The tweed Chanel suit, an enduring silhouette that flatters the female figure season after season. Your grandmother’s strand of pearls, a cherished heirloom you can wear with a formal gown or jeans and a t-shirt. An Hermès Birkin, the elusive and exclusive handbag with a celebrity-studded fan base. As any fashionista will tell you, some products are destined to become icons, while others fade fast after a brief run at retail.

So, when it comes to home furnishings, what makes one product endure and get passed down from generation to generation, while another winds up abandoned at the curb?

For starters, furniture doesn’t have to be antique or break the bank to be a timeless classic. Unless you have the inclination (and the dollars required) to buy a William Turner Queen Anne mahogany tea table circa 1750—one sold in January for $170,800 at Keno Auctions—accept that you’re shopping for furniture you like and want.

If a product’s materials, scale, size and function serve you well now, a chest’s chances of being a classic decades from now improve. HomeYet.com identifies timeless styles, shapes and patterns that are available now, and likely to endure:

Better-quality materials may cost more, but often they boost a product’s longevity. Consider designer Christopher Guy’s unique "Chris-X" console table, which is carved by hand from solid and veneered mahogany. The table’s signature curved legs draw the eye upward and create a pleasing symmetry that’s reinforced by a decorative gilded metal accent.

Furniture designs that endure are characterized by good overall scale and proper proportion. Here, a little common sense helps to separate the good from the great. Some of the rather obvious visual cues worth considering at the point of sale: Does the table stand at a sensible height that reflects its intended purpose. Examined from side to side and top to bottom, does the piece flow unobstructed … no bulky legs, disproportionate curves or garish hardware that jars the eye? Is the seat comfortable and are the armrests at a suitable height for most body types? Are the drawers deep enough to offer real storage, or are they deceptively narrow and shallow?

A surefire classic is often rooted in a traditional design style. But rather than an exact replica, the new silhouette is updated for modern-day purposes by way of pattern, scale, color or function. Consider Sligh Furniture’s Mission-style bookcase, which is sized for today’s smaller homes. Or, Pearson Co.’s Federalist-inspired sofa, which is treated to a off-the-moment menswear-inspired fabric.

Favor for certain patterns may ebb and flow. (Chintz, anyone?) Still damask, Greek key, stripes, and toile de jouy prints are decorating staples. A lattice pattern in a perennial color combination, black and white, never loses its charm; Tozai Home illustrates the idea. A damask pattern executed in a 100 percent New Zealand wool area rug—Sphinx by Oriental Weavers offers several examples—is as timeless as a weaver’s hands are nimble.

One common thread among all classics is understated elegance. It’s a hallmark of the new Transitional Collection from Jonathan Charles Fine Furniture, which is characterized by circular shapes, distressed gilded finishes and silver leaf glass tops. Like the little black dress, it is expected to endure season after season, and for generation after generation.