Ethical Furniture

[Innat]

We want to buy a piece of furniture for storage purposes - a bookcase or dresser type thing to go in our living room. We got some money for Christmas so we thought we'd like to get something we really liked that we can keep for many years. I guess we'd be happy to spend up to £1000 if we found something we really liked.

Does anyone know of any suppliers of furniture from sustainable or reclaimed sources?

Or is it worthwhile hunting around for a secondhand something in a reclaimation yard (never been to one of these before)?

Any advice would be good - TIA

Call your local council and ask about furniture recycling charities such as Emaus - they should be able to give you some leads. Community Transport is the other generic name for charitable furniture recycling and restoration. Expect to pay about £50 for a decent dresser including delivery (which is very good value IMHO).

Reclamation yards are much more expensive. Also you need to know what to look for (woodworm, poorly repaired joints, cut down furniture made of other things which is not well done, swelling, signs of damp etc).

www.myakka.com -- fairtrade new stuff.
Charity shops, of course.
Scheme in north norfolk called Restore.
You could always ask around for something made bespoke (custom made) but see if the maker would know where to get reclaimed wood. Most of the craftsmen are quite keen on that kind of thing.

I was going to suggest that you get someone to make something out of reclaimed wood too.

My DP is a carpenter/builder and makes the occasional piece for our house (doesn't tend to do it for others as its more of a hobby to make furniture IYSWIM) eg.we have a really chunky, heavy coffee table thats made from reclaimed roof joists that were removed and replaced in our house during major building work here. The wood is really old and has such great character

how about an auction - you must have local auction houses somewhere?
Don't get something new, get something 100 years old or so - much more ethical in my view! will also hold its value, and (very relatively speaking) antique furniture is really cheap just now.

Look on ebay there is always furniture on there and a lot seems to go quite cheap as its always collection only or expensive to deliver.
MIL sold a disgusting 70's dining set on ebay, not that I am saying you will be wanting anything disgusting, just trying to demonstrate that anything can be ebayed!

Thanks for all those suggestions. i had a feeling that reclaimation yards might not be best for a novice!

I will have a look for some local auctions. m + fil love going to auctions so i'm sure they'd come with me during the week while i'm on mat leave. can't believe i didn't think of that already - thanks littlefrog.

will also have a peruse on ebay to see if there's anything local that we could pick up. and check out if there are any local schemes like chocolate and lljkk mentioned. i am in county durham btw.

ooh i'm quite excited now at the prospect of a treasure hunt

With that budget you should be able to get a really nice antique piece. Agree auctions are the best place to look, and be patient -- took me almost a year to find the sideboard I wanted (but when I did it was a huge bargain.) Antiques are a bit out of fashion at the moment, but should hold their value better than anything you buy new.