Buying furniture

[Walsingham]

Is anyone else outfitting a flat at the minute? It is so damn expensive.

[Hurlshort]

Have you checked Ikea? It's pretty awesome, and I believe you can order stuff online. The prices are about as low as you'll find, and I love the look. The drawback is that they are made cheaply. It isn't furniture that is made to last, but if you are just looking for something to get you through a couple years, it's great. My wife and I spent about $800 when we bought our condo and we got 3 bookshelves, a desk, a futon, kitchen hanging racks, and a rolling utensil cart with a cutting board top.

 

http://www.ikea.com/

[Arkan]

Have you checked Ikea?  It's pretty awesome, and I believe you can order stuff online.  The prices are about as low as you'll find, and I love the look.  The drawback is that they are made cheaply.  It isn't furniture that is made to last, but if you are just looking for something to get you through a couple years, it's great.  My wife and I spent about $800 when we bought our condo and we got 3 bookshelves, a desk, a futon, kitchen hanging racks, and a rolling utensil cart with a cutting board top.

 

http://www.ikea.com/

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

It can last quite a while if you take care of it.

[taks]

it's even worse if you have an aversion to anything but solid wood. years ago, that's all you could get (well, other than metal furniture). but now, solids are a premium.

 

i've spent more money on furniture in the last 6 years than i have on nearly everything else (except cars and houses). oh, and pool tables qualify as furniture. worse in some cases. ugh.

 

taks

[Walsingham]

You can't order online in the UK. You have to go to their damn store! I object to this. They have a website. That's just coohaccky.

 

I have two problems. Firstly I want stuff I can transport easily. Secondly I can't break the bank. Thirdly I have a bit of space, but not so much I want it spoiled by cramming it with stuff.

 

I did find a company that make and sell totally modular furniture. It is a neat idea, and pretty cheap. I won't link them since that would be kinda advertising. And anyway I don't have any of their stuff yet. I probably will though.

 

But anyway my main point is buying a flat full of stuff is expensive. I resent spending hundreds of pounds on furniture. It's eating into my new computer fund!

[Judge Hades]

Is anyone else outfitting a  flat at the minute? It  is so damn expensive.

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Live in a college town. Its a lot less expensive.

[Walsingham]

Is anyone else outfitting a  flat at the minute? It  is so damn expensive.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Live in a college town. Its a lot less expensive.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Not in the UK. Students eat up all the cheap properties (they pay a lot but they take the cheap places).

 

I was thinking of making my own, but doing that male bird nesting thing and trying to lay a trap for unsuspecting females.

[Gromnir]

am rather lucky. a friend of Gromnir's bought a home 2 years ago and then turned around and sold it after he passed the initial capital gains time limit. the house was... odd. every wood surface in house was hand-carved teak from thailand, though there were some redwood panneling in the living room that were quite impressive as the pannels were seamless +20' high clear-heart redwood. in any event, the house came furnished and all of the furniture was likewise hand-carved teak (though any sort of dresser or desk piece actually had walnut drawers. Gromnir don't know much about furniture, but am told that walnut is a sturdier wood than is teak.) the thing is that our friend didn't want the furniture, and he didn't wanna deal with the sale o' all that furniture (the house is 8,500 sft.) the new owner were gona gut the house and change all wood stuff and so furniture were not part of his purchase.

 

we gots to pick and choose what we wanted. got some very nice stuff. more than a couple items might be a bit over-sized for Gromnir's place as they were meant to be in much bigger rooms, but there were no way we could pass up such a deal.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[LadyCrimson]

I agree, which is why our house is full of things like cheap desk/patio chairs, desks taken from offices who no longer wanted them anymore and boards resting on top of those triangle wall mount brackets. We didn't even have a couch for a long time after our past hand-me-down was tossed, until recently, when I took one my mother didn't need anymore. A bookshelf unit in the living room, a small narrow desk, and a few short shelves for DVD type storage are about all I've ever spent on furniture. And the mattress.

 

Personally, if I didn't have/wasn't allergic to my cats, I'd just toss giant pillows on the floor and sit on those.

[Oerwinde]

I have two problems. Firstly I want stuff I can transport easily. Secondly I can't break the bank. Thirdly I have a bit of space, but not so much I want it spoiled by cramming it with stuff.

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Well, most of the Ikea stuff you have to assemble, so it transports pretty easily. They also deliver. As for filling a flat, they had this one display when I was there last where they made a 300 sq ft apartment comfortable. It was crazy. It was pretty much a kitchen, living room, and bathroom, and using the crap you can get at ikea, they made the place fit everything you need.

[metadigital]

Is anyone else outfitting a  flat at the minute? It  is so damn expensive.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Live in a college town. Its a lot less expensive.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Not in the UK. Students eat up all the cheap properties (they pay a lot but they take the cheap places).

 

I was thinking of making my own, but doing that male bird nesting thing and trying to lay a trap for unsuspecting females.

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I _hate_ Ikea furniture.

[LadyCrimson]

I have yet to enter an Ikea store, the closest one is in E. Palo Alto, not exactly where I want to go most of the time.

 

What's to hate about them - is it like a Wal-Mart dislike?

[metadigital]

The whole herd-people-through-the-corral shopping experience isn't a big plus, to begin with, ending with a wait in a queue that is always served by less people than would be expected.

 

The furniture is seems to exist in a niche (at least in the UK), defined by the exorbitant floor price of furniture. Further, not all of the items are actually markedly cheaper, just key "loss leader" items that help build the buying frenzy atmosphere. (Sure a four foot glass vase for

[Rosbjerg]

I usually find my funiture in "recycle stores"..

found a nice 3 persons sofa + two big comfortable chairs, all in leather, for 100$

 

it's usually great quality and extremely cheap .. plus all the profit from those places goes directly to poor people in the third world.. so it's win win win

[Hurlshort]

I used to share Meta's opinion...until I entered an Ikea. LadyCrimson, I recommend you go to the E. Palo Alto store. That's where I went. It will blow your mind. It really was a life changing event. That sounds odd when talking about furniture, but people who hate Ikea usually have never been through one.

 

Wals, if one of the stores is within 3 hours of you, I recommend going. Most of the boxes for the furniture can fit in a decent sized car.

[Surreptishus]

Argos!

[Calax]

when I live on my own my furnishings will be a rocking chair, a ball a few bean bags and a coffee table...

[metadigital]

I have been. More times than I wanted. I have been consequently scarred and will endeavour to not go again. Even if I have to make furniture out of dead animals, instead.

[Craigboy2]

Is anyone else outfitting a  flat at the minute? It  is so damn expensive.

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That's why you buy inflate-o furniture. It's easy to store too.

Edited August 19, 2006 by Craigboy2

[metadigital]

Is that your furniture, or your flatmates?

[Craigboy2]

They only become floor mats if they get holes in them.

[Oerwinde]

I went today and had a silly experience. I needed 4 extra shelves for my black bookcase. They didn't have extra shelves in black, so we decided to go with the brown black, misreading the price tag. We get to the checkout and find out it will be $80 for the 4 extra shelves. A whole new bookcase was $69, which got me the 4 extra shelves I needed, in the color I originally wanted. I now will give the empty bookcase to my roommate, who can go and buy glass shelves for it at $15 bucks each instead of 20 for the pressboard ones, to display his model cars.

[Laozi]

My father has a nice workshop, so I've always been able to have pretty nice furniture if I was willing to buy the wood and then spend the time. Its great though when someone tells you they really like something and they ask where you got it and you get to say you built it. When I've felt like cutting corners though, I have gone to Goodwill or other second hand shops and refinished something. Sanding and staining is really easy, anyone can do it.

Edited August 19, 2006 by Laozi

[metadigital]

Nice.

[kirottu]

Oh...

 

Hmm...

 

I guess I was the only one who read the title as "Burning furnace"?