Where's good for quality, reliable, house furniture (and where to avoid)?

fiveacre

To be honest, we never expected to end up buying from Furniture Village, but we keep going back there after trawling through other stores and being disappointed. They have a good selection of different styles and it seems decent so far.

It's not cheap, but there's always offers and discounts around, and their delivery and assembly service (at additional cost) is excellent.

Next were pretty good a few years back but seem to have dropped off, still some good stuff there.

Made.com went bust by the way and Next bought the brand.

inkydolphin

[Deleted User] said:

... ikea ... have a super cool system for putting up non-eyelet curtains

Interesting! Does the Ikea system (presume it's "Vidga" after a web search) work with normal traditional pleated curtains or only with Ikea curtains?

bellaboo86

I would also say that Next stuff isn’t as high quality as it used to be. 

daveyjp

Having moved on from the Ikea phase (which does serve a purpose, we had lots of Billy stuff), for quality table, chairs, bookcase, small tables I looked at the British Furniture manufacturers website and bought from a local furniture shop that stocked what we liked.  Solid light oak and very well built.

Lounge suite is a G plan from a local independent furniture store.  Not cheap, but even at 8 years old they supplied some new reclining mechanism springs free of charge after one failed.

[Deleted User]

inkydolphin said:

[Deleted User] said:

... ikea ... have a super cool system for putting up non-eyelet curtains

Interesting! Does the Ikea system (presume it's "Vidga" after a web search) work with normal traditional pleated curtains or only with Ikea curtains?

I was referring to the Riktig curtain hooks. The hooks simply slide into the header tape, each prong, say, six loops apart. You end up with a perfect pleat. And curtains of equal width. Everything that goes wrong with (me) trying to pull, tie, pleat curtains is nulled. My last attempt at pulling curtains, one was too short so the other had to compensate (having already tied around sixty-four knots in the strings without checking). They would meet about six inches past the middle. I could never overlook it, the curtains were doomed from day one.

The hooks can be used with any track (I’m using a Swift glider track), though I believe they are just for ikea curtains (because of the header tape they need and use).

I’d be surprised if other manufacturers don’t offer something similar. It seems madness not to; once you’ve used them your outlook on life changes, that some frustrations are entirely optional after all.

Murphybear

Emily_Joy said:

Murphybear said:

Emily_Joy said:

 British Heart Foundation and Emmaus charity stores.

In the next town to us is a massive charity shop that sells second hand furniture and household items.  The shop is based in a fabulous old Art Deco cinema.  The stuff they have is amazing, really high quality and they don’t charge silly money.  I bought a hexagonal solid cherrywood (I think it was cherry but it’s solid something wood  ) cocktail cabinet for £30.  As well as being useful it’s a work of art.  

Are you anywhere close to Midlands, by any chance?

Sorry, on the Dorset/Somerset border.  

mi-key

Generally if it is MDF and/or flat pack, it won't be very good quality. Solid wood furniture will outlast you, but it's not cheap to buy new.

The thing is these days people don't buy proper solid furniture and have it for life like they did in previous generations, or have it passed down from relatives. Fashions change and people want to change their furniture a lot more often, so it is made cheap and low quality to reflect this.

A lot depends on what you want though, if you are into upcycling and handy with DIY you can get some real wood second hand stuff for next to nothing and alter it to suit your look. I did this for a friend and we bought a huge solid mahogany double wardrobe, and cut it down into two single narrower ones to fit living room alcoves. 

inkydolphin

[Deleted User] said:

inkydolphin said:

[Deleted User] said:

... ikea ... have a super cool system for putting up non-eyelet curtains

Interesting! Does the Ikea system (presume it's "Vidga" after a web search) work with normal traditional pleated curtains or only with Ikea curtains?

I was referring to the Riktig curtain hooks. The hooks simply slide into the header tape, each prong, say, six loops apart. You end up with a perfect pleat. And curtains of equal width. Everything that goes wrong with (me) trying to pull, tie, pleat curtains is nulled. My last attempt at pulling curtains, one was too short so the other had to compensate (having already tied around sixty-four knots in the strings without checking). They would meet about six inches past the middle. I could never overlook it, the curtains were doomed from day one.

The hooks can be used with any track (I’m using a Swift glider track), though I believe they are just for ikea curtains (because of the header tape they need and use).

I’d be surprised if other manufacturers don’t offer something similar. It seems madness not to; once you’ve used them your outlook on life changes, that some frustrations are entirely optional after all.

Thanks! It's weird that I thought the traditional plastic hooks were "the way" with no alternative - some things in life are just like that I guess...

hjd

Also try Trade Secret (stores in Banbury and Northwich) https://trade-secret.co.uk/  

sheramber

Look at local, independent shops.