Furnishings 101

Non-Toxic Sofas: Do They Exist and How to Find Them

Non-Toxic Furniture | The Stated Home

It seems like everywhere you turn, there’s something lurking in a product ready to kill you: nitrates in your bacon, parabens in your face lotion, even food dye in your delicious cupcake! And sadly, furniture isn’t innocent. The problem is that plenty of manufacturers use toxic materials, from glue to foam to finishes. In fact, many of the products used in furniture construction can contain cancer-causing chemicals. You can’t avoid them completely, but you can greatly minimize your exposure by shopping for less-toxic products. You just need to know what to watch out for.

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Furnishings 101

Kid-Friendly Couches: How to Shop for Pieces Your Children Won’t Destroy

Kid-Friendly Couches | The Stated Home

A lot of people believe they shouldn’t invest in good furniture because they have small kids full of destructive tendencies. While this logic may sound solid on the surface, it ends up falling apart when you dig a little deeper.

If your furniture is getting trashed by your kids, it’s probably because it’s poorly made. If you invest in quality, American-made furniture, it will stand up way better to daily assaults from the little ones. It’s also better for the environment (less junky furniture in landfills), costs you less money in the long run (you don’t have to keep re-purchasing sofa after sofa every few years), and it means you can create the house you want now as opposed to waiting until your kids graduate from high school.

Here’s why high-quality wins out in the battle for kid-resistance furniture:

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Furnishings 101

Pet-Friendly Furniture: The Best Choices for Dog- and Cat-Owners

Pet-Friendly Furniture | The Stated Home

The majority of people we help with furniture shopping bring up that they have a cat or dog at home. That’s not surprising since 68 percent of households have a pet (ours included!). The NUMBER ONE thing you can do to protect your furniture is to not let your animals on it. But we know from personal experience that cats do whatever they want and dogs eventually figure out how comfy a sofa is–even if they only sneak onto it when you’re out of the house. And if you’re lucky enough to have pets that don’t get on the furniture, they probably still enjoy laying up against it. That’s why we suggest all pet owners keep in mind a few things when choosing new furniture.

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Furnishings 101

Lee Industries Slipcovered Sofas: Replacing the Slipcover & Cushions for a New Sofa at Half the Price

Lee Industries Slipcovered Sofas | The Stated Home

Replacing the slipcover and cushions on your Lee Industries sofa is an easy way to get some more good years out of a favorite piece of furniture. We get a lot of requests from customers about how it works, so we wanted to clear up some confusion. First off: No, we aren’t talking about those off-the-shelf one-size-fits-most slipcovers that look like loose sheets with sofa arms at the ends. This is about covers made by your sofa’s manufacturer designed to fit your exact style. Also, while we sell Lee Industries at The Stated Home, the information below applies to any sofa where the manufacturer offers replacement covers.

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Furnishings 101

Sustainable Forestry: How It Works & Why It Matters

Sustainable Forestry | The Stated Home

One of the benefits of buying American-made furniture is that the pieces are most likely built out of domestically grown trees. And those trees are likely harvested from sustainably managed forests. That means you can rest easy knowing your purchase isn’t supporting harmful logging practices like clear cutting (and in fact may actually be helping to maintain a healthy ecosystem).

We had a general idea about why this mattered, but we never knew exactly what went on in a sustainably managed logging operation. So we jumped at the chance to visit a logging site in New Hampshire and learn everything we could about the actual business of cutting down trees. Here’s what we discovered: (more…)