How to tell if furniture is well made

You can tell if furniture is well made by looking at four things: how the joints are put together, how the drawers are built and how they run, what the piece is actually made of, and how carefully it is finished, including the places most buyers never look. A well-made piece is solid when you push on it, quiet when you use it, and as tidy underneath as it is on top.

You do not need a workshop or a trained eye. You need ten minutes, good light, and permission from the seller to open, pull and push. Here is what to check, in order.

Start with the push test

Before anything else, put your hand on a top corner and push gently sideways, then the other way. Then sit in the chair, lean back, shift your weight.

• A well-made piece barely moves, and makes no sound.
• A wobble, a creak or a visible shift at a corner means the joints are loose or the frame relies on thin panels to hold it square.

Joinery: how the parts are held together

Joints carry the load. Good joinery holds by its shape, with glue and screws as help rather than as the whole structure.

Signs of careful joinery:

• Mortise and tenon joints, where a tongue on one part fits into a slot in the other, on table legs, chair frames and bed frames.
• Dovetails, the interlocking fan-shaped joints, especially on drawer corners.
• Dowels or other wooden pins, fitted tight with no gaps.
• Corner blocks glued and screwed inside the corners of chairs, tables and sofa frames, adding strength where legs meet rails.

Signs to be wary of:

• Staples or small nails as the main fastening.
• Thick lines of glue squeezed out of joints and left there.
• Gaps you can slide a card into.
• Metal brackets doing a job the joint should do. A bracket is not a fault in itself; a bracket hiding a weak joint is.

Drawers: the quickest honest test

A maker who cut corners anywhere usually cut them in the drawers, because buyers rarely look. So look.

• Pull the drawer all the way out. It should run smoothly and evenly, without catching or dropping, and stop before it falls out.
• Look at the front corners. Dovetails are a strong sign of care. Stapled or glued butt joints are the weakest choice.
• Check the bottom. On a good drawer it sits in a groove cut into the sides, rather than being nailed or stapled to their underside.
• Look at the sides. Solid wood or good plywood is better than thin particleboard with a printed surface.
• Metal slides are fine. Ball-bearing slides that run quietly and fully extend are a good sign; thin, rattling ones are not.

Materials: know what you are paying for

Words such as "wood" or "real wood" on a tag can mean several things. Learn to read the piece itself.

• Solid wood: look at the edge of a top or a door. The grain on the face carries on around the edge and shows at the end as end grain.
• Veneer: a thin layer of wood over another board. Good veneer over plywood or a stable core can be excellent, and is common on fine furniture. Look for even edges and no lifting or bubbles.
• Particleboard and fibreboard: heavier than you expect for their size, and they do not hold screws well when screws are removed and refitted. Check exposed edges for crumbling.
• Printed surfaces: a photograph of wood grain on paper or plastic. Look for a pattern that repeats exactly, or edges that are a different colour.

Check the back panel too. A back set into a groove or rebate and screwed in place helps keep the whole case square. A thin sheet stapled on adds little strength.

Finish: look where nobody looks

A good finish is even, smooth to the touch, and free of drips, dust bumps or rough patches. But the clearest sign of care is in the hidden places.

• Run your hand under the top and inside the drawers. Careful makers sand and often seal these surfaces too.
• Look at the underside of a table and the back of a cabinet. Rough saw marks and splinters suggest the maker stopped caring where the buyer stops looking.
• Check that doors hang straight, with even gaps all round, and that they close without force.
• Feel the hardware. Hinges, pulls and knobs should be firmly fixed and move without play.

A ten-minute checklist

• Push test: no wobble, no creak
• Joints: shaped joints, no gaps, no staples doing the real work
• Drawers: run smoothly, sound corners, bottom in a groove
• Materials: know if it is solid, veneered or board, and price it accordingly
• Back panel: fitted, not just stapled on
• Finish: even on top, cared for underneath
• Doors and hardware: straight, even, firm

Good work is not always expensive

Price and quality do not always move together. A plain piece with honest joints and a careful finish can outlast a costly one that is mostly surface. Judge the piece in front of you, not the label or the showroom. If you can, buy the one that passes the push test, opens sweetly and is finished where no one will see. That is a piece made by someone who expected it to be used for a long time.