Furniture for house

Tim_Deegan

Fire_Fox wrote: »

IKEA - nowhere else sells such sturdy flatpack furniture for the price. Loads of IKEA pieces turn up second hand on eBay too. Be wary of IKEA beds simply because they are continental sizes so you may need their mattress and fitted sheets too.

Sorry did you say sturdy? :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

SoyaBunny

Hi there, was in same situation last year when we just brought our flat.

Bedroom: We mostly got IKEA furniture. As we really liked one of the Ikea's furniture series (Leksvik) we got the set but kept costs low by getting whatever we could from Ebay and Gumtree. I managed to get a second hand Leksvik bedframe which was a IKEA past season that I was after and matching bedside cabinets in great condition from Gumtree for cheap! Ended up saving a lot of money.
With linen I went to TKMaxx. It's quality stuff for nearly half the price and it comes to bed linen I want a good nights sleep!
With our mattress we went to a local retail park that is packed the furniture & bed shops. We brought our wonderful mattress from a place called Paul Simons for a very reasonable amount, we did have to haggle as we had missed the cheaper price by the time we were ready to buy but haggling was not as difficult as I imagined!

Bathroom: We got most of the bathroom fixtures from Debenhams, during one of their blue cross sales (they seem to have sales quite often). I hope you don't even have to worry about these but there wasn't even a loo roll holder when we moved in!

Living room: We got most things from IKEA including our sofa. I would not normally recommend most IKEA sofas or mattresses but our Karlstad sofa is very comfortable. We discovered it accidentally when my partner went to the loo at IKEA and I went to sit on the nearest sofa and found it to be surprisingly comfy! Places like DFS and SCS I found were very very pricey and what was affordable was not that nice!
What we didn't get from IKEA we got from Ebay or our local Oxfam furniture shop. Our coffee table was from Ebay, we orginally saw it at Harvey's furniture store but got it off Ebay for more then half the price.
For stuff like cushions we brought them from places like homebase.

I hope this helps somewhat! We shopped around quite a lot before we brought what we did in the end. It may not be the cheapest things you can get (for that it would be freecycle, charity shops and a lot of patience) but we did save a lot of money and at the same time got exactly what we wanted.

Good luck!:)

Fire_Fox

Tim_Deegan wrote: »

Sorry did you say sturdy? :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Absolutely, within a qualifying statement. Clearly they are not craftsman pieces but the OP asked for "the most reasonable rates"! I have plenty of solid IKEA items as do a number of my friends and relatives. Not all IKEA items are sturdy but any idiot can work out which are when they are in store.

Fire_Fox wrote: »

IKEA - nowhere else sells such sturdy flatpack furniture for the price. Loads of IKEA pieces turn up second hand on eBay too. Be wary of IKEA beds simply because they are continental sizes so you may need their mattress and fitted sheets too.

colchester75

Voucher codes available for bedroom furniture this weekend - "BED15" & "FITBED15" - 15% discount off!!!
Also seen somewhere "FREEDEL" voucher code should get you free delivery as well!!

jonewer

Tim_Deegan wrote: »

Sorry did you say sturdy? :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

I once picked up a small IKEA table from a charity shop. This was a mistake as the two legs I was holding it by suddenly divorced themselves from the remainder of the table, which fell to the ground, thus causing the other legs to separate from the whole.

Sturdy as an overcooked noodle.

hairdye

Tim_Deegan wrote: »

Sorry did you say sturdy? :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

we live in rented at the minute, the sofas are ikea, which have been fine and surprisingly comfy, but the rest of the furniture is shocking, the coffee table is always coming apart, the bottoms often come out of the draws and it's just generally a bit naff! Good for little bit like kitchen stuff, picture frames etc but I would stay away from the furniture!

puddy

ikea is fine as long as you put it together properly and maintain it. with all cheap furniture, especially flat pack, there is often the need to put in a few more screws somewhere to keep it functioning nice.

but i would agree with charity shops or freecyle. get yourself some basic tools, a saw, some paint and you dont have to have the furniture that you actually buy, a coat of paint and some new handels and you have a new piece of furniture, specially if you like shabby chic like me, i just paint everything white and put sparkly handles on them

poppysarah

Freecycle. Friends and family. Charity shops. Local furniture shops (not chains) who might well do a deal if you buy a sofa and bed and other stuff from them.

Ikea is good for bookcases - but argos have everything.

BUT buy a new mattress and bedding.

Owain_Moneysaver

poppysarah wrote: »

Ikea is good for bookcases - but argos have everything.

I am told by a handyman who assembled flatpacks week in week out that Argos flatpack is the very worst of the lot. I've never found it that bad, but it's not that good either. I find the ranges very limited - only a few pieces in each range unless you mix and match imitation beech.

poppysarah wrote: »

BUT buy a new mattress and bedding.

Mattress yes. Bedding is cheap in charity shops and can be boil washed. Although cheaper to buy a new duvet (I have a 20+ year old duvet from pound-stretchers) than pay for dry-cleaning.

Fire_Fox

jonewer wrote: »

I once picked up a small IKEA table from a charity shop. This was a mistake as the two legs I was holding it by suddenly divorced themselves from the remainder of the table, which fell to the ground, thus causing the other legs to separate from the whole.

Sturdy as an overcooked noodle.

Because obviously the condition of one second hand item is indicative of the sturdiness of an entire chains products. Did it ever occur to you that the table might have been badly put together or abused during it's lifetime? I had a coffee table from Dwell whose legs just came away, admittedly I saw fit to stand on it thirty second beforehand. :rotfl: