18 Biggest Furniture Buying Mistakes

0:00Hello everyone, welcome to Dear Alice. If you're new here, we are the designers behind Alice Lane and Alice Lane Interiors. We've been designing homes for about 20 years now, new builds, remodels. We just want to take everything we're learning, all the mistakes we're making, any design principles, and just share it with you all. Insider knowledge that we use every day with our clients.

0:21Alice Merrill:And for the last seven years, we've been designing our own line of furniture. Yes. So, kind of goes with the topic that we're going to talk about today. We're product developers and furniture designers, and we are measuring this stuff, and we are really taking great care. And if we see somebody making big mistakes, we're like, we got to help them. They don't know. So we said, let's do a podcast. So if any of you are investing in furniture this year or in the future, you're going to want to save this episode. We're going to save you thousands and thousands of dollars for making the wrong mistake.

0:54Today's episode is called 18 Biggest Furniture Buying Mistakes. We're going to give you 18 of them. So these are the things to avoid.

1:01Alice Merrill:A full adult. Yeah. There are plenty more than this actually too. So this is just our closest 18. This is our edit. You should do this every year probably. Okay. Let's jump into it. Oh man. Okay. Can I start? Yes, please do. Okay. Side tables and consoles that are too tall for the furniture frames that they are actually functioning for. Yes. So what this is, you have two chairs. They're both sitting next to each other. They're having a good time. your side table is sitting above that arm height. As soon as I walk into the room, I'm just like, gosh dang it, they didn't measure. They did not check that dimension of the arm height and the height of the table.

1:36Alice Merrill:It looks like they inherited or got that hand-me-down from grandma and just stuck it there and nobody considered it. The table height should not be proud of the arm height. This is true for sofas as well. You have a sofa arm, that side table should be slightly lower than that arm height or in line with it. It should not be proud of the arm height. That looks crazy. You can make fun of people now when you see that they do that. Clown all day long. Yeah. Same thing with the console behind the sofa. If you have a console that's being a rainbow above the back of your sofa, that's too tall. The sofa table's job is to be slightly lower than the back of the sofa.

2:14Usually to give you something beautiful to walk into, if you're walking to the back of a sofa, you've got a sofa table. We oftentimes see that the console is too tall. yeah that looks crazy from both sides and you're giving people concussions that are sitting down

2:27Alice Merrill:on your sofa dangerous yeah straight up dangerous this one's probably my biggest pet peeve is the console that is too long of a piece of furniture in that space and not have looked at that dimension i want to say one quick thing so you have a sofa and the back of it has this like shelter right and that could be the same as the arm height or whatever it's that hard portion then oh it's still taller because the cushions rise above that the back loose cushions rise above that four inches So therefore, the sofa is at 35 inches. That sofa is at 32 inches because that's where the actual sofa interacts with the console.

2:57Alice Merrill:So your console does not go over 32. It goes under, if not at 32. I don't want the cushion. I don't want that thing popping a wheelie above that sofa frame because your cushions are going to get compressed and you're going to see it. We're talking frame height, not cushion height. Yes, exactly. I also think that if your furniture designer is using something 36 inches high behind a sofa, the intention of that piece was never to be made to go behind a sofa. That was made to go on a wall with a dining table. It's meant to go on a wall within your entryway. So you've got to know what consoles they're for.

3:34It's usually called a sofa table if it's supposed to go behind a sofa. Or you're going to look for a console that's 32 inches or lower. That's a huge common mistake that happens all the time.

3:44Alice Merrill:you have an exposed back of the sofa, but also so they're not pushed up against the wall. You lose a sofa table behind those as well. Same rule. Let's be below the frame height. Do you want to know what else though? Let me just say, I don't like it in an entryway when I walk in and they're using a 32 inch console in an entryway. That's too short. That's too low. And then their stylings all happening down here. It's way below eye level. You want to use an entry console that's 36 inches tall, which is the same height as your kitchen island. You want that higher up where you're coming in because you don't have sofas and other thing that it's interacting with.

4:19It is the main event. So you want that 36 inch console in your entryway or 34 inch or whatever. So you've got to know when to hold them. You got to know when to hold them.

4:29Alice Merrill:Know when to play what card when. Exactly. This is one that's for me, one of my biggest pet peeves. Interchanging bar stools and counter stools. like as if they are the same thing again you got to know when you need which one i don't know if people know what the difference is they think they need to buy a bar stool bar stools are tall that's a height that's outdated and nobody's doing that two height countertop yeah during the old days when like they had the kitchen sink and all of that is happening down here and then there was a 36 inches and they'll send here up at 38 is it 38 we don't do it anymore 42 you do in a bar i just want to say that i'm gonna be okay i'm like we do enough bars i'm like i see you i'm like we're still doing bar stools but not at your kitchen islands we're usually like just staying at that 36 inch counter height that's for a counter stool 36 inches is your counter height you're gonna buy a counter stool if you have a 42 because you're cool and you have a cool bar you're swanky like that then you can use a bar so they are rare they're fewer than they are the rare birds in the zoo yes most everybody listening to this podcast that's Getting stools for a kitchen needs a counter stool, not a bar stool.

5:36Alice Merrill:Have you ever tried to sit down in a bar stool and slide underneath a counter? You've ever thought you've had chubby legs? Yeah. Only children can sit at the bar stools. Yeah. Like you said, everything counter stool, we're not doing that two-tiered thing. It's not happening. One thing I just want to say to everybody building a home, don't go away from the standards. If you're just like, actually, we're really tall. So we're going to go ahead and pop that 36 inch counter to 38. Cool for you, but lame because you're going to have to get a bar stool and cut down the legs. You're going to have to custom make a bar stool because these are like standards that are met for those dimensions.

6:13Alice Merrill:Again, counter height is 36. Your counter stool will go to a 36 inch. If you go to 38, which so, I can't tell you the amount of homes that I've been in. We bring in the stool, you know, if they're, they built it without us, they need furniture and we're like, gosh, dang it. how tall make sure you're measuring designers make sure you're measuring the height of like where these this furniture is going because it will throw salt in your game yeah 100 and one other thing too one fun fact that we just learned from one of our manufacturers is they'll put one dimension of just like this is what they have for the counterstool height but secretly in their fine print they have three different heights so ask if you do come into that case where the builder went ahead and went 38 or 40 for that weird size or that countertop ask and see what the options are because it's not so bad when you do have to start to alter what was supposed to be beautiful yeah should go cocktail ottomans next guys i hate cocktail ottomans i hate them i think that there was once a day where this was beautiful and if you have one you are grandfathered in live like that it's beautiful it's great for grandchildren and children Here's why I hate them.

7:23They're always too tall. I don't know why. I don't know why people make these at least 18 inches high, which is seat height. If you're going to cross your feet up and put it on something, you want it slightly lower. I even think they might make these 20 inches high or something. They're just too tall. Also, do you want to know what happens? They're out in the middle of the room and nobody can actually put their feet on them.

7:44Alice Merrill:Yeah. But mostly. Or you got to get up and you got to wheel it. Mostly, let me just be a visual snob for a moment. I think it's too much upholstery in a room. This room doesn't have any definition. It has no cheekbones. It has no collarbones. It has no structure to it. Everything is soft. Everything is an unbaked roll. Everything is just so, so soft. Everything's just going flowing with the motion of the ocean on it. You can't set anything on it. I used to think 100 % forever I am an ottoman type of guy bought a cocktail table i haven't looked back and i actually love it and when you do see a cocktail ottoman it has all those sins right you have it's too much upholstery the room looks chubby the room looks chubby yeah that's what happens okay and i get it i have kids they have zero balance so like corners are gonna happen but what that happens when you do have a cocktail ottoman you're just like we'll put a tray on there people be fooling around and be doing a floral on a tray and a sculpture on a tray and I'm just like amateur hour oh my gosh I want to pull my hair out that tree is not to be styled it's meant to be brought out you bring out some cheeses for the children that are like so lovingly during this space because they're not having their coat on the corner I hate them I hate them too I'm not buying one today no yeah no I'm not going to specify this for someone we just sold all of our cocktail ottomans in a warehouse sale and we're never going to make one again.

9:10I'm not looking back. It's going to be a decade before we ever want to create one.

9:13Alice Merrill:I specifically hate the tufted ones. What's even the point? They're still putting a tree on it. Exactly. Yeah. Oh man. Okay. Too much. Yep. Too much. Along with that same vein, the chair and a half. I hate it. Tell people what that is. I don't know if the chair and a half is a really, really, really wide chair. They also make this in chaise form. So the idea is that you and your lover can lay or you and a grandchild or you and your puppy just a really great big oversized chair yeah it's the same thing it looks obese in a room it's too much of a good thing yep it makes the rest of the room lack balance usually chubby rooms it's just not a good looking thing it's too much of a good thing you want to know what's worse than one chair and a half is two oh yeah yeah they do it i know they stack it they do two in a row i know lovers quarrel i don't know it's just the worst and then they put a two tall of side table yeah they sure do yeah you know what i saw recently was the chair and a half in a round formation and so there's two big round chair and a halves next to each other in a family room how do you Oh gosh.

10:25I would just get lost. It's too much. It's too much. And you just phoned in it at that point. It's all stretchy pants. There's no refinement. They were still in stock.

10:34Alice Merrill:Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Oh gosh. I hate the look of that. Sorry, everybody, if I've offended you. I just, I don't want you to do it going forward. I had to say it out loud. You're our friends. Next one. Speaking of things that are too large, overstuffed furniture or understuffed. If I can Okay, so overstuffed furniture is, again, that is someone trying to cover up all the sins. That is a cheap manufacturer that's using plywood and it's sloppily done. So they're like, put some more stuff in it. Call it casual and just how cozy that is. It's like a pillow, but it will break down and it's going to expose all the dirt, you know, eventually.

11:08Alice Merrill:It's going to look bad from the very, very get. I hate it. I hate it when I see it. I know what's underneath there and it's not good. It's firewood. Also, you're having to do a back bend on it while you're sitting. It's so stuffed that you can't actually sit in a pitch. It's a rainbow that you're trying to sit up against. It's too much. Too much. My mom would hate it. Yeah, she would. Your mom enjoys a good sit. She loves a good sit. That was be in the cloud sofa. Maury and I were on a date one time. Who would say that again, Corey? In the cloud sofa. A cloud sofa by? RH. Yeah. I thought, hey, I want to lay down on this.

11:43Alice Merrill:This is comfortable. Everybody's doing it. Everyone's doing it. It's the thing. this was like four or five years ago Mari and I were on a date I was like I want to go see what this thing is all about you know rock it it's spineless there's like no form or function to it whatsoever Mari took a picture of it while I was sitting not taking a picture of me while on it so I wasn't you know wasn't ready the worst picture I've ever taken in my entire life I look like Jabba the Hutt sitting on that thing I'd show it here but honestly I'm very embarrassed by it so if you want to look really inflattered go ahead and buy yourself one oh gosh that's so do you think it was just made to lay down on sideways like a bed i think it was trying to appeal to men and they hid the shortcomings of their sofa in the wrapping and calling it casual it's just doesn't need to be so formed and that's a cop-out can you sit upright on it no there's no way it's too deep it's too deep yeah yeah if you're like shack maybe maybe Shaq could yeah I don't know so are you supposed to just pull your feet up you know what I mean crisscross applesauce yeah or or just look like the widest you've ever looked and just sprawling out on that thing I don't I don't even know you melt yeah it's for the person that mounted their tv above their fireplace because you have to like lay vertically and like look up again a very unflattering angle um to see what's happening on your tv because it's too high yeah it's in too low and too high okay i've got one okay go modular sectionals oh that i might take the cloud over a modular section unless you're a bellini like original from 1960s okay yeah yeah that's the exception to the rule that's yeah yeah the modular sectional is basically eight slipper chairs all ganged together right one of them's a corner you're going four one direction three the other or three on one, two on one side, one on the other.

13:37But every single thing is a separate. It's a good idea for when you're moving it in because you just have to move it in one slipper chair at a time, right? But then you go to gang them all together.

13:47Alice Merrill:It's for the dorm room. Or maybe they don't have alligator clips on the bottom or whatever. They just always look like loose teeth. Yeah. They never are a one unit sectional wall of sofa. It's just all these individual players that are doing their own thing and it's messy. Yep. And I think if you've ever had one, and you regret it. And so we wanted to say it here so you won't buy a modular sectional with all separate pieces. You want a sofa where the base, the deck, the deck can hold your cushions, one deck. You're going to have to move that whole thing in, but it's going to hold your big, long cushions.

14:21It's going to look chic. It's going to look elongated. This is what we all want for ourselves. We do not want individual separate pieces that are going to call themselves a sectional.

14:29Alice Merrill:That's the other point I don't get with these manufacturers that are doing it. They're like, and you can change up the configuration as much as you want. It's like, who the hell's playing Legos with their sectional all the time? Everybody's doing it once they get it in there. Yeah, it's crazy to me. It's the same person that's adjusting their shelves after it's all said and done. Yeah. You're not doing it. It's so true. High back sofas. Define high. I'm just going to say right now, I hate that too. Yeah. It looks menopausal. Yeah. It says a woman in her 50s. I can say that. Okay. I am menopausal.

15:01I'm just saying.

15:02Alice Merrill:And I'm just agreeing with Jess saying it. It looks really mature. It looks like someone's grandparents' furniture. I'm going to define it as being probably 36 high. Yeah, I was going to say 36. Yeah, that's the height of an entry console. That's too tall. I know people really want to be able to put their head back and lay against it. I think you could probably do that at a lower height. 34. Here's what happens. I know this because I know my dad does this. The man wants to choose the furniture. And so he goes and sits in it. My dad's six foot one or two. And so he wants a height that's really comfortable for him and his big body.

15:39Right. And I think he's chosen all the furniture in our house. And you love it. You just end up with really tall sofas. Just a lot of sofa.

15:50Alice Merrill:I'm going to say from a drawing perspective to drawing a sofa or like when you look at a line drawing, you're just like, oh, no, it's disproportionate when you're talking about aesthetically golden means, things like that. ratios of just cushion the stretch limo oh i have the next one too that also follows suit high headboards oh high high headboards okay my gosh and super wide ones that encompass the nightstands that's neither of those are good looks today don't let anybody trick you into that no don't do it you'll regret it i already regret it for you about 56 about touching the ceiling yeah touching the ceiling yeah florida ceiling headboard and usually there's nail heads involved yeah or tufting making designs oh yeah because you don't want that much of a good thing you got to add treats to it yeah yeah and i promise you when you're sitting up in bed leaning against that thing you're not that tall there's no reason for that that is what art is for my friend that's something else about that headboard you do not need that high of a headboard yeah it's ridiculous it is ridiculous yeah the super wide and the super tall yeah okay guys i've got one okay Okay.

16:57Vinyl leather.

16:59Alice Merrill:I don't love a leather sofa, period. I don't care. Lickery little sucker. Yes. Vinyl or, and plus, or when you're in the summer, I hate, it's like I'm a fruit roll-up peel and I have to peel off that thing. Yeah. Not for me. Vinyl leather is even worse. The way it ages and kind of just like crackles and then it starts like peeling off and. I feel like I'm a 1950s diner. Yeah, 100%. So no to vinyl leather, anything. This is a hard one, guys. We had a client once that was vegan, and we weren't allowed to use any animal products, including down inserts, down fills in the furniture. Vinyl leather is okay.

17:39I don't know that two wrongs make it right.

17:41Alice Merrill:Yeah. You know, it's tricky when... At that point, no leather. Just fabric. Period, yeah. Yeah. within a design center like you have exceptions for every single one just like we had to do it that one time there are ones that are superior than others if it is a must have to yeah so there's there's nothing that we haven't done to an extent but we'll do it with our discernment and we'll do it with our opinions just don't buy it off amazon the vinyl the vinyl leather barstools call it vegan leather yeah don't do that don't do it yeah okay furniture sets how do we feel about furniture sets two of everything oh gosh no that's too much it's too much too much too much.

18:16Alice Merrill:I don't know. As far as if you were trying to tell the world that you avoid of character and you have no discernment, go ahead and get the set. Go ahead and get the set. If you want to say that by yourself. I think you can buy things in pairs. There are something, chairs, nightstands. Ottomans. Yeah. Exactly. When you go into someone's home and they have the cocktail table with the matching side tables and it's like they just walked into an Ashley or at Costco and I'm going to get that whole thing into my house. I bet it was the dude. A hundred percent. A hundred percent. It was the dude or it was the wife trying to get the dude buy in on her idea of getting new furniture.

18:55Alice Merrill:And he's just like, well, there you go. It's nice because it comes in a set. I know. In a set price. Yeah. Value driven. Yeah. There's no personality baked into that though. When we're designing anything, if there's more than one double in anything, I'm like, no that's too many twos don't do matching lamps like with those matching you already have two chairs right there don't do two two two two two we're very conscious about quantities of things like certain shots because the eye doesn't want to see it you take away all originality and as far as discernment and like curation from a space when you do that it's lazy it's lazy it's not interesting it's lazy you guys are interesting yeah that's why you're here yeah that's for other people but it's not for you animal print rugs this can go wrong this can go sideways so fast i know that the animal print and the tortoise is really hot right now with fashion yeah and so we've got to be very discerning but there's a lot of sins that have been made in the name of animal print rugs usually power loomed construction polyesters power loomed rugs period that's one of our points too yeah these are all am i skipping ahead oh yeah they're wrapped into one though because they usually they usually hold hands you know you're going to be able to get yourself a tufted or a power loomed it's a cheap construction i feel like cheap material typically dyes i feel like are unnatural they're usually making an animal print out of like shades of gray which doesn't exist in nature or something that's so like it's fluorescent yeah fluorescent it's like glowing in the dark plastic bottles that they took it from exactly microplastics that's like you know a huge fuzzy topic right now a hundred percent that the material they're making that with is made from plastic bottles yeah we have busy families we've designed for families and everyone's just like i want to do a power loomed rug because my kids are going to thrash it you will throw that away very shortly after we put it in there because it's not going to hold up to your kids and you're not going to like the look of it you're going to want to throw it away with a hand-knotted rug There's really nothing I've gotten, not been able to get out of that thing with my children.

21:01Alice Merrill:And they are all boys and they are, it's a frat house in there, guys. So you can get, invest in the hand knot. Invest in the hand knot. You can clean wool. You can clean wool. Okay. And just, and it's okay for things to age. That's okay. But I know it's authentic. The power loomed rug is a throwaway rug. If you're, if you're into disposable furniture, go out and get one. I hate them. Going back to sectionals really quick. But sectional math is hard. Yeah. You have to know what you're talking about when ordering the right pieces. You know, maybe the wrong direction or it's literally wall to wall.

21:37Alice Merrill:It's just this gigantic. Who was telling me about the U sofa? That was like you had to jump over the back of it to get inside of it. Yeah. Yeah. That's, man. Too much sectional. Too much sectional. It's the Dr. Pit. Yes. Yeah, the Dr. Pit. I forgot about that. We carried a brand. It was Mitchell Gold, Bob Williams. They had the Dr. Pitt, which was a U-shaped sectional. And then the interior was all filled up with Ottomans. And I'm just going to say these were all separate. Imagine sitting in the corner of that thing. Imagine that's not your sectional. You go to someone's house and that's where you sit.

22:05Alice Merrill:And you have to roll off of that thing four times. The worst is that you have to crawl into it. And you're just like, this is so unbecoming. So unflattering. This is so unbecoming. It's meant for movie theaters. Everyone look away. I'm going to go get into the middle right there. It's meant for movie theaters. and it was really cool in the 2000s, early 2000s, 2010. Like 2010-ish. Very like shagadelic. You know what, you guys? We learned our lesson and now we're telling you not to do it. So now you know. Now you know about modular sectionals and Dr. Pitts. When a room has like so much sectional in it, it's claustrophobic almost to me.

22:37Alice Merrill:You're choking. There needs to be some breath and dynamic in it. White space. Yes. I need an escape route. We all need an escape route. Don't order people in. It's uncomfortable. They're not going to come back over. When you're ordering a sofa, either get some help or a right arm facing sofa and a left. You have to know those different pieces when you're constructing a sectional. You don't want to order that online by yourself. Call our Home Furnishings Design Services. They will help you. They know the sectional mask. They know the sectional mask. Because even vendor to vendor to vendor has different terminology for the facing arms and stuff.