Any Experience of MFI Home Office Furniture

busymumof3

We are looking to kit out our study with some new furniture. Looking for nice looking and practical but NOT overly expensive. Does anyone have any experience of MFI's home office stuff? Is it recommended?

My other alternative is a range in Argos which is showing out of stock so I do not know if this means it will be discontinued. Have to wait til the new catalogue on Saturday I suppose.

Any help appreciated.

dwsjarcmcd

busymumof3
I have a desk from MFI and it has been excellent. It is a large corner desk and although I can't remember how much it was, it wasn't that expensive.

The only problem I had was self inflicted! When I built it, I drilled a hole in the wrong side!

However, of I can build it, anyone can, trust me on that.

annie-c

I have a few MFI things. THey are OK, quality-wise but delivery times and customer service is a bit poor.

IKEA have really good office furniture, if you live near one. Good quality and low prices.

ManAtHome

Have had some MFI cabinets in the 'home office' for around 15 years - still looking good (dunno what their modern stuff is like though). Would also vote for Ikea - put together a desk and cabinet for a friend a couple of years ago, pretty good stuff.

Funky_Diver

I've always found office furniture to be a bit... well... constrained!

Why not design your own using kitchen units... just without the plinth!!

Ideal if it's going against a wall, desk surface is loverly and big.... down sides? Well, you gotta build it yourself, but it is flat pack... make sure that you figure everything into the equation (including side panels... unless you don't mind white ones)

Shop around! Decide what layout you need... what specification of fitting... etc... etc....

An ideal solution if you want a "bespoke" office feel for not a great deal of money.

TheChillPill

I find MFI stuff somewhat overpriced to be honest - for what it is anyway.

Argos office furniture is pretty good though, and good value. I have a few things from the 'City' range, which I can highly recommend. The other range that you can customise with corner units etc (can't remember the range name, but theres 2 full pages of it in the catalogue) comes highly recommended to me by an accountant friend that uses that range.

As mentioned earlier, Ikea is a good choice too - lots of options, and pretty good quality.

busymumof3

Thanks to all who posted their thoughts and experiences.

I do have a recently installed MFI kitchen and am pleased with it - no supply, delivery or damage problems which is prob unusual I know.

I do think their office furniture is expensive for flat pack stuff but we do have a few hundred pounds in deal vouchers to put towards it. At least you can see the stuff built on display unlike Argos who have not been able even to show samples or colour charts. Does put you off a bit since the wood-look stuff varies such a lot.

On the other hand a quick calculation puts MFI at around £1500 compared to £600 for Argos. Even with the clubcards I am really doubtful whether the MFI range is sufficiently better quality to justify this.

Unfortunately nearest Ikea is Edinburgh, not just around the corner for us. Delivery charge huge and am always worried that the vital parts will not be in the box - had a problem with a light from there before and ended up binning because of the hassle factor.

Thanks funky Diver for the idea of Kitchen units. I agree that space wise they do make sense but our study isn't the largest room known to man and I think worktops would look too bulky. I did use this idea in our bathrooms and we now have brilliant storage which worked out a whole lot cheaper than the pokey, mega expensive bathroom unit ranges you see - who needs a cupboard specially designed for toilet rolls!

At the moment I'm coming down in favour of Argos I think but am still open to persuation!

flutterbybutterfly

We have just kitted out our home office with the Toronto range from MFI. It was half-price in one of their sales with an added 20% off. That brought the price down to about £480 of which we covered entirely by clubcard deals (I think this has now changed and you have to pay something now in cash as a deposit but I'm not sure).

We got a desk, a corner computer desk/workstation, bookcases, pinboard, draw units.... I have been really impressed with the quality, and with the customer service - we had a damaged boolcase top which was replaced within 2 days by courier.

Our Argos does not have any office furniture out to look at and I am a bit dubious about choosing from the catalogue. At least with MFI it is tangible and you can see exactly what you are getting. I guess your Argos might be bigger so it might be different for you.

I would advise waiting for the best sale option at MFI, they tend to change their pricing/sales every 2-3 weeks and if it is not a good price when you look, if you aren't in a rush, hang-on until a better sale comes along. Bearing in mind it is nearly easter I bet they will do a good easter sale.

I am not sure whether you still get clubcard points on your purchase when using clubcard vouchers - you did when we got ours to we got an added value of clubcard points on a £480 spend.

Wowee FREE study!!!

lilac_lady

Update - this post is from 2006 and there is no MFI now.