Commercial Grade Furniture? What's that?

If you’ve looked at some of our products and about page, you might have noticed that our furniture is labeled as commercial grade or contract grade. You might have seen the phrase “tested to BIFMA standards.” Maybe you’re like, Huh? What in the world does that mean? No worries, bestie, we can totally break that down for you.

Most of the furniture you buy from residential furniture sellers is built only for the purpose of sitting in residential settings. You might use your dining room chairs for a few hours a day and there probably aren't a ton of crowds in your house banging those chairs around. They’re built to hold up in a relatively calm home space.

Photo courtesy of Phil and Sebastian

Commercial grade furniture or contract grade furniture, on the other hand, is held to a very different standard. It’s built to last in settings where it will be getting consistent use in high traffic areas. Think of how busy your favorite restaurant gets at peak lunch and dinner hours and how easy it is for furniture to get knocked around in the bustle. Waiters and customers are all over, and then cleaning at the end of the night means a lot of shifting and stacking. That’s what our furniture is built to last in.

How do we know our furniture will last in those environments? Well, we test it, of course! BIFMA, or the Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturers Association, is a not-for-profit trade association for businesses like our sister brand, Grand Rapids Chair. They are an independent organization that created the strength, durability, and stability standards that have been adopted by some of the biggest furniture manufacturing companies in the world, like Herman Miller and Steelcase ensuring that these products will function well in high-use commercial and contract environments.

When you buy furniture from Only Good Things, you’re getting the same guarantee of durability that we’d give to a restaurant. There’s a good chance your house won’t be nearly as chaotic as your favorite local eateries, but even if it is, our BIFMA tested furniture is going to hold up.

Does this sound like something you’d want in your home? Scan our product pages and see what you like. Maybe our Sir Burly barstool blog post would be of interest to you. Follow us on social media to keep up with the latest good things we have in stock.