What is “Fast” Furniture? Cheap Furniture? or Furniture Cheap?

“Fast” furniture is a term applied to mass-produced furniture, specifically mass-produced furniture that is deemed poorly crafted and highly disposable.

Because of its convenience and low cost, so-called fast furniture – affordable, readily available, and typically trendy – has become quite popular in recent decades.

Its increasing prevalence in our households has raised concerns about its environmental impact. What happens to all this short-lived furniture when it is no longer attractive or serviceable?

What is “fast” furniture? And how does the term apply to couches and other upholstered pieces?

Is it just cheap furniture, which will last only slightly longer than the amount of time it took from purchase to delivery?

Or is fast furniture a reasonable way to get furniture cheap?

What's covered:

The Criticism of "Fast" Furniture

Direct-to-Consumer Furniture

Reassessing the Cost of "Fast" Furniture ... It May Not Be What You Think 
•	Quality materials are not necessarily more environmentally friendly
•	There is no such thing as a couch that lasts a lifetime
•	Could it be that the BIGGEST difference between "high-quality" and "fast" furniture couches is price?

Buy Sensibly and Re-cover

The Criticism of “Fast” Furniture

There was a time when buying a living room suite or even one new couch entailed visiting a department store or furniture showroom, selecting the general style of your piece (or pieces), choosing an upholstery fabric, specifying other details, completing an order form, and then waiting for weeks or longer for your new furniture to be delivered.

But with the rise of e-commerce and online shopping this traditional way of buying furniture has been eclipsed by fast and direct-to-consumer options that expedite the furniture purchasing process.

Fast furniture – meaning, typically, lower-quality furniture made of less expensive (and sometimes downright cheap) materials – is similar to fast fashion in that it satisfies an immediate need, enabling consumers to furnish their homes quickly and affordably, without compromising on style or variety.

But the trade-off, so the criticism goes, is that fast furniture lacks sustainable value, generally lasting for a very short time (often no more than one to five years) after which time it is thrown out, contributing to the ever increasing problem of consumer waste.

Direct-to-Consumer Furniture

Fast furniture is closely associated with (but not entirely the same as) another trend in furniture selling and buying – direct-to-consumer furniture.

In the direct-to-consumer model, furniture is sold online and shipped in flat packs directly to customers.

While both fast and direct-to-consumer furniture share the goal of getting furniture to consumers in a hurry, it is important to acknowledge that the direct-to-consumer model includes high-quality furniture as well as low-quality furniture and furniture that is customized as well as furniture that is mass-produced.

Today a growing number of companies – including both small e-commerce start-ups and large, well-established furniture companies – offer direct-to-consumer furniture or fast furniture or both.

Reassessing the Cost of “Fast” Furniture … It May Not Be What You Think

The number one criticism of fast furniture is that it is a highly-disposable consumable that contributes to routine furniture replacement and the amplification of damaging environmental impacts that occur along every step of the furniture product lifecycle.

To prevent this, consumers are advised to invest in high-quality furniture designed to last for a long time, perhaps a life-time or more.

My comment:

I have nothing against well-built furniture made from natural wood, durable textiles, and other fine materials. 

My grandfather was a carpenter by vocation and my father a carpenter by avocation; I have been raised to appreciate good craftmanship.

I also believe in climate science, care about the environment, and hate being wasteful.

BUT

I think the directive to support sustainability by investing in high-quality furniture is an over-simplification.

• First off, its not equally relevant to all types of furniture.
• And its not a realistic answer for every budget. Not everyone can afford to pay thousands of dollars for a new sofa, much less the more than $4000 that by some estimates is the bottom of the high-end sofa price point range.

If you can't afford $4000 for a new sofa, does it mean you don't care about the environment?

Of course not.

The either-or choice of buy expensive furniture or hate the planet is not only simplistic, its alienating and unfair. If it were that easy we'd all be driving electric cars by now.

For people to care, they have to be given a realistic choice.

AND

• The fast-furniture badge of shame with which furniture retailers like IKEA and Wayfair have been tagged, is no longer as applicable as it once may have been.

Let’s give the affordability versus sustainability either-or a little more consideration, particularly as it pertains to upholstered furniture.

Quality materials are not necessarily more environmentally friendly

A top tip when it comes to buying lasting (and, hence, sustainable) furniture is to buy furniture that is made of natural and renewable materials like wood.

This as opposed to furniture made from less robust materials that are more susceptible to damage and harder to recycle, such as, say, veneer-covered particle board.

Its a bit of an eye-opener, then, to read the following assessment of the wastefulness of natural wood.

Natural wood is extremely wasteful as a material.

“Natural wood is extremely wasteful as a material," writes britannica.com. "Hardly more than 25 percent of the natural substance of a tree actually goes into the furniture made of solid wood. When account is taken of the loss in sawdust in conversion from the tree trunk ... and the further loss in bringing the lumber to usable size in the workshop ... it becomes evident that much more wood is wasted than used.”

This jaw-dropper is from the article, “Modern furniture manufacturing,” in britannica.com.

The article further points out that the demand for affordable furniture catalyzed the development of man-made wood-based materials such as plywood, laminated board, and particle board or chipboard, which are less-costly because they use raw wood resources more efficiently and economically.

I concede that it is still impossible to refinish veneer-covered particle board as you would solid wood. And its more than fair to point out that some of the chemicals used to fabricate man-made wood-based materials (including glues and adhesives) have raised concerns about off-gassing.

But it should also be acknowledged that solid wood alternatives – plywood, laminated board, chipboard, and hardboard – which are ubiquitous in modern furniture construction and take a drubbing for being cheap are less-expensive because of their superior use of raw wood resources.

Sustainability is complex.

I am no more saying that the answer to sustainability is to avoid purchasing natural wood furniture than I am embracing the idea that sustainability is advanced simply by abstaining from furniture made from solid wood alternatives. 

My point is this.

Just as product lifecycles are complex, so too is determining how to best make a product sustainable.

The path may not always be what you think. 

There is no such thing as a couch that lasts a lifetime

While estimates of upholstered furniture lifespans range from 5 years (for upholstered furniture of lesser quality) to 20 years (for a very high-quality piece), by all estimates, you will likely have to replace even the best-made couch several times over the course of your life.

The average lifespan of a couch is only 7 to 15 years.

In other words, the concept of investing in high-quality furniture designed to last a lifetime - furniture that may even be handed down for generations - applies primarily (if not exclusively) to solid wood furniture ... not to upholstered furniture.

Given the limited life expectancy of all upholstered furniture, how much money does it make sense to spend in order to keep your couch in your living room – and, hence, out of the landfill – for as long as possible?

Could it be that the BIGGEST difference between “high-quality” and “fast” furniture couches is price?

Let’s do some comparison shopping.

In June 2023, leading online lifestyle brand, The Spruce, published an article titled, “The 15 Best American-Made Furniture Companies of 2023,” which began with the sentence, “If you’re tired of cheap furniture that doesn’t last, it may be time to look into buying some quality American-made pieces.”

NOTE:

This article has since been updated as, "The 14 Best American-Made Furniture Companies of 2024," but still begins, "If you’re tired of cheap furniture that doesn’t last, it may be time to look into buying some quality American-made pieces. Often, American-made furniture is not mass-produced; instead, it’s durably made by artisans with the intention to last." All three companies discussed below are still featured.

Taking this article as a jumping off point, I selected three companies that made the The Spruce’s top fifteen – Medley Home, Maiden Home, and Sabai. (These were also the only companies among the fifteen companies discussed that sold sofas.)

I then compared the cost of each company’s least expensive sofa, their warranty (which is considered a good measure of how long a manufacturer expects their furniture to last), and their sustainability proposition to those of IKEA, widely regarded as a leading seller of fast furniture.

The prices noted are the prices of the various sofas at the time this article was written.

No disrespect to the makers and sellers of quality American-made couches, but given that the lifespan of a sofa is between 5 and 20 years … with a range of seven to fifteen years being an extremely common estimate … wouldn’t you agree with me that, at the very least, its worth a bit of consideration whether its worthwhile to pay triple the price (Medley Home versus IKEA) for a couch that, at best, is expected to last twice as long?

Buy Sensibly (Not Expensively) and Re-cover (Don’t Replace)

One of the first places a couch begins to show signs of wear and tear is its upholstery, typically starting with rips and stains, which, while unattractive, are cosmetic blemishes rather than structural defects.

Nonetheless, if you are embarrassed by the appearance of your couch, you may be eager to replace it, even if it is still sound, functional, and comfortable.

That’s understandable.

But instead of replacing otherwise serviceable upholstered pieces just because they are becoming a bit of an eyesore, why not re-cover them?

Not only will you be reducing the environmental impact of your furniture by prolonging its life, you will be saving yourself the expense of purchasing new furniture.

My comment:

If you are concerned about the environment and sustainability this is an easy and comparatively inexpensive opportunity to make a difference.

Let’s go back to the above example.

The furniture company Sabai clearly believes that repairing instead of replacing promotes sustainability.

Sabai’s “Repair Don’t Replace” initiative, which provides costumers with the opportunity to purchase replacement cushion covers and slipcovers (as well as a handful of other replacement parts), is featured on the company’s site as a key part of Sabai’s sustainability proposition.

My comment: 

Its also pretty smart business.

IKEA also provides costumers with the opportunity to purchase replacement covers. They do so for the UPPLAND and they continue to do so for the UPPLAND’s predecessor, the popular (and recently discontinued) EKTORP sofa.

My comment: 

Unlike Sabai, IKEA doesn't tout this as a sustainability initiative ... but isn't it?

By continuing to manufacture and sell covers for the EKTORP sofa, IKEA is helping their customers prolong the life and minimize the environmental impact of a product they no longer make.

My comment: 

So who makes re-covering the ole sofa easiest?

Let’s do a little more comparing.

The winner when it comes to helping their customers re-cover their couches is clearly “fast” furniture baddie, IKEA. (Perhaps proving that its not entirely accurate to consider IKEA as such.)

IKEA’s UPPLAND sofa is priced more than $500.00 less than Sabai’s Essential, is covered by a 10-year warranty which, as a benchmark of sofa lifespan, puts IKEA’s UPPLAND sofa above the median sofa life expectancy (and compares well with the warranties of the other three companies), and is designed with removable, machine washable covers for which there are also reasonably priced, product-specific replacement covers readily available.

My final comment:     How can you beat that?!

And while the outcome and impact of IKEA’s sustainability pledge remain to be seen (see IKEA’s “Sustainability Proposition” in the first table above) it is clear that brands like IKEA, which have historically been associated with “fast” furniture, are making big efforts to change.

Its also worth noting that already, as of 2021, more than 55 percent of the materials sourced for IKEA products were renewable and more than 10 percent contained recycled materials.

At the beginning of this article, I posed the question: Is fast furniture just cheap furniture? Or is it a reasonable way to get furniture cheap?

In the end, I’d say the answer depends on whether you are considering wood furniture – like a chest of drawers or a dining room table – or upholstered furniture, like your couch.

Sinking a small fortune into a sofa in an effort to prolong its life isn’t necessary and, more importantly, it won’t impact sustainability in proportion to the money you spend.

Given the limited lifespan of all upholstered furniture and given that all upholstered furniture is equally subject to cosmetic damage from spills and stains at any moment and regardless of craftsmanship, it doesn’t make sense to spend 5 or 10 times what you might spend for, say, an UPPLAND sofa only to get a sofa that will last, at most, twice as long.

But by the same token it also doesn’t make sense to dispose of a structurally sound and serviceable couch because it is worn or stained or because you no longer like its upholstery – slipcover it and get more years out of it.

• Check the warranty.
• By a reasonably priced couch … a couch with a price proportional to the number of years you expect to use it as indicated by its warranty.
• And get a slipcover.

Because re-covering is one of the best and most realistic ways to make certain life of your couch doesn’t go by too fast.