Price range for retail seems to be $100-250 for IKEA stuff that will fall apart in 3 years, or $1,000+ for something better. Is there nothing in between? Would prefer to buy new with risk of bed bugs or other contaminants but open to other options if I’m missing something.
Estate sales.
Plenty of thrift stores out there. You can spray for bugs yourself.
Habitat for humanity if you have one near you. I got a lot of my furniture from there and made some shockingly good deals. A solid brass chandelier worth 4500$, for 45$, an acacia table worth 2500$, for 200$, etc. Obviously you have to have a keen eye for what’s good or bad but it’s a great place to start.
Also when buying used furniture I like to stick to stores as they will check and exterminate bed bugs.
We got one from Grain Wood and liked it so much we got a second. One we have is pine wrapped in a veneer of walnut and the other is painted white. They’re not hardwoods, but they’re leagues better than particle board IKEA stuff and don’t cost a fortune.
There really a market for mostly good furniture, it is either buy it for life or just needs to last a few years until the next move.
The great furniture of the past is the $1,000+ stuff that people would save up for years to afford. It cost less then, but it was a similar portion of a paycheck. House/rent, transportation, and food was also a smaller portion of the average paycheck back then too…
Habitat for Humanity, estate sales, garage sales, or build your own.
There’s also cruising affluent neighborhoods around the time the trash company picks up large items. For the low low price of embarrassment, you can get quality stuff for free.
Not sure why IKEA is getting knocked? It has a good reputation for quality design. They also have quality ranges with cheaper and more expensive versions of the same furniture types if you want to splurge on the best.
Flat pack is a good way to buy furniture; you just have to get it from good quality sources and IKEA is definitely one.
I’ve got IKEA furniture that’s moved with me from home to home up to 15 years old and it remains in good condition. Never known their furniture to “fall apart”?
The problem you’ll run into is that good furniture is made out of solid hardwoods, and IKEA, et al. is made from particleboard. There are major differences in the ways you work with the two materials; there’s not really a great inexpensive way to make hardwood furniture that’s going to last for 50+ years, and there’s no reasonable way to make particleboard furniture last 50+ years at all. (Plywood lasts longer than particleboard, but I wouldn’t use it in making furniture that I intended to be around long after my death.) I am, for instance, a big fan of Gustav Stickley’s “Mission” style; I absolutely can not afford it, since a full bedroom set would cost about as much or more than a brand new BMW M3. OTOH, my grandfather made some craftsman style furniture (Stickley published a lot of the early plans) in the 20’s, and my parents–in their 80s–still have it, and it’s still in very good condition overall.
I just need to get a cabinet saw, thickness planer, replace the blades on my jointer, pick up a bandsaw, and find a good Powermatic mortising machine–and get my basement wired for 440v 3ph–and I can start making my own. And that would still be cheaper than buying it at full retail. :')
Ikea have plenty of solid wood furniture.
Thrift stores.
I made my last one myself. The hardware store cut the wood to fit and the rest was just glued and
screedscrewed in.Thrift stores like goodwill in the nicer part of towns. You wont always find something good or something that matches your room. But you can find a lot of well kept furniture and clothes for cheap. People who are more well off tend to donate the things they replace in order to get receipt for tax right offs. Ive never personaly gotten furniture at one, but i know friends and family who have. The biggest thing i got was a full set of travel bags 3 good size good brand for 60 dollars. Ive had them for over ten years and they’re still in good shape. The other great deal i know of was when my aunt got a beautiful comfy sectional for 200. Had to make three separate trips to move all the pieces but it worked out fine. Just took like 5 hours.
Goodwill.
I… Honestly love my IKEA dresser. Have used it for 8 years now
Pro-tip on assembling flat pack furniture: use wood glue and it will last longer.
I’ve got plenty of flat pack furniture and never had to use wood glue.
If you buy quality flat pack you will get well designed and engineered furniture. The bad reputation comes from cheap tat, often mass produced in China.
Wood glue negates one of the big benefits of flat pack - to take the furniture apart and move it at any point in the future.
I’ve also come across shoddily built flat pack furniture when I was renting when younger and I always found the same problem - a failure to tighten screws. Wobbly bits of furniture became functional afterwards.
I remember my mum built a flat pack computer table when I was a kid and it wobbled all over. She lamented how poor flat pack furniture was. I got fed up of the wobble when I was a teenager and had a look - every single screw was not tightened. It took 10mins to sort and the thing never wobbled again.
I’ve fixed wobbly desks, wardrobes, shelving units - all with just a screwdriver.
Number one tip for flat pack furniture: tighten the screws. And number 2, get an electric screwdriver.
Department stores can have mid-tier furniture. Like Macy’s. My area also has specialized furntiure stores that have mid tier stuff. HOM is one.
Some of the high tier furniture stores have one or more outlet stores.
I’m guessing you’d get more/better help if you were more specific about what part of the US you’re in.
