Designer Tips to Identify Quality Furniture

Whether you’re thrifting or investing in new furniture, it’s nice to know what actually qualifies as high quality and is well-made. Furniture shopping has become surprisingly tricky. Beautiful photography (and AI) can make almost anything look great online— even when the underlying construction tells a different story. After years of sourcing furniture, renovating homes, and collecting vintage pieces, I’ve learned what to look for and what usually makes me walk away. Today, I’m sharing 10 designer tips to identify quality furniture so you know when a piece is actually worth the investment. Click through or save this one for later!

Furniture is a foundation good, as are rugs, artwork, mirrors, and lighting. Mix in timeless home decor: accessories designers love and you’ve got a fully furnished space. Add your family and the treasures you collect while making memories: that’s what makes a house a home. If you’re looking for a starting point, consider how to find your home design style.

What I Look For Before Buying Furniture

Since I’ve been thrifting a lot lately, I’ve received more questions about why I pass on certain pieces. My answer is usually some version of, “Unless it’s something really amazing, Emmett and I don’t need another project right now.” Knowing how much time, money, and storage space you’re willing to invest is important, but so is recognizing whether a piece is worthy of those investments. These same rules apply when I’m shopping for new furniture. Once you know what to look for, it becomes much easier to separate quality furniture from expensive furniture pretending to be quality.

1. Start with the Strength Test

Before analyzing materials or researching brands, I always do a quick stability test. Apply a little pressure and see if the furniture wobbles, twists, creaks, or feels uneven. Dining tables shouldn’t shift. Dressers shouldn’t sway when the drawers open. Upholstered furniture should feel supportive instead of hollow or overly bouncy. If something already feels unstable in a showroom, imagine how it’s going to feel after a few years of daily use. If you’re shopping online, look at the weight and construction.

2. Learn to Recognize Quality Materials

Not all “wood furniture” is created equal. A piece may look like wood online only to arrive constructed from laminate, particle board, or another composite material. I look for solid wood or quality wood veneer, both of which can age beautifully and often be repaired or refinished. The same principle applies to other materials. Real brass develops character, natural stone has variation and depth, and genuine leather softens beautifully with age. Pay attention to vague product descriptions too. “Wood finish” is very different from solid oak or walnut.

3. Investigate the Construction

How furniture is constructed is a great indication of its quality. When looking at a dresser, for example, I’m searching for dovetail, mortise and tenon, or doweled joints rather than something held together primarily with staples, glue, or finishing nails. Test the drawers, too. Do they glide smoothly? Are they soft close? Do the doors line up properly? Vintage furniture is especially helpful for learning about construction because you can see how well pieces were built decades ago. Once you’ve examined a few good antiques, spotting quality elsewhere becomes much easier.

4. Check the Weight

Is the piece heavy? Weight is generally a great thing when it comes to furniture construction— for both case goods (like wood pieces) and upholstered furniture. If you compare pressboard or particle board to solid wood, the better material usually weighs more. The same goes for cushions: down-filled cushions will always be heavier than a foam insert. Upholstery with a solid frame and down cushions will be denser than a foam sofa. Of course there are exceptions, but lightweight furniture often signals cost cutting somewhere in the manufacturing process.

5. Consider the Cushion Fill

There are generally a few types of upholstery cushions: down, down wrapped, or foam. Both down and down wrapped cushions have better longevity than foam, can easily be fluffed, better maintain their shape, and are great candidates for reupholstery. Heavy, down cushions have a higher density, so again, check the weight. Lightweight cushions are most often foam or an alternative product, meaning they are lower quality and can be crushed over time. 

Are the cushions reversible or can they be flipped? This is another positive attribute because the sofa or chair will maintain its shape for longer, when properly cared for. One thing I’ve learned through experience is that showroom comfort can be misleading. Some sofas feel plush at first and terrible six months later. Our formal living room sofa has down wrapped cushions and performance mohair upholstery, and after years of use it still looks beautiful.

6. Pay Attention to the Fabric

Fabric is one of the biggest factors in how upholstered furniture will age. I look for natural materials (linen, leather, cotton, wool, etc.) or performance fabrics (Crypton, Sunbrella, etc). Performance fabrics have come a long way. If you have pets, children, or simply enjoy living comfortably in your home, performance upholstery is worth considering. Sometimes you really have to analyze the piece (or description- if you’re buying online) because it’s easy to mistake a low quality fabric for a higher quality one.

For example, something advertised as a “leather sofa” may actually be constructed of bonded leather, vegan leather, or PU- which is not the same as genuine leather. Study the fabric and try to determine the material.

7. Always Check the Tag

The furniture tag is basically the biography of the piece. Whenever possible, I look for the manufacturer, country of origin, material details, and production information- all sorts of details that can help you make an informed purchase! I’ll flip over cushion covers, check the backs of dressers, and yes, I’ve definitely crawled underneath tables looking for a stamp or sticker. It’s also fun to know more about a piece’s history!

8. Handmade Furniture Is Usually Worth It

Handmade furniture is usually preferable to quickly produced, machine-made furniture. You can often spot the difference in the details alone: better craftsmanship, finishing, proportions, and materials. One of my uncles has been building quality furniture for over 40 years in my hometown. I’ll never forget a school field trip to the company where he worked; we witnessed firsthand the construction of a chair from start to finish. It gave me an appreciation for how much skill and labor go into making a beautiful piece of furniture.

9. Older Furniture Often Has Better Bones

There’s a reason people say they don’t make furniture like they used to. Antique furniture is often heavy, very well made with quality joinery, and constructed of durable materials that have already stood the test of time. If a dresser has survived 80 years and still functions beautifully, that says something. I know we’re all vintage and antique lovers around here, so I won’t try to sell you on that idea.

Some of my favorite pieces in our home are antique finds that needed a little love but had incredible structure underneath. Emmett can fix almost anything, but I’ve also learned that not every project is worth saving. Knowing when to walk away is honestly part of the skill set, too.

10. Does the Price Match the Quality?

Expensive furniture isn’t automatically high quality, but truly well made furniture usually costs more for a reason. I’ve found that the higher-end furniture I buy online, from designers, or in showrooms is priced according to its quality or construction. For example, the daybed I bought for my home office renovation wasn’t exactly cheap— it felt like a splurge. I saved for a while to make that purchase, but I knew it was a worthy investment, because the frame is constructed of kiln-dried hardwood, the upholstery is Crypton (a performance fabric), and the cushions are down.

I wouldn’t have paid nearly as much if the cushions were foam, the frame was plywood, and the fabric was less durable. I was able to justify my purchase knowing that when it arrived, we would be happy and we’re going to have that piece in our home for years to come! Not every piece in our home is heirloom quality, and I actually think mixing investment pieces with affordable finds creates a more collected, layered home anyway.

Questions?

Related Posts

Looking for more posts on this topic or want to see some of my approved furniture finds? I’m going to link some for you below…

• 5 Ways to Score Quality, High-End Furniture On a Budget
• 25 New Furniture Finds That Could Pass As Antique
• The Best Entryway Tables from Wayfair for Any Budget
• How to Reupholster Antique Chairs
• 15 Black Demilune Tables for Any Budget (By Price)
• Timeless Furniture Finds from Wayfair (Designer Capsule Picks)
• 45 Designer Approved Furniture Finds from Amazon
• A Peek Into the Custom Furniture Ordering Process

Is all of the furniture in my home high quality? Definitely not, but over the years I’ve tried to purchase certain pieces that make us happy, knowing they’ll last for years to come. I don’t think every piece needs to be perfect or wildly expensive, but I do think it helps to understand what you’re actually paying for. The longer I work in design, the more I appreciate furniture that ages gracefully, functions beautifully, and tells a story. Those pieces create a home that feels layered, personal, and genuinely lived in.

Hopefully these designer tips help you shop a little more confidently the next time you’re debating whether a piece is worth bringing home. If you have additional tips or furniture questions, leave them in the comments because, honestly, I could talk about furniture all day!