If you’re in the market for some new furniture, you may be looking at your purse (or wallet) and wondering how to get the most for your money. The obvious choice for those on a tight budget would be to plump for the flat-pack option. Nothing wrong with that, there’s a huge variety of furniture available nowadays to match or compliment every interior. The only thing to take into consideration with flat packs is how long do you want it to last. The design and construction lends itself to a relatively short lifespan because the connecting parts tend to be more hard wearing than the materials used in the panels. I’m sure everyone at some point has been involved in the construction of a flat pack item and will be familiar with the kind of fixtures in the image below:
New Furniture: Flat Pack vs Solid Oak vs Grow Your Own
This is one half of a fastener, generally used to hold two pieces of chipboard together. As metal is strong than chipboard, what tends to happen over time is the chipboard deteriorates and breaks away, leaving you with a drawer or cupboard door that doesn’t work anymore. Then it’s time to replace the old and you’re back to decision time.
If you were to take your flat pack budget and double it (approximately), then you’re in the market for solid wood furniture. The difference can be seen in the manufacturing techniques. Solid wood furniture tends to use dovetail joints (as in the image below). This forms a stronger bond and drawers, doors, etc are far less likely to come apart.
New Furniture: Flat Pack vs Solid Oak vs Grow Your Own
Now, here’s something interesting. Let’s (just for the fun of it) take your solid wood furniture budget and, say, multiply by 100, then you might be somewhere close to the cost of creating your own oak furniture from an acorn! We recently has this fab infographic created, showing how to grow an oak tree from an acorn and approximate costs involved in turning your oak tree into a piece of furniture. I should warn you though, the DIY route takes a long time:
New Furniture: Flat Pack vs Solid Oak vs Grow Your Own
Infographic created by Furniture Plus+
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