Used Vs Vintage Furniture, what's the difference?

For those of you who have checked us out. Thanks for taking the time! The website and store have been taking quite a bit of our time, but we hope to sign the lease for the Toronto #stclairwest space this week and we are already scouting our second and third Toronto locations! Stay tuned for a full post when we do. I've been wanting to write this post for a while now, because I keep getting asked this question. The easy definition is: Generally vintage furniture is used furniture. But not all used furniture is necessarily vintage furniture! Ok you may be thinking slow down Plato, enough philosophy. What exactly does that mean? The way I see it is there are many, many used pieces which have no redeeming qualities: Mass produced with poor quality original materials. No craftsmanship and little design sense. These are items that may be found in the average University residence room.  They were built to fall apart, to keep you buying more every year. This way the cycle continues - indefinitely. 

 ugly couch - this is used furniture!

On the other hand, vintage furniture is made of fine quality materials. It has great lines and designer sensibility. Generally it is copied mercilessly. Don't they say that imitation is the best form of flattery? It's something your family, friends and acquaintances will ask about whenever they are over. It's something that you will (and can) invest in having refinished or reupholstered. It's the type of thing that you will hand down to your kids and they will actually want! Yes Spencer is already eying a desk To me that's the core differences between used and vintage furniture. What do you think?

Please note that the couch image was used from the ugly couch contest website and the dining table image is from Arcadianhome.com