Where to buy decent affordable furniture?

TranceNRG

ManuelG wrote: »

Ebay;

Loot (still going?)

British Heart Foundation.

I suppose I could look on ebay for small items. Don't really want to bid on a big item like a bed frame without seeing in person.

rosie383

If you look at ebay listing local to you, many sellers of furniture will let you come and look before you bid. You will be able to get some lovely, solid things for a fraction of the price of new, cheaply-made and highly-priced furniture from the likes of dfs.

bouicca21

Actually I have just furnished a flat on a budget. I got a pristine ercol dining table and chairs from ebay at about a third of the price of a new one.

My local British heart foundation shop and local hospice shop have furniture of varying quality. You have to keep an eye on them


There are often sofas on freecycle. Ditto beds, though I'd draw the line at a secondhand mattress and buying new mattresses might negate the advantage. Freecycle stuff may not be exactly what you want but you can use and dispose when you can afford better. The advantage of freecycle and cast offs is that it gives you time to see how things really look in your room before you spend real dosh.

For beds look to see if you have a local high street bed shop - you may find they are very competitive. I did look at Dreams but found them way overpriced.



Personally hate DFS. My one expensive buy has been a multiyork sofa but that was because I couldn't find another shop that made something that would fit my space.

pickles13

TranceNRG wrote: »

Haha cheers. Will look that up!

Any advice on retailers? John Lewis has some lovely furniture but pretty expensive

John Lewis is my favourite place for furniture, but its not budget (Cargo is my 2nd favourite!). My sofa is from DFS, we went for one of their top of the range ones as we needed as big one, and had more of a disposable income then(!) and we have had no issues with it or with them. One of my friends bought one of the cheaper sofas from DFS and did have a few problems with it (it arrived damaged and rather than exchange it, they just fixed it). I still think Ikea would be a great place to start; as long as the entire house isn't Ikea stuff and its mixed in with other bits, it can look really nice. Their decorative bits are really nice (throws, vases, candles etc). I would spend more money on the living room bits where people are likely to see them. Oh and check out your local face book selling pages; I regularly see some really gorgeous bits come up on those pages.

Gigervamp

We've got a lot of Ikea furniture and most of it is still going strong many years after purchase. Our Ikea sofa is still in good condition 10 years later.

We also have a sofa that we bought from Laura Ashley and are seriously disappointed in the quality. The sofa sags in the middle and started doing that just a few months after buying it.

So, what you would think will be quality furniture because of the name and price, might not be so.

If I needed to kit out a house in one go, I'd buy a mix from charity/secondhand shops and Ikea.

TranceNRG

All solid advice. I will have a look on ebaby for local items and visit local furniture shops as well.

thanks.

ManuelG

FWIW I got my beds in the Argos sale. I wouldn't always trust the 'sale' prices, but they're pretty good quality IMNSHO, and were relatively cheap. Ended up cheaper for the bed and mattress than just a mattress from some other places.

Delivery was quick too. although (edit) there is indeed the risk it's not what you want - I did a lot of trusting to reviews!

As for not seeing things on ebay - catch the listing early enough, and no harm in mailing the seller to ask if you can go round...

Pete9501

We have just sold a mint double bed on e bay, highest bid £30. Probably paid 10x that when new 3 years ago. There is no market for second furniture so it goes for buttons. We made up for it buying a couple of nice John Lewis solid wooden furniture units at a quarter of the new price in JL for sale less than a mile away from us.

A search of e bay this afternoon says there are 90,000 chairs for sale at the moment.

So since this is money saving experts .com, find some nice Next/M&S/JL furniture styles you like and build up a collection from second hand stuff. If its solid wood and looked after it will certainly outlast you and I.

Kermie

We're downsizing and we've sold all our stuff on gumtree. I hate eBay so chose to avoid that, but gumtree's been great.

moon_river

Made.com has some lovely pieces too.