Buying wood furniture with no plastic

[Tom Del Rosso]

I was shopping for dining tables and dressers last week. There are the places that sell made-in-China stuff with lots of plastic and drawers that are stuck. There is the chain called Gothic Cabinet Craft for custom furniture but it's not well made and contains some plastic. Then there are the name brand resellers like Oak Warehouse that have a lot of very nice looking pieces, but it still has some plastic in the drawer runners and table leafs.

There are other types of retailers but I haven't been there yet.

Where does a buyer go to get away from plastic without paying full-custom prices? How much more does it cost to replace a few small parts with wood?

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Any mass produced stuff is going to have some plastic. That is not a bad thing as plastic does not move like wood and guides and slides can work for many years with no problems due to warping from high humidity. Cheap furniture is not kept as heirloom stuff anyway.

There are many other brands of furniture that will probably suit you better, but not at any place that has "Furniture Warehouse" in its name. You may find better quality at a place that sell Drexel, Thomasville, etc. You pay more, but it will last a lifetime. I'm still using a chest that was mine when I was a kid, new about 55 years ago. Our bedroom furniture is Drexel and is 41 years old and still looks as good as the day it was delivered.

Judging by the places you are looking now, I don't think you are willing to spend the money for quality stuff.

[J. Clarke]

Go there. If there's a "Stickley and Audi" store in the area check it out.

Any decent furniture store. So far you have not looked in a "decent furniture store". Get out your yellow pages, cross out any place that has "warehouse" in the name or that sells "unfinished" furniture and then make the rounds of the rest. If there's a place with "Stickley" in the name they'd be a good starting point. Sit down before you ask the prices though. Look for places that list brands like "Lane", "Thomasville", "Drexel-Heritage", and "Broyhill". Also for something a bit different look for a store that carries "Scandinavian" or "Danish" furniture. Any decent department store (Macy's or their many subsidiaries, for example, _not_ Wal-Mart) should have a small selection of decent brands. If all of those are above your price range then look for an Ikea store.

You're going to find some plastic in most commercially produced furniture--this has nothing to do with being low or high quality, in some applications plastic just works better.

If you have the tools and knowledge and skills to do it yourself, not much, but if you had those you wouldn't have needed to ask. If you are paying someone to do it it is going to cost more than it is worth (it's cheap if you do it yourself because you don't charge yourself for labor--someone who does it for a living charges for labor) unless you have some really compelling reason for not wanting plastic--if it's for medical reasons then be aware that even if you don't see plastic parts it is often there--many modern adhesives and finishes are plastic, and are more likely to be outgassing than any molded or machined part. Your best bet in that case is to talk to your physician about sources for furniture that is compatible with your medical condition.

[Tom Del Rosso]

I didn't know they all had it. Does that include the brands you mention like Drexel?

It might be durable, but furniture from 50 years ago didn't have plastic and those drawer runners are still smooth.

Thanks for the names. Actually I think that Oak Warehouse place does have those brands, but now I know what to look for.

No, those are just the places nearby that I visited first. Oak Warehouse has name brands and it's not bad stuff considering, as you say, that all mass-produced furniture has some plastic. I'll look for the names you mentioned now.

[Tom Del Rosso]

Thanks for the brand names. I guess that's the info I really needed.

It's sad that they don't make runners like they used to. They used to be small pieces of hard wood. I don't understand why that would cost so much.

Thanks, but it's just a matter of principle. I like wood.

[J. Clarke]

The wood is cheap. The labor to do it is the expensive part. Personally I'm quite capable of making any reasonable piece of furniture but I wouldn't pull a plastic part that was working fine out of a purchased piece to replace it with wood.

I do too, but not to the point that everything around me has to be made entirely from it.