Selling furniture online has a checkered history because people generally like to actually sit on chairs and couches before buying them, and the shipping costs are significant. But a relatively new startup called Fashion4Home is giving it a go with modern designer furniture that usually has super-high markups anyway. By working directly with furniture designers around the world and working directly with manufacturing shops in China, Fashion4Home cuts out all the middle men and retail store costs that go into the price of most designer furniture.
You are still going to pay $900 to $1,300 for a sofa, but you are supposedly saving up to 50 percent off a comparable piece of furniture at somewhere like Design Within Reach (which is even more expensive). There are cool Fatboy knockoff beanbags for $129, which is $100 less than a Fatboy. Plus, shipping is free. Don’t ask me how they make any money doing that, but it’s a good deal.
The site is adding new designers all the time, like Reinhard Dienes, whose cardboard furniture (pictured) is probably the nicest piece of cardboard furniture you will ever buy.
If you find something you like on the site, the first 100 TechCrunch readers to use the promo code TECHCRUNCH-F4H will get an extra 20 percent off. It’s time to upgrade from that Ikea coffee table.