what do we think of Dunelm?

[QueenoftheNights]

I used to think they were the poor man's John Lewis but recently they appear to be trying to go upmarket; swish brochure with this month's Ideal Home mag.

BUT when I went to my local store a few months back it was so disappointing. It's a big store but had a horrible warehouse feel about it and very dated displays. All the accessories were just dumped on shelves, it seemed pricey for stuff that you'd find at Wilko for less and it just felt depressing- like the old BHS used to be.

Any comments on quality and if it's worth another trip ( my closest is a good 12 miles away.)

It’s a bit ‘Homebase’ isn’t it. Lots of shiney things and black seems to be popular.

The only time I went into Dunelm and actually bought anything was a couple of years ago when I wanted sone Dorma bedding. I bought two pillow cases and a duvet cover. The woman on the till scanned the pillow cases and exclaimed “Fifty quid fer pillow cases? Jesus christ, yer could have a night out with that! Yer must be mad!”

The whole shop stood and stared as I paid and scuttled away as fast as my feet would carry me.

Never again.

I have never told anyone this. My DH and I went into Dunhelm after many years abroad and furnishing our new house here. We brought up some basics to the till about £100 worth and the girl couldn’t scan our £50 notes. The shop was busy and the manageress shouted out that our £50 notes were not scanning. I wondered if they could hear her in TKMaxx she shouted so loud. I was so embarrassed and my DH said to try again. I walked out humiliated. Went to Asda bought similar items and notes were accepted fine. So 2 years now of never shopping in Dunhelm and never will again.

Love Dunelm! A lot of my furniture and home accessories are from Dunelm, I really can’t fault them.

I like Dunelm and was pleased they sold jardiniere net curtains.

My parents have some lovely bedding from there and it's stayed pretty nice for a few years, now. The boys both have curtains from there. Ds2's were dirt cheap and have a lovely lining. I'm less impressed with ds1's but his room needed 137cm deep curtains to fit a 260cm pole, which severely limited where we could shop. John Lewis was the only other mainstream seller of curtains that offers such wide curtains and they had nothing suitable.

Don't order furniture. They left us without a sofa for over a month and just stopped responding to my customer service queries. There was no effort from them to inform us what was happening, I was having to chase constantly, and it was like a chore for them to reply. When the sofa finally did arrive it was dirty (which was mainly dust and came off easily) and a corner had a hole in it. All they offered was £100 refund and delivery charges waived (£10). Never again.
I've had some nice things in store but refuse to shop there since.

Some things are v good value, I got powder coated netal curtain poles from there for our lounge recently which were pretty much the same as the far more expensive John Lewis ones (JL curtains!). I also got a nice full length mirror. When we were furnishing DS flat, we found it was good for reasonable priced basics like airers , pillows and laundry basket , bathroom accessories.. . but yes, its a horrible warehouse type place and had some truly awful 'decorative' stuff IM(a bit snobby)O.. You have to sniff out the good stuff

I got a bay window curtain pole kit from there. It's been pretty good and cheaper than anything else I saw.

They used to have decent stuff before but in recent years the quality has gone down hill for me. Recently brought my house and purchased a lot of soft furnishings rugs, cushions, throws ect lasted less than 3 months contacted then said theyll get back to me still waiting 9 months on