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!

Most of mine is from auctions, I prefer more antique look and usually solidly built, it was also much cheaper than IKEA. You can also buy new, modern furniture from auction houses too.

My bed frame is antique oak although butchered previous IKEA one to replace what would've originally been a metal sprung base. Mattress is IKEA

sofas ebay secondhand but a very expensive make so have a hardwood structure, sprung seats.

Mainly second hand.

Our bed was an eBay bargain.
DC’s bed’s one was my brothers old one which we painted and the other was from my parents spare room.

Sofas were a next eBay bargain.
Dining table and chairs were from a friend sanded then down and painted them.

A few things new occasionally when I’m feeling flush.

Actually the IKEA mattress was off FB market but new & still rolled up, which saved me about £100

People seem to change furniture quite quickly when redecorating or just decide doesn't work for the plans after all. Better to reuse and save some money.

@JackieWeaverFever oh wow, I couldn't bring myself to spend that much unless perhaps it was for a car (or a house)! What did they get?

Mostly new, but in the main is various IKEA and Argos accumulated across fifteen years of rentals before we moved in together. We've been slowly replacing stuff bought to fit specific spaces in previous houses with stuff that fits this house, usually IKEA because we can't afford the look otherwise!

But also a fabulous metamorphic coffee table we found in the refurb shop, a probably hundredth-hand piano, a carved wood seat that came back with his mum when she moved here from South Africa, a mahogany mirror from his great-grandmother's house, bog oak bookcase my grandfather made.

We'd be coming down with lovely delicate antiques from his grandmother and my aunt's houses if we gave our mothers half the chance but given the rampaging toddler we've said no to most of it!

@Charley50 wow, 99p, good bargain! I was looking for a fairly specific size of table which I didn't see second hand, but I was probably being too fussy on the size! We'll definitely be replacing it in a year or so, but not sure what with.

Almost none was bought new.

All new, but when we were younger and skint it was as cheap as chips stuff.

A mix - I'd say 60/40 secondhand/new.

My dining table and chairs were new - about 15 years ago.

My sofa bed was new in 1998!

My coffee table was new. All our mattresses were bought new, but the bed frames were secondhand.

My (crappy) book cases were mostly bought new - a couple were from British Heart foundation.

My sofas were second hand (very good quality, though, a brand I could never afford new).

Chests of drawers, TV unit, occasional tables and chairs etc. all second hand.

Wardrobes built in when we bought the house.

I think pretty much everything we bought new. We've bought extra bits each time we have moved to a bigger house.

Our furniture is mainly second hand, I live in a fairly wealthy area and it is quite common for nearly new expensive bits to be sold for £80-100.

One of my sofas I bought new, it was expensive so I considered it for a while, sofa number two is identical and cost £100 second hand, one leg was slightly damaged so the owners ‘needed’ a new one.

My bed frame was £80, its a black metal superking fourposter.

All new but we bought most of it before having kids and were both working full time so could afford it. We also got the best quality for the best price and shopped around. We spent more on the important things we wanted to last eg beds etc.

I see a lot of posts on our local FB page selling furniture as nearly new, bought for £1.5k or some other ridiculously high price a year ago, but being sold due to redecoration. Just seems crazy.

We much prefer second hand as you can get better quality pieces at lower cost... which will end up lasting longer (and won't go out of fashion!). It does take a bit more time to source the right items though, and I find some of the vintage/ junk shops price way too high.

All of it was new. We spent £££ on renovation and extension so i wanted new things and more furniture as its a bigger place.

3 key items I bought and hope to keep till my dying breath are my matching solid oak sideboard, nest of tables and my huge dining table.

Just the bed. I think everything else was either given to me or came from charity shops, antique fairs etc.

2nd hand =French dresser, sideboard, desk, chest of drawers, bedside cabinets.
New=our bed, dining table and chairs, handmade wooden trunk. Always look for what we want 2nd hand first. Use charity shops, fb sales

When I got my first flat in 2004 I had a mix of second hand (cousins tv unit, my bed from parents house, my Nan’s old bookcase etc) and ikea or argos stuff. No fb marketplace at that time.
It all came to this flat in 2006. By now everything I have was brand new when I got it. But I still have some stuff I bought in 2004. And it’s all still ikea/argos etc

I’d say about 90% second hand. I love searching for interesting stuff. I’ve got some nice things out of skips, as well as market place, gumtree, and local reuse places.
I nearly bought a new sofa but when I realised I would have to wait 8 weeks for it I just bought a second hand one, I’m too impatient for that!

[quote SarahAndQuack]@JaninaDuszejko, is Vinterior any good? It always looks like such a rip off and I can't understand where the value comes from.[/quote]
It's basically a marketplace like Etsy but it's very good for MCM. We've had really good service from different dealers. I think it is possible to get some things cheaper elsewhere (and most of the dealers on there sell elsewhere as well) but you pay a premium for the curation and the excellent search facility (I love that you can search by dimensions). And there's a lot of designer stuff on there that obviously attracts a premium.

Not much

A double bed
A wooden cot
A little side table
A starter type sofa from Ikea
3 x Shelving units

Everything else is second hand.

All new, mostly IKEA.

I can’t believe the ridiculous prices on Vinterior. I buy quite a lot of antiques from markets and have often noticed that the same thing on Vinterior is more expensive. I would avoid! But I suppose it’s useful if you can’t find the item anywhere else.

All of it. When we moved in 13 years ago we were given a dining table by a relative, they were getting rid of theirs and we hadn’t gotten round to finding one in time.
We kept it for about 4 years and then bought a massive oak one that extends and seats 20, we have a lot of people round lots of the time (although not this past year!).
Other than that, we bought everything new.

@JaninaDuszejko, ah, that makes sense. Midcentury modern leaves me cold 90% of the time, so if that's their speciality maybe that's why!

Definitely useful to search by dimensions - I wish more places would do that.

All of it. The dining set is 17 years old now. The sofas lasted 16 years until we replaced them last year.
In our first home, everything except the bed and bedroom furniture was second hand as we started with nothing.
If it ain't broke, I don't fix or replace it.