How much of your furniture did you buy new?

[Imicola]

Random musings really, but I have somehow only just come to realise the literally the only furniture in our 3 bed house that we bought new were the main sofa, beds and cot. Everything else is a hodge podge of hand me downs and second hand, including jumble sale, gumtree, Facebook, antique shop with a few pretty decent things for free.

What about you? If you have second hand, where are your best pieces from?

I'd love to get a brand new extendable dining table in future, but the ones I liked were all over a grand so we stuck with our £20 jumble sale table. Pretty glad given our toddler likes to give it a good pounding with her fork on a regular basis!

Problem I've found with Ikea and other flat packs, they're fine once assembled but they don't really last too long once re-assembled.

Having said that because of allergies I wouldn’t buy a sofa second hand unless I personally knew the person selling it

We bought our sofas and one bed new (9 years ago). And weve bought 2 IKEA kallax storage units but that's it. I've never thought about it before and I'm actually quite proud of myself right now

I bought everything new. I would have bought some things second hand but I don't have a car to go and collect things.

Genuine secondhand furniture, only one set of wooden drawers and a coffee table that I refashioned.

We have a couple of chests that were passed on from my siblings. Everything else is new. However, I think that this is probably representative of my age also.

We bought the arm chairs and sofa brand new, as well as our bed/bedroom furniture, and DS1s bed. We also bought you storage new from IKEA. The rest is second hand, because I love traditional and painted styles, so we’ve picked up a mix of nice pieces from a reclaimed shop and Marketplace bargains.

Only thing we've bought new is ds' bed and the dining room chairs.

We have had a couple of new things bought for us, and we have a fantastic 2nd had furniture shop locally. I'd always look there first.

My first house was 100% handmedown/ secondhand furniture but now after 20+yrs of house ownership and 20yrs of being with DH we've slowly added to the furniture and most of it is stuff that was bought new however each from still has at least one piece of second hand furniture.
We tend to try to buy stuff that lasts and don't change because we've got bored of it or fancy a new look, usually it's because something broke or we had new needs (more children)

DH and I have a high income but I choose to buy vintage furniture as much as possible because it's better made (£ for £) and better for the environment. So, e.g. in our dining room we have my grandparent's dining table, a sideboard we bought from ebay, and our dining chairs are church chairs we bought in a silent auction to raise money for the church we got married in. The only things that were bought new in that room were our drinks cabinet (but I did look for an antique one but couldn't find what I wanted) and the Tripp Trapp chairs we bought for the DC. But it doesn't necessarily save us money, e.g. last year I bought a refurbished vintage rosewood sideboard for the hallway that cost ~£1500, and a pair of reupholstered vintage chairs for the DDs room that cost ~£800.

Agree with the PP who says vintage adds character. We have at least 1 vintage piece in each room (usually more). We have hand-me-downs, ebay and Etsy purchases, things bought from the local auction house and my current favourite Vinterior which covers all price ranges right up to antiques costing £10Ks.

For inspiration for buying vintage Lisa Dawson is a good one to follow, although the blog does have lots of 'paid partnership' stuff among the good stuff about repurposing vintage stuff. Madaboutthehouse has some good stuff on vintage as well.

I love bargain furniture. My favourite thing is the gorgeous enormous table we've got - it would be comfortable for 12 and possible for more when it's fully extended and the extension mechanism is really nice and smooth. It was £430 and will obviously out-last us. Off Etsy, which isn't super cheap for furniture but massively cheaper than new ones. My parents have a brand new extendable table which, frankly, is much less nice and smaller, and it was nearly 2k.

We've not long moved so have recently bought a chest of drawers and 2 bedside cabinets.
Only other things that were bought new are sofas and our bed. Everything else has been hand-me-down or eBay - we have just set up our spare room using the pine bed from my childhood home and the matching drawers and bookshelves are else where in the house.

I much prefer second hand to new - more financially and environmentally friendly.

@JaninaDuszejko, is Vinterior any good? It always looks like such a rip off and I can't understand where the value comes from.

Beds I always buy new, (bed bugs) the best sofa was inherited, the other couch was new. Everything else is mostly upcycled.

Just looking around and just realised everything is second hand. When ive set out to buy something new i find it's over priced and poor quality and i end up going back to find something better online. I do however tend to buy higher priced second hand goods.

Everything is new except things from antique shops that I bought specifically Eva use they were old and I liked them. I had the money at the time and I dont regret it. Some things have got ruined by the kids but I’m not replacing anything for a long time!

Brand new: beds, cot, sofabed in family room. Everything else is second hand from charity shops, ebay, Facebook, gumtree etc. We also have a couple of family antique pieces: Welsh dresser and dining table that have been in family for generations. We also have a 16th century green man dresser we bought from an antique shop. So my house is definitely eclectic with furniture.

All of it. I have lived here 20 years though. We haven't always had new furniture.

We have a mix. The new stuff is beds and sofa/chairs. With some other bits like a set of drawers and bookcases. In general I try to get second hand vintage stuff. But when me moved into an unfurnished flat about 10 years ago without a car I just needed to get some furniture quickly so ikea it was.

I think as long as its functional and you like it it doesn't matter. There's lots of snobbery both ways with people thinking new is tacky or that secondhand is for poor people.

We live in a flat with a front door at an awkward angle and small rooms with tall ceilings. All my furniture is IKEA otherwise we wouldn't get it in the place.

Everything in our home has been purchased new, however, when we first moved in together (over 30 years ago) every last stick of furniture was second hand.

We replaced with new over the years, some better quality than others depending on finances at the time. I'm looking to replace furniture in the dc's old bedrooms and thinking I may buy good quality 2nd hand and repaint/do up

When we first got our house, almost nothing, DH slept on a mattress on the floor for 4 months. Our bed was a wedding present, and the dining table and chairs. We bought a locker for the bedroom, and 4 months later a second one when we'd saved enough. The coffee table in the sitting room was a wedding present.

Kitchen table was second hand, we had cheap folding chairs brought from a previous rental with not enough seats, 3 piece suite was second hand within family, as was washing machine and tumble dryer, and lots of curtains from various family members. Tv was also a small one from previous rental.

We had concrete floors for 6 months before we could carpet, no tiles for 3 months (we only used the handheld shower in the bath while sitting down to avoid splashes), and we laid cork tiles in kitchen and bathroom after about 2 months as the most urgent areas.

But we did a lot ourselves and saved more money so eventually bought our nice furniture to suit us and our styles, like the 3 piece suite was 2.5 years later, but a lot of the curtains were changed much much quicker. More than 20 years later, we still have the folding chairs for extra seating when needed and the 3 piece suite is still used within the family as others needed it in their turn.

We have a real mix. Our bedroom furniture is mostly new as is a dresser and the furniture in one kid's room. The rest we were lucky with as two relatives were downsizing as we were upsizing. A lot of that is stuff that had belonged to grandparents so is quite old but v sturdy. We went to a house clearance place when we moved in and got lovely sideboard, drinks cabinet, coffee table, bureau and console table for a hundred quid. I've upcylced a couple with paint and new knobs and I love them.

Some of the stuff we have isn't quite to our taste and I think we will gradually replace those. The issue is that they are really well made and I would want to replace them with stuff of similar quality.

Everything was bought new here. But I'm in my 50s, the first house was furnished with hand me downs and pallets. Very..... erm.... rustic.

Now we have "enough" to be able to buy what we want when we want. And I was poor enough long enough to "want" new.

Very little.
Mattresses.
Sofas

Everything new apart from a few bits. DS bedroom drawers which were rescued from MIL house fire and a bit burnt DH upcycled them and they are absolutely fantastic. Likewise DH upcycled a £20 wardrobe for DD. Painted it and put new handles on and its perfect in her room. Our bedside table was £5 from a charity shop and I upcycled that. I'm open to upcycled furniture if it fits what I'm looking for but mostly buy new.