After the justified DFS sale ribbing thread the other day, it got me thinking…where do you buy furniture from?

All being well, we’ll complete our house purchase early in Feb and we will need everything. Sofa, bed, dining table, wardrobes etc.

We’re based in Manchester and have had a cursory glance in House of Fraser, Feather & Black, Dwell, Cousins and MultiYork in the city centre but a lot of it is still horrendous.

Where to start?

Broadstone Mill, Stockport. There is a M&S furniture clearance place. Genuine stuff and genuine half retail price.

That and Ikea.

moved in in february last year

my bed came from bensons for beds because i neeeded it within 2 days

sofa from DFS – on interest free – because it was rude not to- took forever and a day to come though

the rest ive pieced together over time from local shops, john lewis , Ebay (solid oak sleeper stuff) and gumtree.

if your not in a rush it doesnt have to cost the earth. get the basics and add to it rather than tryign to furnish the whole place in 1 hit. My mrs wanted to go to ikea and get the place furnished which swedish crap – id rather have an empty house than one full of tat taht looks dated in 15 minutes and wobbles like its made of jelly as you walk past.

We’ve got a couple of DFS Sofas, I like them, you don’t have to buy some chavtastic pink thing with built in fridge and iPod sound system.

Won’t be going anywhere near Ikea.

Are CSL, SCS, DFS sofas all a much of a muchness or is there some sort of quality hierachy to them?

After some quality stuff that will last a lifetime. We both like solid oak, rustic type of stuff it seems.

ebays your friend for rustic

quite a few homebrew manufacturers on there – watch carefully though alot of rebranded tat too … “mexicana range” and similar is made from wood wo thin it could be cardboard…. i went to view it as it seemed to cheap to be true… – it was.

If you like rustic look at indigo furniture in Matlock (not cheap!) or eat, sleep live (slightly less).

Warren Evans good for beds – London based but deliver all over.

Barker and stonehouse can be ok – expensive but sometimes have good deals on which makes it far from cheap but at least palatable

Find what quality stuff you want, then spend the next 3 months waiting for the right one on ebay and be realisitc about what yoou have to pay for the right one, and the right one close enough to be worth collecting. We have saved literally thousands doing that. Although for that I have journeyed far and wide to collect furniture bought by my wife, and you have to be prepared to drive an hour and a half to inform the seller with good grace that their solid oak sideboard is in fact veneered chipboard (you know genuine mistakes when they call you a liar or look at you like a rabbit in headlights – its the ones who casually say ‘oh ok’ that are the lying cheating scammers).

Matresses – always new every 5 years, top quality ones from high streeters in their annual sales. Research because the high street shops have slumberland et al rename their product just for them to stop you comparing price and quality!

Indigo +1.

I particularly liked this:

😈

Oakfurniture land thats were we get the majority of our furniture from, and sofas for dfs as its % and the sofas we chose are British made!

Kids furniture from IKEA but would not buy nowt else from there!

I’ve said it before, but you really can’t beat Made.com

Don’t dismiss Ikea. Yes there is the fashionable tat, but also they have some genuine quality.

We have a £69 sofa bed in No 1 Son’s bedroom. I wouldn’t want to sleep on it, but it’s ok to lounge on to watch TV, play games box, or most recently “to entertain girls”. We also have an £800 leather sofa that’s 6 years old and looks like new.

OP. my Sis-In-Law is in the same boat. About to move in to a flat but she wants everything brand new and looking like a show home. She’s not prepared to have second hand or cheap and then replace with quality when money allows. Her CC is burning a hole in the pocket.

As above Mad.com seem an good alternative also Dwell
Make nice copies basically and a lot of my clients use them in and around central London

I’m biased, but have a look at underneath the mango tree – my brother’s company; good solid furniture that’s a bit different from the high street stuff, as well as being sustainable/eco friendly.

What peterfile said for sofas etc.

Or Habitat still have an online presence. Some M&S stuff looks pretty classy, Habitat-like.

id rather have an empty house than one full of tat taht looks dated in 15 minutes and wobbles like its made of jelly as you walk past

Ikea stuff’s not all like that though.

Get over the frickin snobbery, the lot of you.

Ikea provide cheap furniture for those with little money at vastly better quality than the alternatives. They also make better furniture for a bit more money, and if it wobbles then get a grip and assemble it properly.

John Lewis, particularly for sales and Special Purchase (pseudo sale stock). We bought an immaculate Multiyork sofa off ebay for £300, always worth looking. Beds from Millbrook.

For fast storage solutions, you can’t beat Ikea.

We got our sofas from Furniture Village after looking in dfs & not finding anything we liked. Annoyingly we did have our eye on a dfs one, but they bought in a new range before we got it.

We also got beds for the spare rooms from Furniture Village as we just wanted basic divans, they had some good offers on at the time & even though we didn’t buy them at the same time as the sofa he added them to that order so we got free delivery. They were very helpful & not at all pushy.

We got some bedside cabinets from IKEA as we couldn’t find the style we wanted anywhere else at a reasonable price.

Our dining tables & chairs are from Pine Solutions. We got 6 oak chairs & a massive extending table for a really good price.
And we got a sideboard for the dining room from Real Wood Furniture. I think they are online but we got it from the showroom in Peterborough.

John Lewis do some nice stuff, but a lot off it is pretty expensive (same goes for M&S)

Our bedroom stuff came from a local furniture shop and is a mix of bespoke wardrobes and imported chinese drawers and bed.

Our table came from a generic furniture place in Newcastle (can’t remember the name).

Lounge furniture cam from the MIL and a table and desk by a local carpenter.

Other bits have come from John Lewis and Ikea.

We just took each piece as we found it. Ikea make some rubbish stuff but also some really good stuff. We couldn’t find wardrobes we liked and it was “only” about £1k each to get bespoke oak ones made locally. When we looked at alternatives that was a competitive price. Same for the computer desk and tv table in the lounge as we couldn’t find what we want.

We found that the stuff we had made wasn’t always massively more expensive than going to a shop. It is also unique, going to last longer than me (treated oak) and exactly what we want.

“Ikea stuff’s not all like that though”

the stuff on display was…… maybe the stuff out the book is better.

the OP asked for stuff that would last a lifetime…dont think much of most of the stuff on that made.com either – seems a similar vein.

IME IKEA stuff (other than their absolute cheapest models) is better made than almost all of the “nicer” (read “more expensive”) furniture we have.

sofasofa are good for, you guessed it, sofas.

Cough, cough *John Lewis* Cough….

Ikea furniture suppose its ok aslong as you do not move house 😕

IKEA is great

yes if you buy a piece of furniture for under £10 it will be rubbish but you knew that, didn’t you

I think the attractions are;

The furniture is in stock. You will find that is very rare fore retailers o have things lie Sofas in stock

The quality stuff isn’t mega cheap but it is good value

If you really are starting from scratch in a weekend and perhaps a few days you can be up and running. You might by a mixture of reall cheap suff to make do for a bit and some higher quality stuff.

They don’t have 10% of the market from 18 shops for no reason

Their meatballs are ok but the furniture has a 5 year life span IMHO

“If you really are starting from scratch in a weekend and perhaps a few days you can be up and running. You might by a mixture of reall cheap suff to make do for a bit and some higher quality stuff.”

What do you “really” need for starting from though ?

a bed, a sofa/chairs

then curtains/blinds and cooking/eating stuff (ikea is good for that though)

YMMV

Thanks guys, only really going to be in a rush for sofa and bed initially. Just interested to hear where people source stuff from.

Ikea is fine as long as you look at it first. Some of the stuff is actually quite substantial. Also good for hacking into different shapes (the bargain corner is great :D).

Our best bargains have come from eBay. £600 solid oak display cabinet for £120.

Gumtree can also be good, brother got some nice, not that old sofas from there.

We’re selling our 4 year old DFS sofa after moving to a smaller house, can’t knock the quality of it whatsoever. It’s been lightly used and is in top notch nick. If interested look at it HERE

the OP asked for stuff that would last a lifetime…dont think much of most of the stuff on that made.com either – seems a similar vein.

In my experience the stuff on made.com is very good. Its the same stuff that you’ll get elsewhere in much more ‘stylish’ shops for a fraction of the cost.

I’ll admit though, it won’t last as long as furniture made of railway sleepers but having a home full of massively overbuilt ‘rustic’ furniture isn’t really my thing 😉

for sure davey – each to there own. i have friends with made stuff .. and while well made its more likely to be changed because its gone massivly out of fashion than because it broke – alot/most looks to be well out there in the style stakes.

John Lewis, Elys of Wimbledon or Ikea pretty much.

We paid a fair few hundred pounds for Dwell furniture as an ‘upgrade’ to Ikea. The quality of the flatpack implementation was rubbish compared to Ikea – more like MFI circa 1985.

Ercol factory outlet if you’re near Princes Risborough. Come to the Chilterns for a ride, then buy some top quality furniture.
http://www.ercol.com/efolist

geordiemick – thanks, but not our style in the slightest.

Not interested in the modern stylish likes of Dwell or Ikea. Not saying it all has to be rustic either, just quality wood rather than cheap pieces.

I can’t believe how many people buy John Lewis stuff (unless it’s in a big sale), the stuff is nice for sure but the prices are crazy. Either people are getting paid a crap load or they have the balance wrong and spend what should be biking funds on tat for the home.

FuzzyWuzzy – A couple of well chosen pieces, that is all – the rest is carefully sourced junk shop/skip finds/made by me. The thing is, the expensive JL stuff really makes the rest look like its far more expensive than it really is. Smoke and mirrors.

spend what should be biking funds on tat for the home

Lol, not really much difference between bike tat and home tat is there?

If you are Manchester based and can get away from work mid week then take a look at the Simon Charles Auctioneers site as they get some great furniture in time from time. I picked up over £1000 worth of american oak dresser for under £100 and have seen loads of amazing furniture i have no room for go for bargain prices. It does depend on which manufacturer is clearing out display/overstock/damaged furniture also though. Furniture goes for a lot less than electrical goods here as its bulky so hard to shift store sell on ebay.

I can also tell you where all the John Lewis returned/Display/Damaged stock gets auctioned if you like. Again some amazing bargains, some less so but it all depends but i got a £700 side board for £30 there. Email me if you are interested, suctions are on a Tuesday there.