To really want some furniture that doesnt fall apart?

[thefirstMrsDeVere]

I KNOW it annoys people that AIBU is being taken over by general threads but allow me this one.

I am going to be moving DS2 into his own room soon and I will need to fit it out to be safe for him. He has ASD and LDs and is pretty hard going on fixtures and fittings.
Not enough to need specialist equipment but ikea furniture just doesnt cut it.
Anything flat packed isnt strong enough even when I use wood glue.

I dont have much experience of higher quality stuff. All mine has come from Ikea or second hand (which I prefer but its harder to get and hard to plan for).

So I need a chest of drawers and a smalll wardrobe and shelving. Its a small room, just bigger than a box room really.

It needs to be clutter free, neat and STRONG.

I will be doing all the decorating but I am hoping (fingers crossed) for a grant to help fit it out. I dont want to waste the money on something easily broken but I dont want to overspend on something that I think is high quality just because it cost more IYSWIM.

So you lot - you are supposed to be middle class and affluent [wunk] can I have some recommendations for decent, strong, nice, bedroom furniture?

Thankyou.

Go to John Lewis.

That is my answer to everything

Well firstly we can all post where we bloody well like, stuff the TAMPONS where they belong

WRT the furniture not sure I can help much as I do still tend to buy flat pack stuff BUT I get some extra strong no more nails type glue to glue the joints together, not the faffy wood glue crap, might aswell use bogies. Dont just glue the little wooden pegs in, use it all along the joint. And get some of those strappy things tat you can fix to the wall so the furniture cant be pulled over.

Failing that all of the furniture I see at boot sales and charity shops looks very very sturdy, might be tricky getting it home though?

Yes
Have you got a second-hand place that does quite posh house clearances? The sort of place that also has spears and helmets and huge dining tables? Not a charity shop.
It is basically - as far as I can tell - a grand for a wardrobe, whether a decent flatpack one, a crappy flatpack one, or a lovely arts and crafts one that'll withstand a blitz. Ikea clean up because they go far below this, but they fall apart so quickly even without a whirlwind child

Chests of drawers are cheaper, a basic pine one with wooden knobs, from 50-1000 years ago - really hefty. Not expensive.

Spend the money on a joiner to do shelving. A hundred should do you. Tell him to put extra fittings on it all so it stays on the wall.

In the same boat Mrs. The best ever thing I did was to find recycling centres, second hand furniture shops and auctions.

They have what I call "real" furniture, the old fashioned real wood wardrobes, chests of drawers etc. They're as solid as rock, been around some of them since the 70's or before and are so sturdy, so cheap and you can modernise them to make them fit in with your son's room, paint them, stickers whatever you see fit.

They don't have to stay looking old fashioned, you update them but they'll last forever, they'll certainly take a hell of a lot more punishment than an Ikea or Argos one.

A wardrobe is typically £20 or 30, same for a chest of drawers. Plus no one else will have anything like it as you can modernise to suit the room.

Or yes if you can afford it my friend swears by John Lewis or Next furniture

Um, that was 50 to 100 yrs ago, not a millennium old

And definitely go with £20-£30 for a wardrobe I have never seen one that cheap round our way!

X posted Waltraut, I've gone through so many wardrobes, etc. before I found a solution. A bed lasts around a year so need another one, but don't want a second hand bed, might have to find a sturdy base and keep the mattress.

Look on ebay. Search for good makes. I got a Stompa rondo midi-bed and furniture for £100 (£800 new). My best buy so far!

We went to a Sue Ryder sale this morning and the furniture is well worth buying. Good sturdy properly made stuff and so cheap, £10 for a 5 drawer chest made of oak, £15 for a bookcase and £10 for 2 side tables.

I really prefer old furniture. I have a particular fondness for 'utility ware'.

Trouble is pricing it up for a grant. We have a couple of charity shops that sell furniture but they tend to sell flippin ikea stuff and the older stuff is getting harder and harder to find.

I suppose I could estimate how much for a wardrobe and chest and then work with what I get (if I get it).

One of the reasons I am applying for the grant is so we can get a joiner in to do the work - its got to be done properly. We need a sparks too because I have to have flush light fittings and and wall lights. No bedside lamp would last five minutes and I cant have lampshades because they are far to tempting to pull down

Ideally I think a nice 'tall boy' with a rail and little shelves (dont you just love the way they are labled with 'hats' 'ties' etc). A sturdy chest of drawers and some good shelving for dvds and toys.
He can have drawers under the beds for toys (but not clothes because he is allergic to house dust mites).

I want it simple but still to look like a boy's room.

Perhaps I should trawl ebay for prices.

Although I am very drawn to the John Lewis idea - how posh!

DS2 is getting excited about his own room but I have to have it all safe first. Window locks and black out blinds that are fitted by someone who can hopefully stop them being pulled down 'by accident'.

It seems such a big step but he is 8 now and needs to have his own space.

I bought a gorgeous John Lewis granite-topped kitchen table and chairs from Ebay...
It's worth looking

Awwwwwwww Waltraut I like the idea of them being a 1000 years old, imagine what you'd get on the Antiques Road Show as a valuation or on Flog It?

My son's wardrobe, after spending a fortune on complete crap over the years cost me £25 I think it was. Solid stuff, it has it's own key and internal shelving. My neighbour got a lovely brown three piece suite with reclining chairs that was £80 (expensive round these 'ere parts )

Get to an auction house, one that does house clearances, apparantly they can't give the old fashioned stuff away. We have a recycling centre at a tip in a nearby town. (Posh there too, a better class of second hand than your average). The only problem is that some of these wardrobes were made for bigger houses than we have today a lot of the time and you might not get them up the stairs so take a measuring tape with you and measure your entrances first if it's a double wardrobe for example.

People throw these things out and they never see daylight again! Sacriledge!

I would never ever buy a flat pack wardrobe again, particularly for my child's room. All that is needed is some paint, or other ideas, new handles, knobs or whatever.

I am on the lookout now for a tallboy.

I am leaning towards second hand because if he ruins it I probably wont cry.
If he trashed something that cost £300 and bought with a grant I think I would be pretty upset and that wouldnt do either of us any good.

I LOVE doing kids' rooms and am quite excited. If we dont get the grant I will have to put him in there but spend money on the safety features (locks and stuff) and make do with the rest. Get things bit by bit.

Its more the work I am worried about. I usually have a bash at things but I want this stuff to be very strong.

What we did with DS [ASD]when he moved into his own room aged 7 was went into local secondhand furniture shop, they had some solid chests of drawers etc which we sanded down and painted to his taste.

communitytransport.org/

These are BRILLIANT!!!!!!!!!!! It doesn't cover the whole of the UK but it does cover a lot of it. You have to hit it right on the day for what you are looking for but saves an absolute fortune too. Not that many people have heard of them.

Mrs I don't know if this covers your area but might help for others.

Auction rooms are your friend. Find one that does house clearance sales, and you will get whatever you need, for a very very cheap price. Many of them have on-line catalogues too before the sale, or you can just go and have a look the day before.

What a shame it doesnt cover my area

I think I will have a scoot around on ebay to get an idea. We have a people carrier so should manage a chest and a tall boy.

Thanks for all the tips. I dont want to ask for much money and if we do get some I want to spend it on the stuff I cant do. I love painting and doing up stuff so have no problems with buying 2nd hand.

We must have auctions round here. I live in East London but right on the Essex borders.

I will have a look.

Oooh wonders if MrsD lives near me

There is a good auction house in Amersham. It is probably not that much of a trek for you, it is just near High Wycombe. Worth it for the money you can save too.

There are probably some nearer to you as well. This one is in North London and looks the sort of thing that would be right for you..

www.centaurauctions.co.uk/

My ds has severe ASD and we had to remove all his furniture from his room for safety reasons. He would smash up a bed the night after we had built it!

We have now got him a bed and cupboard from "Tough Furniture". I can really recommend this furniture for its robust qualities. Although expensive it is indestructible. It is also very safe with locks, inset handles(so no climbing or ligatures) and cannot be tipped over. We also had a bespoke window frame constructed by them to stop ds from leaning out of the window. This also protected the blind. It looks good and homely as well in pale wood colour.

I was going to say ebay as well, I got Dd a fantastic bed that looked brand new and would have cost £550 for £80. You can edit the settings only to show stuff in your area so you know you can collect it.

Here you go, Chelmsford. www.chelmsfordauctionrooms.co.uk/news.html

and they have an auction this wednesday (28th)