Where to buy cheap furniture for a newly bought flat

knightstyle

Where are you? There are lots of charities that help recovering addicts by refurbishing furniture and stuff. Emmaus is all over the place plus we have two local ones near us.
Also look for the lower end auctions, we have a weekly one near us where dealers get rid of house clearance stuff having sorted the valuable bits out to sell in their shops. Good dining tables with chairs go for around £20, settees in good nick go for £10, boxes of kitchen equipment goes for £5 or under for 3 to 5 boxes.

cjv

ikea have van hire @ £30 a day if you have a membership card. Could be useful if you also have some items to move from your current home... kill 2 birds with 1 stone!

DD265

We got most of ours from IKEA, but there are some good charity shops that do it and the odd second hand furniture store. FB Marketplace is good too from what I've seen.

We'd hired a van to move our existing stuff, then took it to IKEA, filled it up with more bits, and that was job done.

The only thing I'd say is get an electric screwdriver if furnishing from IKEA - we did it all by hand and regretted it!

trailingspouse

I agree, Ikea isn't really very cheap.



Auctions and antique shops are fab for brown furniture - and they're often open to negotiation. We bought a large dining room table and 8 matching chairs (including 2 carvers) for £500 including delivery. Our wardrobe (including a full length mirror) was £30. Dressing table (with three mirrors) £50. Coffee table £10.



And, once money isn't so tight and you want to upgrade, you can return them to the auction and pretty much get your money back - or more. We bought a little table for £8. It was very dusty and one of the legs was loose. We cleaned it up, fixed the leg (a 5 minute job), used it for a couple of years, then took it back to the auction and sold it for £16.


For the smaller things (crockery, glassware, cutlery, bedding) try Wilko, any of the pound shop places, B&M, charity shops and so on.



You don't need everything all at once.

PokerPlayer111

We have a charity furniture place near us, very good, i've given tons of stuff to it recently.



Ebay is also great for bargains, i got a solid wood large chunky old school dining table in mint condition for £30.

bopsybunny

For sofas in particular, see if there is a Marks and Spencer outlet or Next outlet store near you. Both sell off ex display, or sofas with minor faults, or returns/cancelled sales, with a huge discount. We bought a £1000 sofa from M&S outlet in Salford Quays for about £250. Only reason for reduction was there was a small slit in the fabric on one of the arms. Paid a local van delivery service about £50 to deliver, got their phone number from the staff in the shop. We covered the defect with a blanket and have never thought about it since. It's a lovely sofa too! We later found a matching pouffe in the same shop, by pure chance.

Other furniture we got given by family when they were getting rid of things (some side tables, and a leather armchair, chest of drawers). Other than that, all of the rest of our house is from Ikea!

Out,_Vile_Jelly

eamon wrote: »

I suspect that the OP is being a little precious and wants brand new stuff and not somebody elses cast offs.

The OP said it's more of a transport issue with stuff from Freecycle; not everyone drives or has friends willing to act as removal men.

I'm old fashioned, so found BHF great for classic wood pieces, dirt cheap because they're not trendy at the moment. Everyone assumed I would be spending lots of time in Ikea when I bought; thankfully I never set foot in the place.

hazyjo

I think the OP is making a lot of assumptions about it being more expensive than it's worth. My friend has furnished her beautiful house with a lot of furniture from ebay. They make a weekend of it to pick up a gorgeous dresser or chest of drawers, or ask on a local FB group about man-with-a-van who will often collect not too far away for less than £50. Often way cheaper than new, especially if buying several items at a time.

YoungBlueEyes

There's buying cheap furniture, then there's buying good furniture cheaply.

I'm an advocate of salerooms/auction houses. Sometimes it'll want a clean and tidy up, or an airing maybe, but the (good old-fashioned) quality can be second to none.

The main sale days in my local ones are either Friday or Saturday. If you are really skint, or aren't too particular about exactly what you want, go on a Monday with cash in your hand (literally). Mine willingly sell stuff that they don't want to put in another sale, and the bargains can be astonishing. A while ago I got - 2 large hardwood storage boxes, a big black leather ottoman, a lovely big lamp, 2 mirrors (needed some tlc), a huge blue silk rug (needed a lot of tlc), a little pine hallway cabinet, and a yew wood table. For £10. Yep a tenner. :T I only went in for the rug ha haa!

tlc678910

Hi,
I agree ebay is a good choice. Without transport you will mainly be looking at the bigger ebay sellers/ebay shops that offer a "buy it now" price and offer delivery. There are often ebay outlet stores for major shops (e.g. Argos) and you can often find specific pieces of furniture that you look for by brand/item name cheaper than major stores. Just check carefully on the page that delivery is offered and the price of delivery (often free as included in the item price).