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Tools & Craft #57: "Cheap - The High Cost of Discount Culture"

Whatever happened to middle-ground?

By Joel Moskowitz - July 26, 2017

in Tools & Craft

I am too darned depressed to write a cheerful blog today. My wife got a copy of Ellen Ruppel Shell's book "Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture" from the library for me to read and well so far it's a real downer. We all know about the drive for the cheapest possible price on any product and the consequent long slide in industrial and craft wages during the past 40 years. Actually it's been going on for centuries. Charles Hayward once remarked that early in his career, on top quality work, scribe lines on dovetails were not left visible. But during his lifetime custom changed and furniture with visible scribes was no longer considered of lesser quality.

In any event my son is getting bigger and needs a larger desk. Our original thought was just to go to the local Big Box Store. I hate the place but you can't beat the price. The furniture won't last but that's not relevant for a growing boy. In any case I don't have the time to make a proper desk for the lad. I know - I'm part of the problem.

After reading half way through this book, I decided that there is no way I can justify buying a desk at the Big Box. The problem is that there is very little middle to the market. You either shop at the Big Box, or someplace else with Big-Box-level quality or you essentially get custom made furniture.

In the modern "furniture making as a hobby" world there is no low end either. The projects for any desk-like thing in any of the woodworking magazines and books that are around today are pretty fancy and certainly not something you knock off in a few days with a only small outlay in materials and tools. It's a commitment. Maybe that's why more people don't make their own stuff anymore.

In last century's "Work Magazine" a lot of their designs were middle ground. These projects were designed to get the job done with a minimum of tools and effort. They were nailed together, sometimes out of scrap. I know Adam Cherubini has written on nailed furniture but not enough.

So here is what I am going to do. I am planning to figure out some simple desk that I can easily build, will look reasonable, will get the job done, and if the boy dumps paint on it, I won't jump out of my skin.

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This "Tools & Craft" section is provided courtesy of Joel Moskowitz, founder of Tools for Working Wood, the Brooklyn-based catalog retailer of everything from hand tools to Festool; check out their online shop here. Joel also founded Gramercy Tools, the award-winning boutique manufacturer of hand tools made the old-fashioned way: Built to work and built to last.

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Daniel Erwin

7 years ago

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I find myself in the same predicament as much because I have an ideological aversion to press board as because big box furniture is ugly and wasteful. The answer is Craigslist! Used furniture is severely undervalued, and often better for the wear.

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Ken K

7 years ago

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Totally agree.

For quick, easy, excellent DIY furniture that needs only "a few days (or less) with only a small outlay in materials and tools," grab a copy of Nomadic Furniture. It makes my heart sing every time I pull it off my shelf.

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Frederick Fasola

7 years ago

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Joel,
I live in the UK and there is a similar problem in most of Europe. There is a clear polarization of the market.
There is Ikea (and the Big Box stores) at the lower end, and then a large number of very high end suppliers (either bespoke or brands like Roche Bobois, Cinna, Vitra, etc.).
It seems retailers that operated at the middle of the market, have either been forced out of business by the competition with IKEA, or have moved to a more high end section. With the exception of Habitat (once set up by the brilliant Terrance Conran, but that has always struggled commercially) and the arrival of a few internet based retailers (Made.com, Loaf, etc) there is virtually no mid market offer.
In response to this I have noticed Ikea is offering an ever increasing offer of higher quality product, to exploit that obvious gap in the market. After all, people of my generation (born in the '80s), have all grown up going to Ikea to furnish their student rooms, and despite being ready to move on from Billy, still consider Ikea as a first port of call...
This observation (and not wanting to have the exact same Poang chair and Expedit book case as every single one of my friends) led me to challenge myself to making my own furniture, and set myself the goal of producing them for no more than the equivalent product in the Ikea catalog.

I have no doubt that if I could knock out a few nice pieces in my student room with my limited experience of woodworking with nothing but hand-held tools, a craftsmen like you will be able to whip something up in no time and so much more satisfactory than anything you could buy at a big box store!

Also, as he will be using it, maybe this could be a father and son project! Then next time he outgrows his bed, he can build it himself! Problem solved !

Joking apart, I would love to see what you come up with. As you say, a lot of published projects tend to be very complex, and sometimes it is nice to see a simple, utilitarian build.
Good luck!

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Joel Moskowitz

7 years ago

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Sean,
THere are a few companies makingtop notch stuff. Audi, Herman Miller, and I your FRench furniture brand. But most people I know, even people who could get better stuff, shop at big boxes because that's really all they know.
For movable furniture - look at campagin style- I think it's tine has come again.

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Sean Thackston

7 years ago

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Get it Joel! I'm sorry the book has left you feeling like society has snubbed craftsmen, but I'm glad it spurred you to action.

When you talk about big box / low quality furniture, are you regarding all non-custom furniture as low quality? I worked for a high end French Furniture brand for a while and I thought their stuff was top notch, even though much of it was designed to be assembled after it had been transported to its destination (knock-down).

I feel like that's part of living in the modern world. It would be great to have all solid wood pieces with intricate joinery, until you need to move them out of your apartment and can't make the bend in the corridor.

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