What kind of furniture do you hate???

[Jelly]

I have a problem with cheap flatpack furniture, the kind that doesn't try to hide the inelegant methods of construction (not even joinery)...

By contrast Ikea stuff is a shining example that it's possible to produce economical flatpack furniture with excellent design. Ok it tends towards a minimalist school, but it's furniture, not just frames, planks and boxes.


I also dislike most intensely overly square designs for chairs, humans are after all... curved.

Ah well Jelly,

There's much less work and skill in making the back legs of a chair upright, and in making the seat square.
I think that's where those designs come from.

All I would say is that cutting 'swept' back-legs is a tad more wasteful of timber, but then so is turning and carving; where most of the raw material finishes up on the floor, and eventually in the wood-burner! :wink:

It may be for that reason that i'm a big fan of steam-bent pieces and postformed laminated furniture, when it's done well it's every bit as impressive as intricate carved pieces... but it's a whole other relm of woodworking techniques.


I've actually found furniture i hate now though... machine made copies of period furniture which are intentionally made of poor materials and with poor finishing to create instant "shabby chic"... it makes me want to scream "go round a blooming junkshop you lazy pretentious sods" which is probably a tad harsh.

When you're trying to make a feature of crumbling dead knots in whitewood that clearly wasn't going to pass strength grading, you're doing it wrong.

 

[Benchwayze]

I suppose we could get into a whole ball-game about designers and woodworkers; the two are rarely combined in one person! At least that's been my deduction over the years. But I have been wrong before, and I could be so again! :lol:

 

[Eric The Viking]

Am I the only person who doesn't like Ik** stuff. I hate the construction (I end up mending or trying to alter it to fit in a house without straight walls nor flat floors), and I'm not terribly keen on the "design". Cheap lunches won't persuade me either.

They used to be a convenient source of faced chipboard and fittings, but even the bin in the car park labelled 'help yourself' now seems to have gone.

Waste of money IMHO.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

In the depths of Cornwall we've never seen an Ikea............or a Waitrose, come to that. Hell, there's people here who've never seen electric lights, cutlery or four legged stools!

 

[Eric The Viking]

Have you really got furniture down there now? Amazing.

Seriously, no Ikea? Cornwall is more civilized than I thought, evidently.

 

[Benchwayze]

Am I the only person who doesn't like Ik** stuff. I hate the construction (I end up mending or trying to alter it to fit in a house without straight walls nor flat floors), and I'm not terribly keen on the "design". Cheap lunches won't persuade me either.

They used to be a convenient source of faced chipboard and fittings, but even the bin in the car park labelled 'help yourself' now seems to have gone.

Waste of money IMHO.

I do flick through the catalogue occasionally. Just to see if there are any 'designs' I could make properly (Or somewhere near properly!) :mrgreen: :-"

 

[Sawyer]

Not keen on a lot of the 'originality for originality's sake' stuff either. Often very skilfully and cleverly made, but grotesque just the same.

Most of all though, I hate all cheap imported built-to-last-6 months junk, which makes it so difficult for honest European cabinet makers to get a decent living!

 

[bugbear]

Not keen on a lot of the 'originality for originality's sake' stuff either. Often very skilfully and cleverly made, but grotesque just the same.

It can serve a useful purpose, in the same manner as couture fashion. The extreme ideas can often be the basis of a more practical design, a little way down the stream.

BugBear

 

[SteveB43]

...that type of furniture that when in bits on the bench, doesnt even come close to the one in the 2 page woodworking plan being gently tapped together in perfect alignment n symmetry as shown by some smiley guy in a denim shirt....(No I dont mean Norm..;-)
Why do I get suckerd in by these..... #-o

next project's a welly rack....of my own design....

 

[riclepp]

I can't say I hate any type of furniture. But there are types that I would never have in my home. I am not a fan by any stretch of the imagination of "Flat Pack" furniture, but then again I am not a fan of a lot of modern design or Victorian styles. However, I do like straight and square styles, that are simple and honest in their appearence (sure Freud would have some comment on this). But the whole rub of this argument is that we all have things we like and things we don't. For those that make a living from design and manufacture they have to be fully out of the box for the clients sake and neither hate, dislike or love as they have to be inspired by the clients thought, with some guidance of course

Cheers

 

[Bluekingfisher]

Cotempary stuff with flexi plywood and steel.

 

[tekno.mage]

I hate all furniture made of chipboard or MDF especially when laminated with plastic to look like "real wood". Such things are usually ugly, too heavy and non-durable (the laminate chips off, the shelves sag, the drawers stop running properly).

I'm also not a fan of antique furniture with very spindly legs that look like they will not support the weight of the item, or anything that's over ornamented especially if gilded (ugh - French style stuff with lots of frilly gilt). I like some modern furniture - but a lot of it is rather ugly and looks uncomfortable an impracticle.

What I do like is furniture made of solid wood, art nouveau, some art deco style, arts & crafts movement style and some of the more elegant and well engineered modern and classic styles.

 

[marcus]

I hate furniture that is designed to ram the status and power of the owner down everyone else's throat. For example Louis XIV sort of stuff, Boulle etc. Much as I admire the craftsmanship I hate the furniture. Also certain types of contemporary designer furniture that have the same intention.

Not that I have anything against expensive things – anything well made and beautiful is going to be more expensive than an equivalent thing which isn't. But a bit of subtlety is nice. Making things for the owner to enjoy, and passers-by to be able to appreciate and enjoy as well, rather than feel intimidated by.

I heard a story from quite a well known cabinet maker once who made a dining table for a very wealthy client. A few months later he got a call from this client's neighbour who also wanted a table and said something along the lines of, "I don't care what you make me so long as it will make his look cheap". Such a waste!

Mind you the cabinet maker went away happy. I seem to remember he said he gave it platinum inlay....

 

[John Brown]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igFkYJ_XeOY
Here's someone who hates all furniture.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Where on earth did you find that?

 

[John Brown]

Where on earth did you find that?

I'm a big John Hegley fan from way back when he used to perform in the original Comedy Store, above a strip club in Soho, so that song sprang to mind.
You can find anything on the internet, especially when you're not looking for it.

 

[Nick Gibbs]

It never ceases to amaze me how many compliments I receive from guests for our kitchen table, the top of which is made from shuttering ply, roughly cut to an ellipse. It's full of life from children writing on it, and one night, rather tipsy, I drilled a hole into one end of it because the base of a wine glass fell off so I just stuck the stem of the glass into the hole!!! I regret hugely throwing the base-less glass away the next day. It was fun sticking it in the hole. The table is good enough furniture, and I love it for that. It seems a pity we have to over-complicate things.

 

[templecarpentry]

It was fun sticking it in the hole. .

real talk. made me laugh. (homer)




I think its not a particular furniture i dislike, more like i feel disheartened when i see what people spend there money on and compare it to what quality they would have if they spent the money with me.
But if i had to chose an item, it would probably be furniture that uses hardboard like the back of wardrobes or crawer bottoms in chests of drawers where the hardboard never really should have been used in the first place. Its ok to mass produce, but to shave a couple of quid off and compromise the whole structure is a desperate shame!

 

[Nick Gibbs]

it would probably be furniture that uses hardboard like the back of wardrobes or crawer bottoms in chests of drawers where the hardboard never really should have been used in the first place. Its ok to mass produce, but to shave a couple of quid off and compromise the whole structure is a desperate shame!

For me it's furniture that uses timber from overseas when there's perfectly good British wood available. I find that very dispiriting. If we want thriving woodlands we need to be using as many native species as possible.

 

[o0dunk0o]

I think its not a particular furniture i dislike, more like i feel disheartened when i see what people spend their money on and compare it to what quality they would have if they spent the money with me.

I know the feeling