If actually believed that furniture could increase its value over time, I might agree. As it is, I can buy antiques for roughly the same prices as new, most of he time.
If I believed that my only options were to use what was sold the way it was presented, then yeah - I probably wouldn’t love it.
If I complained about particle board, but said nothing of thousands of people who will put $10,000 worth of granite countertops on top of cheap kitchen cabs, or even more who will pay far more for pre-assembled furniture without bothering to turn it over and see all the crap plywood/chipboard it’s built out of and the third-rate Chinese hardware screwed onto it, I’d feel downright hypocritical. You can take any piece of particle board or MDF, hit it with Thomspon’s Water Seal, and it’ll last about as long as you could want.
If I couldn’t slam through IKEA snagging high-quality steel and aluminum parts for pennies, I might feel bad about it.
But as is, I still have a blast there. It’s not a furniture store - it’s a hacker’s toy store! I get to make anything I want. And all my steel, aluminum, and glass will be there long after that high price/low quality factory-assembled crap is long gone. The rest? You never know. I may paint, upholster, chop, grind, or deep-fry it into almost anything.
Bottom line, if you’re not having fun, you’re doing it wrong! For Ethan Allen prices? I can (and have had) first- quality custom stuff built to my own specs, employ a local cabinet maker, and still come out ahead.
