Furniture

[Jeewhizz]

Forum Dads,

Where's the best place for furniture
these days? I'm fed up with the tat from ikea et al, and so I'd rather save for longer, and buy better quality furniture. Who do you recommend?

[Shirker]

Furniture shops.

[yawner]

The problem with Ikea is that the stuff is such excellent value.
As Shirks said, have a wander around local furniture stores. Sometimes they almost match Ikea for price, but often the quality is not there. Proper "quality" furniture
really does cost an arm and a leg, but depending on the item, is sometimes worth saving up for. eg a nice dining room table should last you a lifetime - until you have junior
Jee's adding their scribbles to the patina. Have a look at the John Lewis website, that has quite a good price range.

We had our bedroom kitted out by
http://www.hammonds-uk.com/home.asp. Not cheap but quality that also adds value to teh house for when/if you come to sell. For our
front room we wanted shelving, but none of the standard units available seemed to fit as well as we wanted, so we ended up getting a local cabinet maker to custom build them for
us. Again, more than IKEA thats for sure, but we got something tailored to teh house which was exactly what we wanted.

Do a search on "quality furniture" to
give you more of an idea.

[Shirker]

If you or Mrs Jee get some of the homey-type mags
there are usually some ads in there that may help. Mrs S got one a few years ago when we were looking for a new sofa and saw some ads for factory-direct sellers. (There seem to
be quite a few in the Pontypool / Newport area). We got their brochures and ordered from one of them direct and its been an excellent buy.

On the downside, when we
moved in the suite came in through the shop door direct into that lounge. We then had the door from the outside bricked up and now the chairs won't fit through into the
rest of the house so there's no way to get them out when we move house Chainsaw time...

[Jeewhizz]

Cheers - I will get a magazine when I'm next in town and
take a look. We have enough furniture at the moment to make do, but Mrs Jee wants new stuff for the newly redecorated rooms. We would rather save up for x months and then buy
something that's good, long-lasting quality. My experience of ikea stuff is that after a year or two it starts falling apart, and god forbid you want to move it once
it's setup - moving a wardrobe across the room in my old place caused it to fall apart!

I have had a look in John lewis, and liked what I saw - as you say,
it's not cheap, but I would expect it to last a long time, so it's worth it long term!

[Shirker]

One other thing to think about is that your tastes
will change over time so don't go too ott on quality - balance the two or you'll end up ditching quite expensive stuff.

[Granty]

Jee, check out http://www.limelightdirect.co.uk/ who
aren't too far from where you are now (or will be).  Their website is awful but my solid pine king size bed from there is the nuts (was cheap to and they put it
together).

I bought a sofa from DFS last month, not sure if that was wise but I'll find out in a couple of weeks when they deliver it!

[slaughteredlamb]

There are an increasing number of
'factories' that are being set up where carpenters make a range of furniture to their own design but also will make you bespoke furniture and their prices are often
very, very good.

These are being set-up really as a direct response to people who say that they are fed up with flat packed furniture but can't afford to spend
?1.5K on a dining table for example. One such place is http://www.shorepine-oak.co.uk/

Most of the stores like Furniture
Village etc sell some good quality stuff even if sometimes it's of questionable taste but virtually none of it is made in the UK.

If your taste is more
'ethnic' than there are a number of importers all over the UK who import hand made furniture from the likes of Indonesia, Thailand etc etc and some of it is very well
made (we aren't talking cheap rip-offs) but you do need to be a bit careful and really take a look at what it is you are buying as there are some companies that import the
absolute crap, touch it up and try to pass it off as the more quality stuff.

You are probably best off buying one of those ghey "Home and Garden" type
magazines as there are loads of ads in the back of them for real furniture makers and importers for all budgets.

HTH

[Jeewhizz]

I bought a sofa from DFS last month, not sure if that was wise but I'll find out in a couple of weeks when they deliver it!

/>As someone who used to work in the furniture (read sofa/bed) business, I'd stay well clear of DFS. They generally sell complete crap, and have no customer service. Sorry
to piss on your BBQ.

I will have a look at some of those links, and let the missus know!

[Chris H]

John Lewis have excellent customer service. Recommended.

[Granty]

I bought a sofa from DFS last month, not sure if that was wise but I'll find
out in a couple of weeks when they deliver it!

As someone who used to work in the furniture (read sofa/bed) business, I'd stay well clear of DFS.
They generally sell complete crap, and have no customer service. Sorry to piss on your BBQ.

Damn.  Well the sofa is nice and I bought it through a bloke
I play football with so he'll get in the neck. 

[rutty]

Just bought two leather sofas from DFS too

You DO have
to pay for quality though. I've always kind of liked Habitat (closet yuppy obviously) but they're very expensive.