Because we've never owned a home (and our cat sometimes pees on our stuff), our furniture isn't as nice as we would want it to be. I just bought a bar stool today from an Amish furniture place across the street, and was struck by how high quality it was.
It made me for the first time in a long time that maybe we owned a place.
How nice is your furniture?
GOLD / eggplant / 11517 posts
Every single piece of furniture in our house is a hand me down, except for three matching pieces we got at Ikea last year (hutch, buffet, and entertainment center).
Everything is in fine shape except for our living room couches. I am dying for some new couches. My BIL is moving into an apartment for college in the fall, and I'm hoping he will take our couches so we have an excuse to pick up some new ones.
After that, I wouldn't mind a new mattress.
GOLD / wonderful grape / 20289 posts
It's a mixture of things dh has had for years that's crappy because he had just bought his place and needed some cheap stuff, and things I've bought at antique stores.
I also just inherited a chess table that was made in the Amish country in Ohio. It's beautiful .... just need to find a place to put it.
coconut / 8854 posts
our furniture in our living room is all matching, but cheap! we found it on craigslist for $150 and it included a couch, coffee table and 2 end tables! 
its from Ikea so really cute and modern looking, but not comfortable.....I would looove a new couch!
bananas / 9628 posts
ours is a mix of things: some cheap- ikea/target bookcases/desks/entertainment console, some bought as markdowns- dining room set, some hand me downs from more expensive furniture stores- couches, and some from small boutique shops- our futon. somehow it all works together, probably because we have kind of an eclectic style.
squash / 13764 posts
@mrbee: why do you feel like you can only have nice stuff if you own a place?
We rent, and we have pretty nice living room furniture..we splurged on a new couch, tv stand, 2 armchairs, and a bed frame last year (after having ikea and jennifer convertible stuff). They're all pretty classic pieces so I'm not too worried about transitioning them to a new place in the future--we've already moved them from one apartment to another and they look great.
apricot / 256 posts
Our furniture is nice but it's almost all hand-me-down. There is one chair (my favorite) that was the first thing I bought when I got my first paycheck out of college...it has now been turned into the cat's scratching post. Everything else has been scratched or has tons of dog/cat hair on it. I fear we will never be able to have nice things!! Also, our cat has peed on furniture before too so we had to throw it away. I can't ever see us spending tons of money on nice furniture since after pets we will have kids!
admin / wonderful grape / 20724 posts
@hilsy85: We live in the city... a lot of furniture has to be fit into whatever your very particular brownstone apartment is shaped like. If we moved to another apartment, then all of our furniture might not fit.
squash / 13764 posts
@mrbee: We have the same situation (live in the city, moved from a brownstone to a different building) but I refused to let it keep me stuck with ikea furniture and DH's hand me downs I will say that when we were looking to move, one of the considerations was whether our couch would fit in the new place! Luckily we found a place where it works great.
GOLD / wonderful coffee bean / 18478 posts
We started buying nice pieces since we bought our house back in 2009. People told us not to, since we were about to have kids, but we ignored them. We won't get a white couch or anything but otherwise, I would rather teach my kids to respect property than to not have the nice things that I want.
admin / wonderful grape / 20724 posts
@hilsy85: I dunno, I have literally lived in over a dozen places since I moved to New York. I couldn't figure out how to transition furniture well. Maybe you're just better at it than me!
papaya / 10560 posts
neither DH or I really had furniture when we got married, so we bought a leather living room set and love it. i had a bedroom set from before we got married...everything else is given (kitchen table was my parents when they got married) or just old!
persimmon / 1453 posts
The Amish are fantastic craftsmen! I'm hoping to get the baby some furniture from the local farmer's market when the time comes. I've seen some lovely rocking horses and table and chair sets.
DH has mostly IKEA furniture (meh...most of it's in good condition and it works). I have a lot of antique family furniture that was passed down, including a grand upright piano and a maple bedroom set.
Eventually we'd like to buy some new, high quality pieces of furniture, or buy vintage pieces and refinish them.
grapefruit / 4187 posts
When I moved out of my 'starter' apartment last May into a really nice new construction rental I intended to keep all my starter furniture to save money, but once we got it there it was obvious that we couldn't. It was so old and gross and finally being in a place that was so new and got a ton of light really highlighted that.
So we invested in all new furniture other than the bed since that would have meant a new frame, mattress and bedding. We ended up buying a place and moving 6 months after that and luckly almost all of our new furnture fit perfectly! Thank goodness we didn't buy a new bed since we can only fit a queen in our new bedroom. The only thing we had to get rid of was our dresser, but we sold it on Craigslist.
GOLD / wonderful olive / 19030 posts
SOme pieces are nice high end, most are medium quality that I want to replace with better stuff the next time we move. I really want a nice solid kitchen and dinning room table that we can have for years! Also a new bedroom set that will last for years like my parents did. I figured we would give our curent set to our DD when she moves from nursery to big girl room and upgrade our stuff
pomegranate / 3503 posts
We have a mixture. We have some nice furniture back in NY. When we moved out of the country, we bought a bunch of stuff from ikea. Then we bought some vintage items and some teak wood furniture there. So now we have a mixture of nice and ikea quality items.
honeydew / 7230 posts
Most of our furniture is pretty high quality because my mother-in-law is obsessed with this Amish place near where they live and she's always looking for excuses to buy more furniture (our bedside tables just came in this weekend!). Honestly, the furniture from this place is not entirely my style (it's all oak, pretty traditional, etc.) but it is really beautiful and it all matches and is high quality. The things that are not Amish are our couches (pretty inexpensive from a local furniture store) and a few dressers from my grandparents (some that have been refinished and some that have not). Oh and we have a few pieces (a church pew!) that my mother-in-law got from estate sales.
blogger / watermelon / 14218 posts
very not good. All of our furniture is either from Ikea or Bob's Discount Furniture. It all LOOKS nice but is very, very cheap. I'm waiting to purchase a house to invest in nice furniture. Until then it's all throwaway furniture... which is good when you have babies and 2 dogs!
blogger / wonderful cherry / 21628 posts
We have a pretty good mixture. We have some Ikea pieces, some nice hand me downs, some antiques. I'm happy with everything we have. Some rooms of our house still feel empty though.
hostess / wonderful watermelon / 39513 posts
My couch is nice but the rest of my furniture is from Ikea. I don't have a head board and my bed is just in a basic frame.
persimmon / 1202 posts
Combination of completely battered normal-but-cheap furniture and well-kept flatpack furniture. I did "come with" a nice end table, a cedar-lined hope chest/bench, and a 4th generation rocking chair.
wonderful pear / 26210 posts
I loathe Ikea, but we have a lot of it, because we're planning to move back to the States soon answer didn't know if we'd get a contract to move goods. So , we bought the cheapest we could. The stuff I left behind is all antiques or Thomasville.
coconut / 8475 posts
every piece is new and pretty great quality. Our house IS NOT kid friendly AT ALL.....So, being almost 6 months along, i'm scared! It won't be this top notch for long.
GOLD / wonderful coconut / 33402 posts
I think our stuff is nice.We don't have much though since we live in a condo right now. We are looking for a house and as soon as move into one, we are getting a new couch and bedroom set. The only remaining furniture from his bachelor days. The couch is in sad, sad shape.
hostess / wonderful honeydew / 32460 posts
Our bedroom furniture is nice. Living room is from Ashley and decent.
wonderful olive / 19353 posts
All our furniture is the hubby's from when we first moved in together 6 years ago. It's a pretty modern look so it still looks nice, just a little worn.
GOLD / pear / 1845 posts
it's a mix of ikea and hand me downs. I'm saving up for some nicer things, I feel like a student.
persimmon / 1341 posts
Unfortunately my dad made me a furniture snob. He's a carpenter and the only reason it's unfortunate is because nice, quality furniture is expensive. I refuse to waste my money on crappy, fake wood pieces that won't last. We have only solid wood, mostly custom built (thanks dad!) pieces that we've gotten as graduation and wedding gifts. Our bedroom set is an antique set that's been in the family for 100+ years and is in great condition.
We moved in January to a much larger house and several rooms are still empty because I want to take our time and find and invest in quality pieces that will last.
Also, I agree with the person who said they wanted to teach their kids to respect property and not buy cheap furniture.
hostess / papaya / 10540 posts
@eeh: That's the kind of furniture I would like to eventually have, I'm sick of the cheap fake wood stuff we keep getting, especially since it isn't super cheap. It looks nice at first glance, but I want it to look nice and actually last for years and years. Besides from your dad, where do you find your pieces? I can never seem to find places that sell quality.
honeydew / 7589 posts
We don't own ANY furniture. Not one piece. We move so much that it's totally pointless. Once we get to Kosovo though, I'm hoping we can afford some good quality key pieces by using IKEA for less important pieces.
I'd love a really good couch, an interesting coffee table, and a four poster bed.
persimmon / 1341 posts
@Boogs: I don't really..I refuse to pay someone other than my dad to make our furniture because I've been spoiled like that my whole life and know how talented he is. It often times means I have to wait forever and ever to get something but it's worth it. We've recently bought some pieces from antique stores because they tend to have solid wood stuff. We also browse furniture stores and have had luck there as long as it's not a large chain. Local places seem to have better stuff. Also, like people have mentioned..the Amish make good stuff. And, auctions and estate sales. I'm not too considered about stuff being new since I like the look and stories of antiques and I'm more concerned with it being quality. I won't buy used couches though..those have to be new because I get the heebie jeebies when it comes to used upholstered things.
pineapple / 12234 posts
We have a few crappy pieces of furniture and a few that are nice
But most of our nursery/toddler furniture is from target, we have an Ashley Furniture couch that is total crap. A few ikea storage things.
We hope to save for a nice leather couch from Bassett (I like the quality of their furniture), but we have a decent entetainment center and a really nice handed down dresser. Any "nice" furniture we own is from Macy's or Costco!
nectarine / 2530 posts
With three dogs and two cats, I pick stuff that's nice enough but I won't cry too badly if it gets ruined and has to be replaced. Plus I don't have to feel bad if my style changes ;). Mostly it's a mixture of Ikea (love their liatorp collection!), Crate and Barrel (their build it yourself sets), American Signature Furniture (never again), and Bombay Company. My most recent purchase is a leather sofa from Mealey's. So nice not to have to vacuum fur out of fabric!
GOLD / pomelo / 5737 posts
We have a bedroom set from a bigger chain store that is of decent quality, a hand me down couch that was originally nice but not in great condition, a nice desk chair that the cat has managed to ruin, a desk from Costco, and lots of smaller pieces from Ikea. The baby's room will have the Graco lauren crib, her dad's old dresser, and probably an Ikea changing table if we get one (since the $60 one, not sure the name, seems good for the price!) I'd like to get a nice kitchen table and chairs one day, as well as a new couch, but I'm not in a huge rush...
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