’t know if the furniture you are looking to buy is high quality or low quality.  As a result, you have to rely on the word of the sales representative, which is often a recipe for disaster from the viewpoint of the consumer.  Not that all salespeople out there are out to rip you off, but some are.  Here are a nice handful of furniture buying tips so that you at least know a little bit about the quality of the furniture you are purchasing,

First, as it relates to couches.

• Generally speaking, the heavier the cushions on the couch, the better quality they are.
• The springs in the sofa should be sturdy.  If you remove the cushions and push down on the couch, you should very easily feel the springs pushing back.
• Check for a matching pattern around the couch.  If the whole couch seems like one seamless pattern around the couch, it is probably worth more than $800.
• For any hardwood framed sofa, ask if the wood has been kiln-dried.  If they haven’t, they will be more prone to warping and cracking from moisture.
• Make sure nothing wiggles around or creaks.
• Any sofa priced at $1000 or higher should have 5 legs instead of just 4.  That fifth leg should be right in the middle of the sofa.
• If a couch has legs that are built into the frame, it is higher quality than a couch with screw-on legs.
• The side-bottom board of a sofa should be at least 1 ¼ inch to 1 ½ inch thick.
• A hollow couch is a cheaper couch.
• Find out what kind of leather a couch is.  Top-grain is the best.
• Leather-like and leather match is not aeather.
• Anything less than top-grain leather could wear more easily and will need to stay moisturized and out of the sun to maintain a decent condition.
• Make sure all the seams are straight.

This list is far from a complete list of furniture-buying tips, but it should get you started.  Knowing just this much should help significantly in preparing you for shopping for furniture.   But that doesn’t mean that the furniture-buying tips stop there.

Here are some more related to drawers and dressers.

• Check the corners of the drawers for any inconsistencies, or to see if the core (usually some kind of plywood or fifiberboardcan be seen through the corners.  You shouldn’t be able to see it.
• Low-quality drawers will use some kind of rollers to make the drawers move forward and back.
• Rough interiors on drawers mean that the dresser is low quality.
• Beware of paper-covered particle board, even if the paper seems to look just like normal wood.

Don’t worry.  We’re not done yet.

There are still some more furniture-buying tips related to all furniture in general, and here they are.

• A 1-year warranty can often indicate a lower quality product when it comes to furniture.
• Higher quality products often carry 5-year warranties on all parts of the product.
• Look out for the term “Only to the original address”.  That means that moving voids your warranty, which is not good.

This might seem like a lot.  It might even seem like information overload.  However, there are plenty more furniture-buying tips out there on the internet that you can absorb.