The Basics of Buying Used Furniture

The marketplace is flooded with used furniture for sale!  One can find almost anything that they are looking for.  But how do you know which pieces to purchase? Which ones are good quality? Which pieces you can update and resale and ones that you can feel confident will last for years to come?

When shopping for furniture, you need to look deeper than the beauty of the piece; look for solid wood pieces.  Pieces that do not need a lot of repair and do not have a strong smell.  You want the piece to be sturdy.  You do not want a piece that is wobbly and unstable.  One of the things that I require of most of my pieces that I purchase is that it have dovetailed features.  This detail is seen in most antique and vintage furniture and newer high quality furniture.  If the piece has a drawer, you can normally find this detail by opening the drawer and examining how the drawer front is attached to the side of the drawer.  If it is dovetailed, the pieces will fit together like a puzzle.  One additional thing that I like to know about a piece and is sometimes a big selling point is it's history.  Where did it come from, how old is it, what is the story of it's journey?