To think buying furniture brand new is a waste of money?

[maklenehan]

Sure some items are a lot better new than used, like sofas or mattresses.

But I don’t understand why people spend so much money on brand new furniture, when in 6 months time it’ll be worth about half what paid.

I went to a furniture shop recently and saw some MDF furniture that might last 10 years before looking scruffy/dated for over £1000 for a chest of drawers (West elm). When you can get a solid oak piece that looks timeless for £500. Looks a lot more solid and won’t break easily.

I also get that modern house owners want modern furniture, but there’s loaaads of 1960s furniture available cheap that is solid Teak, and the equivalent modern copies are vastly more expensive and worse quality.

Sorry, the last thing I want is any 1960 furniture style, they are not my taste.

I do buy decent quality furtniture. In the 30 years I am living away from my parents I am at the second dining room set, first living room table, still have the same bed and while we replaced the drawers and cupboard in the dining room and living room we did it as the space in our current house has odd measurements and we opted for build-in ones, beautifully hardwood, will not age look wise and fits exactly as we want.

Second hand furniture is often not really worth it unless you have the time. and means to go hunting and like a certain style. We have a beautiful made up antique shop nearby, I love browing and buying the odd small piece but all furntitures are heavy dark wood, it needs a certain house style and space.

Most furntiures offered on marketplace/fb/gumtree are not worth the time, cost and effort to get them to me. The only difference may be for. children rooms, DD's IKEA stuff ended in a play room locally,.

Depends what it is. For things like wardrobes and chests of drawers, much rather buy secondhand solid wood (mid century stuff is really solid) than usually more expensive new flat pack that is falling apart a year or two later.

We paid an eye watering amount for our bed at And So To Bed 30 years ago, though and it’s still good as new.

DM recently moved house, and her sellers sold a lot of their furniture to her very cheap, or left it for free. They, it their words “are having all new for the new house”.

DM’s furniture includes some Victorian bookcases of her grandparents’, and mid century pieces that my dad collected, Eames chair, Sarinen Tulip table and chairs, a table made Terence Conran before he was famous… some people treat furniture as an investment. Some people don’t. Same as shoes, cars, clothes….

Shipley don’t deliver here.

That can’t possibly be true unless you live on one of the remote islands or the far north of Scotland or something. Shipley isn’t a single company, its a marketplace and companies that are delivering other things in your region give you a price for doing your collection/delivery at the same time.

There is one man and a van who delivers here.

In which case you must have issues with new and old stuff alike.

Anyway I’m not up for an argument about delivery services.

No. New stuff I can get delivered (IKEA have a standard delivery charge, as do wayfair.)

@BikeRunSki

DM recently moved house, and her sellers sold a lot of their furniture to her very cheap, or left it for free. They, it their words “are having all new for the new house”.

DM’s furniture includes some Victorian bookcases of her grandparents’, and mid century pieces that my dad collected, Eames chair, Sarinen Tulip table and chairs, a table made Terence Conran before he was famous… some people treat furniture as an investment. Some people don’t. Same as shoes, cars, clothes….

I think most people view it as an investment, but that doesn’t mean you buy antique stuff. You can buy new and also see it as an investment.

@Bluntness100, that’s the point I’m trying to make. None of those people were well known when dad bought the furniture, he just liked the style and quality.

My furniture mistake came from a local shop that sells a combo of have made/made to order and bought in wooden furniture. It’s all 20+ years old.

[quote Datingandnoideahowto]@SarahAndQuack wrt delivery. I live rurally. There’s one man with a van that covers this area and it’s £50 to get a sofa delivered (which then didn’t fit through my hall and into my living room and he had to take it back to the house clearance place I bought it from) and you have to wait til he’s available because he works and it’s a side gig.[/quote]
That sounds crap. I'm rural too, but usually buy from sellers who will arrange a courier from their end. The only downside is you do field all the 'I've put the postcode in but where are you, it's all fields' phonecalls from them, but then, you get that from IKEA too!

Furniture is not a significant part of anyone's cost of living, value-for-money just means not wasting money on things you don't like. It's fine to buy used if you like the look more than the new alternatives. I don't, generally. Even furniture that I'll admit is beautiful in isolation I would not accept as a gift, because it wouldn't fit in aesthetically wiht my home, and there's a 99% probability that it wouldn't be functionally perfect for my use. The latter I can generally achieve by buying new.

To illustrate what I mean by functionality, the sideboard posted up-thread, even if I liked the look, and even if I needed a sideboard, I'd regard as badly designed from a functional point of view, because the space underneath it is wasted. The size of home that would justify me wasting space like that would probably cost more than £2 million around here.

The sideboard I'm referring to is the one where half the height is taken up by legs.

I buy the things I like because I keep them for as long as possible.

Sofas and mattresses are always new because they are soft/absorbent, and difficult to clean.

I have a fabulous ash sideboard that would have cost ,000s new, found in a second hand shop and an armchair I reupholstered myself in a class. My kitchen table and chairs were new. Ds's 'desk' in his room is a thick slab of beech from a fallen tree and cut to fit an alcove by the local carpenter.

I don't want soft furnishings that have potentially been shagged on, pissed on by children, in a smokers house.

I'm sure people don't sell sofas are 6 months at a 50% loss so the 2nd hand ones are very old.

Our sofas, dining table and bedroom furniture was bought new but the spare bed came from next door and I have some antique occasional tables which were inherited. I also have a pair of 1930s easy chairs which we paid a fortune for in Brighton which look amazing and are supremely comfortable.

I would never buy soft furnishings second hand simply to avoid any issues with bed bugs.

@ActonSquirrel

I don't want soft furnishings that have potentially been shagged on, pissed on by children, in a smokers house.

I'm sure people don't sell sofas are 6 months at a 50% loss so the 2nd hand ones are very old.

You'd be surprised Instagram has folks given everything rotated annually.

We bought our two sofas and an armchair off our sellers. They bought, gutted, tarted up and staged every house they moved to making a lot of money each time.

A friend bought the entire contents of one bungalow that was done up by developers interior designers. Who doubled the value of the property in 14 months

I have a priory sideboard/buffet never liked ercol. I grew up with it, my kids did when mother went for habitat so handed it over. It's like a TARDIS storage wise

There's no wonder that our planet is dying when people think a ten year old piece of furniture is out dated. It's also alway credit credit credit isn't it?

Any of my friends or family who are professionals/well to do, don't have brand new furniture and perfectly modern 'hun' houses. It's always those who want to impress with enormous mortgages.

Yeah people have big mortgage to impress, not at all because property prices are all over the place.

@byrdzovparadize

There's no wonder that our planet is dying when people think a ten year old piece of furniture is out dated. It's also alway credit credit credit isn't it?

Any of my friends or family who are professionals/well to do, don't have brand new furniture and perfectly modern 'hun' houses. It's always those who want to impress with enormous mortgages.

That kinda sounds bitter and a bit, well, odd.

@HasaDigaEebowai

Shipley don’t deliver here.

That can’t possibly be true unless you live on one of the remote islands or the far north of Scotland or something. Shipley isn’t a single company, its a marketplace and companies that are delivering other things in your region give you a price for doing your collection/delivery at the same time.

Well she might well live there since people do actually live in those places you know. I've said it before on mumsnet and I'll say it again - people have vastly different ideas of what rural means. Those living in 'rural' parts of the south of England often seem to find it near impossible to imagine life in many parts of Scotland. I wouldn't even consider where I grew up that rural and yet to many on here it's apparently unfathomable such places exist.

Well she might well live there since people do actually live in those places you know.

Err yes that would be why I said it...

@byrdzovparadize

There's no wonder that our planet is dying when people think a ten year old piece of furniture is out dated. It's also alway credit credit credit isn't it?

Any of my friends or family who are professionals/well to do, don't have brand new furniture and perfectly modern 'hun' houses. It's always those who want to impress with enormous mortgages.

someone's bitter 😂

In the real world, people want to impress when they don't have a mortgage..not when they have a debt to repay.

@HasaDigaEebowai

Well she might well live there since people do actually live in those places you know.

Err yes that would be why I said it...

You also began with That can't possibly be true which made it sound like you thought it almost completely unlikely.