Furniture

A bed, a wardrobe, a sofa set and a dining set:

are the four pieces most Guatemalan homes are furnished around, and each wears in its own way. Beds are chosen by mattress size first, from single to king, and the frame is where good wood shows. Wardrobes, chests of drawers and china cabinets sit under cabinets; a tall carcass is cheap to make from panels, so these are the pieces most often sold in board rather than wood. Sofas and chairs takes in the living room, as a full matching set or a single sofa, along with dining and office chairs, and tables runs from the dining table to desks and the small side tables beside a bed.

Cedar, guanacaste or a boxed set in MDP:

is the real choice behind most furniture here. Carpenters keep cedar, guanacaste, primavera and laurel for pieces meant to last and use pine as the cheaper option. A carpenter builds to your measurements, which matters when a wardrobe has to fit one particular wall. Store sets in MDP, melamine-faced chipboard, cost less, arrive flat in a box and look tidy for years in a dry room. They swell where water reaches an edge, though, and loosen with every move. Cedar has an easy test: scrape a hidden spot inside a drawer and smell it. The heartwood carries an aromatic resin that keeps insects away. Pine stained to a cedar colour has no scent and dents under a thumbnail.

A dining set for six from a carpenter or a furniture store:

is the comparison that surprises most buyers. A six-chair dining set from a furniture store runs about Q5,500 to Q6,500, often board with a veneered top. A carpenter in Jutiapa quotes from around Q4,000 for the same set in solid cedar, and a little less in guanacaste or primavera. That difference carries into the second-hand trade: a solid wood dining set can be sanded and revarnished, so it holds its value, while a board set is worth little once a leg joint or an edge has gone.

Fresh sawdust under a wardrobe and a creak in the sofa:

are worth finding before any money changes hands. Woodworm leaves small round holes, and powder as fine as flour gathering underneath means it is still active and can move into the wood in your own house; pine and pale sapwood go first. Drywood termites leave tiny hard pellets instead, and the wood sounds hollow when you tap it. On MDP, run a hand along the bottom edges and round the feet, because a puffed, crumbly edge never goes back. Sit in every seat of a sofa set and lift one end off the floor: a creak or a twist means the frame has cracked. A sound hardwood frame under tired fabric is worth taking to an upholsterer, since re-covering a sofa set is everyday work for the upholsterers of San Juan Sacatepéquez. A used mattress is the one thing better bought new.

A cedar wardrobe or a sofa set on a second floor:

sells faster when the listing answers the questions before the phone rings. Name the material plainly, cedar, pine or MDP: a buyer who finds board under a wood-look finish will not pay for wood. Give height, width and depth, say whether it comes apart and which floor it is on. Photograph it in daylight from the front and side, then the back or underside where the material shows, and any scratch or water ring up close. Someone driving in from Mixco or Chimaltenango will ask whether a pickup can park near the door and whether you will help carry it down. If the piece was made to order, say where and in what wood, because that is what tells a buyer it will survive one more move.