Survey: Do You Like Looking at Designer Furniture?

WE should all grow massive fur coats and sleep outside and wash our selves in dirt. decomposing as quickly as possible and making ourselves unappetising to the opposite sex or to sex with any gender. eat only grubs and fleas and pray for a quick and sudden death.
Jason man get a grip. Furniture that costs 5000. could be made with cheap labor in China or Vietnam then shipped to Walmart. Because designers and Artists should never be paid for their innovation and the small pool of early adopters, willing to buy a hand made object.

As a carpenter and a person who follows environmental progress, I get inspired by seeing how other people are utilizing renewable resources. I surely won't go and buy it, but i just might go home and build it myself.

I think the people voting for "I like to see it" are forgetting that there is a lot of furniture out there that's sustainable AND in the average purchaser's budget range. Sustainability does not always come at the cost of $$$!

I like looking at the expensive stuff, but would definitely like to see things that are more reasonable.

Put simpler, fashions and trends are what got us into half the trouble we're in the first place. What I expect out of Treehugger are articles focused on things I might actually use and notice, not well established businesses and their fancy new line of clothing. That's not important, and especially not since they don't appear to give a damn about making it affordable to the people who are doing all the legwork, their employees and the average joe Treehugger. Topping that, 90% of the materials being posted that are "fair trade" are national companies that offshore their labor to places where a "fair wage" is considered minimum wage over in their homeland. Add on to that they have to get that product back to the place it will be sold somehow (via plane) so that's not really helping either. Overall, it just seems very cheesy to continually post items that are clearly overpirced and outsourced when there are PLENTY of companies that do their work in country at much lower prices.

Down with the fashion industry!

$5000 may be a little much, but IKEA sacrifices quality and longevity for price. Quality furniture that is made any where near where you live, is going to cost a bit. However, it is more likely going to support new designers and smaller workshops instead of the behemoths that are making the stuff in Vietnam and shipping halfway across the globe.

You get what you pay for.

We at Eco Furniture realized that most of the sustainable furniture available is not what we call affordable. Therefore we keep our designs simple to lower the production cost and at the end we pass the savings on to our customers!
We proved that sustainable, non-toxic , high quality handmade furniture doesn't have to be expensive.
Check it out: www.ecofurniture.ca
BTW: Our beds are priced from $600 up to $3000

Cheers,

Andreas

I work for a company called Pli Design Ltd, based in London. We believe that sustainable furniture should not have a premium strapped to the price. For the market to move toward sustainable furniture options affordable solutions have drive the market, otherwise benefits of mass producing furniture won't take hold. The more we can specify and support sustainable board solutions/technologies the more the prices will come down due to the higher volume production, if we don't increase the demand, MDF and formaldehyde based products will stay in the best option for affordable furniture, because they are so cheap to produce. In the end a product has to make money, no matter how well something is designed or how good it is for the environment, it has be able to turn a profit.

If you live in the UK, we have a reasonably price range of bamboo and wheat straw board flat pack furniture available, the grass series for purchase through a range of online retailers. All of our products are formaldehyde free and have been designed with sustainability at the top of the agenda.

http://www.plidesign.co.uk/products/

I work for a company called Pli Design Ltd, based in London. We believe that sustainable furniture should not have a premium strapped to the price. For the market to move toward sustainable furniture options affordable solutions have drive the market, otherwise benefits of mass producing furniture won't take hold. The more we can specify and support sustainable board solutions/technologies the more the prices will come down due to the higher volume production, if we don't increase the demand, MDF and formaldehyde based products will stay in the best option for affordable furniture, because they are so cheap to produce. In the end a product has to make money, no matter how well something is designed or how good it is for the environment, it has be able to turn a profit.

If you live in the UK, we have a reasonably price range of bamboo and wheat straw board flat pack furniture available, the grass series for purchase through a range of online retailers. All of our products are formaldehyde free and have been designed with sustainability at the top of the agenda.

http://www.plidesign.co.uk/products/

i voted that i like to see it because i do. just like i like looking at the beatiful gardens i will never visit or at anything else worth seeing.

i know i won't ever buy a $5000 coffee table because if i could afford it, i'd spend the money on tools and materials and build several pieces of furniture instead, but that doesn't devalue the beauty of the original piece.

get a grip, being jealous because you can't afford it shouldn't stop you from seeing it - and if you really don't want to see, don't read the article. duh.

I like that stuff. I will never ever be able to afford it. Even if I was rich, I wouldn't buy it. I do use it as an inspiration, though.

Seeing the options out there helps me go to my local salvage recycler, and create my own stuff. Some of the ideas are great, if totally crazy in the price department.

I do wish, there were more posts on affordable, ecologically sound, alternatives. I mean, things like who is the best place to buy a couch from, or what kitchen appliances were easier on energy consumption, and still working.

"get a grip, being jealous because you can't afford it shouldn't stop you from seeing it - and if you really don't want to see, don't read the article. duh."

@liz

I don't think anyone here is jealous, we're simply saying sustainability and beauty does not have to come at the cost of ridiculous pricing. Even the Amish have the decency to price their materials within the affordability of the common man, and you can't get much more natural than traditional Amish built furniture or materials.

Nor is anyone here saying the objects are ugly. What we ARE saying, is that there is beauty in objects that are less expensive as well. In fact, I find more beauty in things that were made for real people, like you and me. Pricing something at $5000 is nothing but greenwashing if nobody can afford it. Made for rich TV stars and actors that can buy it and say "ooo, look what I'm doing". I consider it greenwashing when you price something out of the league of normal people.

That being said, you don't need to have a dirt sofa, like you seem to be implying, to be fashionable. Just look at the people who posted above with links to other areas, or do a google search and you'll find MOST of the stuff out there is far less expensive by 2 to 10 times for the same quality and material.

I know that there is sustainable furniture in my price range (and I'd like to see that, too.

But I do like seeing the expensive, creatively designed stuff, too. It helps me to think in new ways about the space that I have and how to use it efficiently and maybe even stylishly. At the risk of admitting to a couple copyright violations, I've even attempted to build my own furniture with inspiration from the controversial pieces.

I learn more and more everyday that treehuggers are cheapskates.

Between lambasting Nau, Tesla and designer sustainable furniture, everything should be the highest quality(to last as long as possible), made responsibly, made sustainably, made fair trade, and made dirt cheap because you aren't willing to pay for any of the above.

I'm still waiting for people to give real world examples of the above mentioned, at "reasonable" prices. I guarantee something from that "perfection list" is being compromised.

A designer's time is valuable, especially when they don't have a large company feeding them and paying rent. Hours upon hours are spent working on innovative designs that are produced in small numbers...only to be ripped off, compromised, and commoditized by Ikea and others.

I am extremely grateful that treehugger has mentioned some of my "expensive" furniture in the past. Some of my furniture costs a few thousand dollars, though it is well worth it. I use aluminum, which is a highly sustainable and easily reclyclable material. I view product life as one of the most important aspects of sustainability and the furniture I build will last functionally for generations. I don't think that using "sustainable materials" necessarily makes a product sustainable. There are many more things to consider, such as product lifecycle, manufacturing processes, shipping methods, etc. For example, in my mind something made of bamboo in a heavily polluting chinese factory, shipped accross the ocean in a massive ship, then driven to its destination in a large truck is far from sustainable. You should also look into what materials the product is composed of and their reclyclability or possible reuse. I have dining tables that are sold for a $2500, though if you ever decided to get rid of it, you wouldn't sell it at a garage sale for 10 dollars, you could take it to your local reclycling facility and get $1350. (based on todays current recyling payout for aluminum) Though, if you keep that table for another 25 years, you may be able to recycle it for more than 2500 if the price of aluminum continues to rise. I obviously don't want my tables to be melted down, I am just trying to make a point. The consumer should educate themselves in order to make a sustainable purchase that is priced fairly and is truly sustainable. The old adage, you pay for what you get, usually holds true, though there are some wolves in the flock. In my mind, purchasing furniture should be just like purchasing stocks. You want to purchase something with a fair price that will produce value in the long term. You can buy a table from me for 2500 that will last a few hundred years, or you can buy cheaply made stuff that will need to be replaced every 5-10 years. My furniture is manufactured in rural missouri, using an environmentally friendly manufacturing process, all scrap is recycled, the coating contains no voc's, the materials are highly sustainable, and the fabrication methods produce a piece of furniture that is impossible to break through regular use. Website is currently getting a remodel, but check it out in the near future. www.colescegodesign.com

I think we need to recognize the value -- other than monetary -- in posting these expensive pieces. They serve purposes other than pushing a consumerist perspective. New design ideas are often born in these pieces, and inspire other manufacturers to create similar furniture offered at lower prices. Also, for many of TH's readers, it serves as real DIY inspiration.

Also, in the design/artisan/crafting community -- where many, but admittedly not all, of these pieces come from -- there is a lot of discussion about the difficulty in pricing the value of your work, not only the the materials and your time, but also your talent, skill, and vision (as well as all of your costs for running your own business). The difficulty comes not only from fully realizing your worth, but also in how you are perceived for pricing your work. While it's certainly true that personal incomes are a truly limiting factor, as well as our personal opinions on consumerism, it's unfortunate that the availability of mass-produced, inexpensive goods (eco-friendly and unfriendly) as well as overpriced "luxury" goods meant only to show your wealth, have decreased our tolerance for crafted goods with a price tag that matches their value.

There is a reason the pieces featured in TH are priced as they are, particularly for those pieces created by small firms and individual designers. It is because of their high-quality craftsmanship and extra care taken in the sourcing of environmentally- and socially-responsible materials, something that is more difficult to find from readily-available, mass-market furniture.

Lastly, if a $5000 couch isn't your thing, that's totally cool. I'm not about to buy one anytime soon. If you don't see other value in it, think it's greenwashing, say so. I vote for continuing to post them, though, for those who do enjoy them.

@BWJ

I'll skip the part about "I'm still waiting for people to give real world examples of the above mentioned, at "reasonable" prices. I guarantee something from that "perfection list" is being compromised." because as already stated, there are two posters above with their own sites and a Google search can turn up another few hundred. I'll assume you just haven't seen those posts yet or tried searching yourself.

No where did I say designers didn't deserve to be paid for their work either, but prices like this are akin to art pieces, not functional pieces of life. If I owned something like this I would have to lock up my animals for life, force my friends to strip naked and wear special pajamas and put a plastic sheet over it for fear of losing my $5,000 investment (which, btw, could be an ACTUAL investment in house remodeling/greening). At $5,000 a pop it's like the designer is expecting to only sell one and therefore has to recoup his entire costs on it. Amish furniture, handmade, sells for much less, and they use HAND TOOLS. So I really can't sympathize much with someone who uses power tools and/or mass manufacturing blueprints after shelling out the initial design. I'll feel SLIGHTLY less objected if the object was entirely hand crafted with hand tools.

Maybe part of the problem in a difference in economies. I live in the mid-west, where prices are around what I'd consider "normal" for the majority of the US. If this was a price for a sofa in a major city like New York City or Las Vegas, I would think differently. For the majority of the US population however, $5000 is a full tenth of their salary for the entire year. The average HOUSEHOLD earns $50,000 a year. if you earn more, you are a lucky person and you probably didn't even realize it. You are missing HALF THE POPULATION with your green message if they won't even glance at your product based on price alone (and trust me, spending a tenth of your entire household's income on one item is pretty much out of the budget for anyone).

If that's a cheapskate, I guess most of the world qualifies. I refuse to believe Treehugger is all about rich people investing in high profile companies that donate some profits to sustain poor people. Poor and even middle class people do not spend (on any consistent basis whatsoever) $5,000 on a sofa, $150 on sneakers, or $100,000 on solar panels and wind generators. These are things we would "like to have" I'm sure, but why not lump them up in an article of "like to haves" and have SOME (because I honestly haven't seen any since I started to come here) articles on sustainable and AFFORDABLE products we buy or make. I'm not saying remove these entirely, they are neat to look at, but why not portray some stuff for, you know, the average person?

As a last note, with any product you do not make yourself you make tradeoffs for buying the item. No matter if it's a sink faucet or a waffle. If you didn't make it, it will suffer SOME of the aforementioned "non-green" setbacks, whether it be carbon, fair wages, sustainability, organics, fuel, for a tradeoff in price. Having ALL of these is a wishlist, but very rarely will they ever all be fulfilled. In the US market it is virtually impossible to find all of these things and not spend a fortune. Therefore, we have to make choices as to what we will sacrifice in order to fulfill our purchase. These items may be great, and someday even affordable, but when they aren't we have to make the choices that we CAN make, that are in our price range to continue our lives. So until I become a millionaire and can afford every last nuance of that sustainable life cycle, I will continue to make informed choices on my products and hope that Treehugger can help me out now and then with some choices, and the pros and cons it comes with, that I can actually afford.

@Cybercat

I did go to the links posted above. One was full of furniture that resembled that in a college dorm room. And the other, while it was much better designed, was selling a wooden bench for $4,200. So both failed to answer the call for well-designed, high quality, and "reasonably-price" eco furniture.

Maybe because you can't have all of the above. There are trade-offs. And there's no reason to get upset because you aren't a part of the target market.

How many people do you know in the Midwest who are buying pre-fab homes? Does that mean Treehugger should stop covering them? I think well-designed, quality green products don't exist at a low-cost yet because it is still so niche. So until they are available, Treehugger will continue to post what is...

I'm totally with Jason. But it's not just price... I'm so sick of seeing posts on "tranformer" furniture (or any other kind for that matter) that I voted twice.

Please please please, no more furniture posts. Tell us how to do more with less, not buy new stuff.

Let them eat cake.

I love the designer stuff, but I wish Treehugger would report more on affordable furniture, or at least have a special section or something devoted to it so it would be easy to find.

With regards to cole segco

The are good and bad ways to use Bamboo, it can be as "bad" as anything else, i agree, that why we use no VOC based glues binders and finishes in all our products. But not everything that comes out of china is of the same quality with a heavy carbon footprint (our wheat board has a great carbon story, even with shipping it to the UK). "China is bad" is just a stereotype that people love to buy into. China manufacturing history means it can produce some of the best products in the world too. Unfortunately it has some of the worst, but it is a big country to pigeon-hole.

However a point that I found really strong was the one about consumers educating themselves. Companies can hand the information to you, but what do you trust? Greenwashing or not, who knows? Unless you do some research yourself. Ask questions. Once consumers are educated then companies won't be able to get away with what they do now. I read a quote somewhere (for the life of me i can't find it again). "transparency is the new green". This transparency is what "we" as sustainable furniture manufacturers should strive for.

A good environmental producer (large company or designer-maker) will use the material best suited to the product. Making conscious informed decisions throughout the design process. From aluminum to bamboo. Most of these materials are sustainable. We just have to use them in the right context. "One material is best' is not the way forward, variety is a good way of being sustainable. Take the worlds fish stocks for instance, if we all ate one type of fish it would soon be over fished (pretty much what is happening, but anyway, we are not talking about fish). It is the same with manufacturing materials.

Personally i love seeing the expensive stuff (eco or not , i am a designer i love to dream) and i definitely hope to by some high priced limited run pieces when i build my dream home (not for a while unfortunately) but nothing beats a bargain, something you can love at a fraction of the price.

I wrote this at work so i better put the company address on the bottom if you missed it before. We have a blog their too if you are interested in sustainable furniture in the UK.

http://www.plidesign.co.uk/inspiration/

instead of featuring fashion items, perhaps tree hugger could research smaller, independent retailers?

It's sometimes fun to get an idea of what is possible; however, I'd much prefer more frequent coverage of what is accessible to us regular sorts of green aspiring folks.

The issue isn't with the cost. The issue is with furniture.
It goes to the issue of buy less stuff!
This is just consumerism disguised as sustainability. It's greenwash.
Treehugger has gone downhill in a big way!
Buy less stuff!

No, I don't like looking at eye candy for the sake of it. Good design is great; but in my mind if it is not practical it is not good design!

If they want to make beautiful design so that at some future date the masses can copy it; well, what does that sound like to you? Not the back to the earth world we claim to be seeking.

I ADORE Treehugger. So don't want to sound negative. But high-end fashion and design have always seemed like the golf courses of the cultural world to me and for people who perhaps haven't gone far enough on the path to shed the need to impress others.

The OTHER big item that i would like to weigh in on is the editors' apparent propensity for density snobbery. Seems like they've drunk the kool aid.

The burbs are here -- we can't just magically erase them. We must retrofit them. AND we must retrofit the cities. City dwellers will be ever-so-thankful that some green patches were saved near their dwellings when the need for local food becomes dire.

Ultra-dense without land for growing is no more viable in an expensive energy world than is strip mall sprawl. You'll have to go back to utilizing the sun's energy to eat...and for that every family needs a few acres of land to adequately house and feed itself.

Whether those few acres are privately owned or shared by a cluster of people is another story. But the concrete jungle just doesn't cut it.

It might be better environmentally to buy a good quality product, even if it initially costs more, and keep it for a long time, than to buy cheap, poorly made products that you will have to replace several times over.

Buying quality and classic designs that never go out of style are key to good taste and sustainability.

Seems like the solution to this 'problem' is more balanced coverage from our favorite cheeky greenies!

I enjoy seeing the beautiful work created by talented designers, even if out of my price range, and find TH's honest analysis of the good, bad and ugly of a particular product to be quite educational, in the larger context of the many considerations and trade-offs inherent in any product's entire life cycle. TH teaches how to be an informed consumer.

While there may be a smattering of 'rich TV stars' who buy expensive pieces to greenwash their PR, I think they are vastly outnumbered by thoughtful wealthy folks who understand that their visibility and purchases are a form of free advertising for green businesses, esp. in their crucial early stages.

I'd liked to see TH balance out beautiful-but-expensive design with more articles on affordable alternatives -- when those alternatives become available.

Until then, if you don't like the expensive stuff and find it useless for inspiration or education... well, don't read it! But don't short the rest of us who DO like it.

sorry about my english!, it is not my first lenguage!

I work in www.GreenerLIfestyles.com as a head designer and we manufacture eco-friendly sofas in Seattle WA, we are a company that don't sacrifice quality because "quality is sustainability", We build sofas that are going to live forever, but being inside I can tell you that it is more difficult doing the furniture in this way, I went to the ICFF and there is a lot of small companies that are doing great furniture locally with great design, very clever, not just the italian coterie
but if we don't suport small bussines we are going to see the same products over and over, no innovation just great marketing from the big companies and it is all about the marketing, it is not about the smart idea or the quality, it is just about who is doing the best marketing and who have the resources, and thats really SAD:(, tree hugger have a big compromise to educate the people who visit this web site, and really IKEA it is the less sustainable that the furniture can be, I like IKEA but I can not lie and say that Ikea is sustainable. and the best Ikea products are not cheap.
summarizing less is better buying a piece of furniture that is going to dress the hole house some time is better that buying a lot of stuff that you don't need, some times it is better spend a few dollars more to get something with character and it is going to make your place beautifull
L

As a media designer (not an industrial designer), I find these innovative ideas extremely appealing and inspiring. They're like prototypes to what could be mainstream in the future if the eco industry were more streamlined and working together to reduce prices.

It will take some innovative marketing and promotion to get those $5000 pieces down to $500.

Unfortunately, while reading these posts, some people aren't looking at the real value of the products they're purchasing, only how much they're paying for them. It's that kind of mentality that ensures Wal-Mart exists to control the globe. Real thought should be applied and some responsibility when purchasing high quality products (electronics, furniture, cars, etc.)

It all comes down to necessity though, who says you need a coffee table? Get rid of the caffeine!

A simple lifestyle, nice and sustainable.

Also a furniture maker that has been featured in treehugger, I love looking at quality pieces and aspiring and saving for things that will last. Great way to reduce consumption and relly consider my purchases.

I agree with Cybercat and many of the previous postings, pointing out that low cost and low quality are not a solution at all, as you have to rebuy the $500 table in 5-10 years anyway. The $5000 table should last for generations-longer than the hemp clothing, the reusable shopping bag, your hybrid car....

A local/small shop artisan may not be making very much money off a $5000 table anyway, with the cost of business (store may get 40-60%, rent in a large city, utilities/machinery/materials/INSURANCE (assuming you are running a legal business and not just working in your garage, which is called a "hobby")

Everyone is trying to find a sustainable balance in life. that's not really fair to say furniture makers need to live like the Amish. Are you ready for that?

You have to remember that furniture that comes from Ikea is not a piece of furniture that you are going to hand down to you children. It's going to end up in a land fill leaching out all the glues & chemicals they were built with. With the expensive pieces you are gretting quality that will be around for years and maybe recycled into something else. You can't do that with an Ikea chipboard table. Look at the expensive stuff and figure out how you can make it less expensive.