Furniture serves a variety of purposes in your home. Besides giving you a place to sit and a bed to sleep on it can also give your home style and elegance. It can be a conversation piece like a chest drawer with a profusion of vegetal and scrolling ornament or something as simple as a sofa.
Furniture can be made from one of two primary types of wood: solid woods and manufactured woods. Solid woods are woods that have not been altered from their natural state and have the ability to withstand years of wear and tear. Manufactured woods are a combination of real wood and synthetic materials such as particleboard/chipboard, MDF (medium density fiberboard) or even hardwood plywood. Furniture made from manufactured woods generally does not last long.
A good rule of thumb is to buy only furniture that is built with quality material. Look for furniture that has dovetail or mortise & tenon joints instead of staples. Also, look for quality pieces that are not nailed together but assembled using dowels and glue. Poorly constructed furniture will often wobble on any floor and this is a sure sign of poor quality.
Another good rule of thumb is weight. The higher the quality of a piece the more it will weigh. This is especially true of casegoods (like wood pieces) and upholstered furniture. For example, sofas made from thick wood and coil springs will be much heavier than those with a thin wood frame and elastic webbing.
