Ethan Allen Product Quality vs. Thomasville

In order to give a better assessment of the quality of product one expects from a furniture manufacturer and merchant, I'm going to use this posting to compare the craftsmanship of the Ethan Allen ottoman versus an ottoman that we purchased from Thomasville about 10 years ago. Pictures don't lie!!

First Up: Ethan Allen Product Quality!

The first photo here on the right is a photo of my Ethan Allen ottoman (purchased from the Ethan Allen in Mountain View, CA). If you are looking to buy an ottoman and see an Ethan Allen ottoman, watch out!

Now, it's a nice looking piece of furniture, and from the surface, it looks just fine. But when you cut away the cloth that hides the structural integrity of the piece of furniture, well, that's again where photos don't lie (see the photo to the left).

As I was informed by one reader, the Ethan Allen used multi-layer laminate board, not a solid piece of wood, for the frame structure. Sorry, but multi-layer laminate board is NOT as strong as a solid piece of wood (Do you see baseball players using multi-layer laminate board? Do you see construction projects use multi-layer laminate board for their 2/4 studs?). Multi-layer laminate board was a poor choice of material, which calls into question the structural integrity of the ottoman.

Next Up: Thomasville Ottoman

Now we'll take a look at the underlying structure of the Thomasville ottoman. The photo on the right is the Thomasville ottoman that we'll examine. This is a piece that we've now had for about 10 years, and we still use it today in our family room (see photo to the right).

When you look under the Thomasville ottoman, that's where it really distinguishes itself (see photo to the left). Thomasville uses solid wood pieces in all of it's key structural joints. Solid wood, not multi-layer laminate board. And the result is a piece of furniture that has served us well for almost a decade!

The Final Vote

While I can't attest to the quality of Thomasville products today - I can't guarantee that they haven't gone down the same poor quality / poor craftsmanship route that Ethan Allen has chosen - I can say that from the pictures, one can easily see the difference between good quality structure (solid wood pieces in the Thomasville ottoman) and the multi-layer laminate board used in a poor quality structure (the Ethan Allen ottoman).

Again, take a look at the photos and make your own judgment. The photos don't lie!!