To think quality furnishings can last a lifetime?

[snble]

DP and I are very slowly fitting out our first home together. We are careful with what we buy and make sure it’s all high quality. Solid wood antiques or 60s furniture, english made sofas. solid brass lamps, original paintings. The idea is that these items will either last us a lifetime or will hold a good amount of value if we needed to sell them on.

I think to my granny’s house that she built in the 70s and most things were from then and looked good even in 2010. Whereas my mum is asking us if why we don’t just do a big ikea shop.

Some of us don't care about things being in style. I much prefer decent furniture and have no wish to upgrade it simply because someone whose opinion I don't care about tells me it's not fashionable.

You tastes may change or not suit style or proportions of a new home. Practicalities - a polished wood table and toddlers is not be best mix. Antiques don’t always hold value. My mil has a houseful of things that are not in style and will be difficult to sell in. Lifestyles change. You used to see tea sets with tiny cups and saucers and dressing table sets in charity shops cheap as no one uses them.

Surely you just buy what you like, whatever its vintage?

I don't think good quality furniture will 'wear out' in a lifetime, or, in many cases, a few generations of lives so answered YANBU in the poll
BUT
I doubt many people want live live with the same furniture for 60+ years of their adult lives, for all sorts of reasons.

What about when you move house, and your furniture doesn't fit, or other furniture fits better?
What about when you are at different stages of your life ? (Young with no kids / baby and toddler stage / older kids / teens / empty nesters / getting a bit older and being able to afford something a bit more comfortable / wfh at some point / dc needing space for homework / and many many more reasons)
But also, it is sometimes nice to have a real 'change of scene' in your home and treat yourselves to a makeover.

We bought two settees from Collins & Hayes with removable washable covers 26 yrs ago. The company keep the patterns for their enduring designs so you can order new covers whenever you want a change. The frames are made of solid seasoned oak so will pretty much last a lifetime.
I still love them because they are a classic style and very comfortable.

A lot of our furniture was second hand or inherited. I have an iron and brass bedstead that DS used until he grew too big for it. It’s a small double but I’d Victorian so less than 6’long. DS is 6’3”.

I also buy quality carpets that last forever although the living room is becoming a bit threadbare in front of DHs settee. I have a Britons stair carpet that despite the constant use still looks as good as when it was fitted.
I don’t vacuum every week though so maybe that’s why they last longer😂

I bought a solid oak round, extending table and high backed chairs 23 years ago from wedding present money we were gifted. Cost nearly £3k back then, it has aged but still beautiful. I have no intentions to ever change it.

They don’t necessarily hold value.

also we did ikea for our kids bedrooms and we were very glad we did - scribbles, stickers all over them, the cat gave birth under one of the beds and the dog gnawed at lots of chairs.

not compatible with family life unless you want to spend a lifetime saying no don’t touch.

Old furniture is much less valuable than it was but assuming OP bought it at the ‘right’ price it is likely to hold its value in the near term. It’s already old, so it probably won’t be worth less in a few years.

We inherited furniture from in-laws. It’s over 30 years old and still going strong.

I think there’s a middle ground but I don’t think resale is a very good argument because what is resaleable does depend on what is fashionable- currently mid century is having a revival so easy to sell that sort of stuff but would you really have kept it all when it was deeply unfashionable though the 90’s and noughties? I mean maybe but probably not. Conversely “dark brown” furniture is not v saleable because it’s not fashionable despite much of it being v well made. I quite like it and had a fair bit of it that I bought second hand- but I bought it for an absolute song because not many people want it.

So I think there’s deffo a case for buying things to last but at the same time certain styles will likely go through possibly multi decade troughs where their sale value is negligible.

I agree with those saying whilst it may last it won't always necessarily be what you need or work in your home as your lifestyle changes e.g. with children or pets.

I also think there's some sense in what your mum says. I genuinely don't know anyone who doesn't have at least one IKEA item in their home especially billy bookcases or kallax units. Mostly these are second hand but there's a reason they are popular, they are both durable and practical.

I’m not sure about re-sale value, unless you are talking about actual antiques and then you will have to keep them in very good condition.

And it doesn’t have to be one or the other.

We inherited quite a lot of furniture from
family, not antiques but nice wooden furniture that we’ve now owned for 30 years and is still going strong.

But we’ve also bought new quality furniture as well as IKEA staples.

Invest in things you plan to have for a long time. But most people aren’t going to need toy storage units for 20 years so IKEA does fine.

In the end it’s your house, buy what you like

I don't like modern furniture. Mine is all (except the bed, which is less than 20 years old) 1940s.

I don't want to sell it so I'm not bothered about how much it's worth, I just love it.

It's worth checking for woodworm if you buy antique. It won't have been sprayed with tons of chemicals like modern furniture (good) and thus be full of creatures that end up eating your house (bad)

I live in a house with my great grandparents parents furniture. I hanker for scandi mid mod.

Buy what style you like but I wouldn’t let any potential resale value affect the decision. If you’re planning to have kids it will be their home too and however careful they are things are likely to get a bit of pen on, scratched etc. I wouldn’t want to spend their entire childhoods on tenterhooks about the furniture thinking this has to last 60 years or whatever.

Our dining table and chairs are from ikea 20 years ago. Bought as we needed a table and chairs in our first flat and thought it would do for a couple of years until we got a house. Anyway while other things have needed replacing, it works, has lasted. We’d gone plain enough that it doesn’t look odd. I keep finding better things to spend money on than a new table and chairs. I also have ikea bookcases that came to us second hand, and are older than 20 years.

Antiques don’t always have a decent resale value, it really depends on the fashions of the time you come to sell, there was a time a couple of years ago when everything was grey, you could pick up dark wood dining tables for £100 because no one wanted them. (Still annoyed at myself for not replacing the dining table then, but it was fine and I kept having other things to spend my money on!)

I wouldn’t buy antique or vintage furniture assuming that I can resell it. I would buy it because I like it and it is good value compared to ikea or loaf or dfs.

I have some old brown furniture, it is solid and mixes well with everything else.

Our sitting room chairs are thirty years old, been reupholstered three times as the frames are so good. Sofa at least twenty. Sideboard the same. All original paintings bar one print which I shall smuggle to a charity shop when I have something to replace it. I would say that it's definitely worth saving up to buy things that last and are classic designs, as long as you are that sort of person. My taste hasn't really changed in the last thirty-odd years. Boring to others, perhaps, but they don't live here.

Pretty much all of my home is furnished with quality secondhand stuff. The only thing I wouldn’t buy secondhand is a mattress.

I think things were made to last years ago, which is not always the case today.

All of my furniture has a story.

It has saved me money and helps limit some of the constant consumerism and the effect on the planet.

One of my favourite finds is my beautiful curtains which are made from a now discontinued Sanderson fabric. I tracked down several pairs on ebay years ago and had them remade into one big pair to fit my giant bay window.

I take the same approach with clothes. Far prefer old quality than the fast fashion of today.

DF has the sideboard and wardrobes and dressing table that date from my parents ' marriage 66 years ago. Still in constant use.

As soon as you get it out of the showroom the price of furniture falls dramatically. "Brown" furniture gets very low resale values at the moment. On the other hand it means we have picked up some great bargains from the auction salerooms - only problem is transport which if you end up having to hire a van is usually a lot more than the price you paid for the furniture. Buy new if you like it but not in any expectation it will hold anything like the price you paid for it.

Oh yes - this struck a chord with me too! Gouging / scratching as a subconscious thing (by my ND dcs) in the surface of bedroom desks - aargh!! Also, they are very physcal - lots of things have got cracked / broken / smashed…

We have a mixture of both. I really hate the ethos of chuck it all out every 2 or 3 years and replace with brand new because "fashion" dictates. Whether that be clothing, decor or anything else.

The sofa I am sitting on right now is 24 years old. I know that because it arrived the week after my oldest child was born. It was not cheap when we bought it but not designer prices - I think it was DFS or similar. A few years ago when it started to look scruffy we had the seats reupholstered with matching leather. At the other end of the room we have a pine welsh dresser which was bought second hand about 15 years ago, we lived with it in the pine finish for about 10 years, it's now dark blue.

We do have Ikea furniture too - the ubiquitous Kallax storage units - but they are also sturdy and we've had them for ages.

The disposable mindset is killing the planet. There is nothing wrong with second hand or using your granny's old wardrobe.