What to look for when buying reproduction furniture?

If you're in the market for reproduction furniture, you are joining millions of consumers who have in the past ten years "rediscovered" midcentury designs, and have led a surge in interest in all things midcentury from accessories to furniture.

 As a result, popular furniture pieces such as the Barcelona chair and Eames lounge chair have become household names, along with the designers themselves. Appearances in movies and pop culture have served to solidify midcentury furniture pieces as "must have" items in everyone's home whether it's just a small piece such as a clock or an entire furniture collection. What should a buyer look for when shopping for quality midcentury reproduction furniture? The key considerations for a quality midcentury piece are craftsmanship, materials, and authenticity. Of-course once these criteria are met, then the final criteria would be pricing. Let's elaborate on each of these criteria, and review important details:

Craftsmanship: with the flood of discounted furniture from China and other countries, it is important to look for tell-tale signs of shortcuts made in the manufacturing process or to put it less politely, poor craftsmanship. In regards to furniture items, examples may be poor stitching in upholstery, scratches on wood or metal surfaces, overall unevenness, loose parts, etc. There are many examples of high quality mass-market consumer items being manufactured in China. Likewise, there are also many high quality furniture manufacturers in China who are paying careful attention to these finer details in craftsmanship. Considering that people are buying midcentury modern furniture to last a generation or even a lifetime, these finer details in craftsmanship cannot be overlooked.

Materials: there are various grades of materials used in midcentury modern furniture, mainly concerning the upholstered sections of furniture. Examples of lower-grade materials are polyurethane (PU) or bonded leather which are actually not very common in midcentury pieces but may be used by some big box retailers such as Wal-Mart or IKEA. Higher-grade materials are top-grain leather and aniline leather. Top-grain leather is more common in the furniture industry as it is more durable and widely available. Aniline leather tends to have a smooth finish (no top-grain) and generally feels softer. Aniline leather will usually add around 5-10% to the overall cost depending on the amount of leather used in each furniture piece. This does not mean that aniline leather is always more costly than top-grain leather.