MomofJandL - Your H and mine are twins! He goes nuts if I want to change anything. I keep telling him marriage should be the only lifetime commitment; everything else should be fixable. At age 35 he came with lots of really ugly bachelor brown massive furniture. Finally got the couch relegated to S1’s room. Took it out with a sawzall They are both still complaining.
I paid a lot for a Flexsteel sofa 11 years ago. It was overly stiff and uncomfortable when new and hasn’t held up well. We are very easy on furniture. Think I’ll go cheapish-medium that doesn’t look too cheap this time.
We go for comfort and what we like. At one point, we bought two futon sofa beds. We recently replaced the one that had been in the living room for a leather coach from DWR that we are happy with.
We buy new furniture when we agree that something needs to be replaced. So far, we are on our 5th sofa since we married in 1986. We rarely replace other furniture.
HImom, you must have had good futons. I’ve never sat on one that was comfortable as a couch, and I’ve never slept on one that was comfortable as a bed.
If I had to wait for my husband to agree that something needed to be replaced, we would never get a new anything. When I suggest we look at alternatives to what we have, he is fine with it. Well…he wasnt thrilled about tossing the 25 year old, outdated sofa, but oh well.
since my husband is from Sweden, I have had more than my share of Ikea furniture…I am over it.
I have a sectional sofa from them…it is less than 2 years old and looks just awful. We have some older versions of the same sofa in our garage apt and they held up much better than this piece of junk.
I have a new love seat and a sofa on order from a furniture store that carried a brand I like ( Lancer ) I also needed to get a higher back so my dog doesn’t climb up and destroy the pillow
Go for the best you can afford on the wood pieces. Save money on the upholstered pieces. Upholstery wears out no matter how well you care for it. Wood does not.
Actually, I wish I had the furniture from my childhood room. It was so much better made than what my kids have, and it wasn’t anything fancy–the same maple dressers and beds that every middle class kid had in the 70s. I also think fondly of the old kitchen table set my mom had and had to get rid of in the 90s (for style embarrassment). Heck, I miss laminate countertops too!
@redpoodles - come pick it up, it’s in my basement! But get here before August, because this year I think is the year I get to take it to the church rummage sale. The only DH-approved escape path for no longer needed household goods.
VeryHappy, in my opinion, you should get whatever you like, and not give it a second thought. If there is “good stuff” you would like to get, go for it! We are happy with a wide mix of things, some purchased by us 30 or more years ago, some antiques, some inherited pieces, and a few items purchased more recently. In my experience, good quality furniture is really worth it, especially if it is classic in style.
If you find inexpensive furniture that does not look cheap, that’s great! My brother has had excellent luck with furniture purchases on Ebay, mostly cabinetry.
Also, grandchildren (if any) and pets are a consideration. You do want some furniture that they can’t destroy, or that you don’t mind terribly seeing destroyed (here, cheap is good). Our dog is busy wrecking up the upholstery on one sofa, accidentally, as he puts his front paws on the back of it, to look out the window and bark at squirrels, deer, and the occasional opossum in the yard.
There is nothing I own that is more important than my grandkids. I try to teach them to care for things but will not get too upset if accidents happen. Even to my precious living room set that I bought in Europe 30 years ago.
Absolutely, 3bm103. Yet I would still prefer that my grandchildren (currently hypothetical) do not crash into the china cabinet that was my grandmother’s, or break the rocker that was my great-grandmother’s. I probably didn’t put my idea in the best form, but I mean that it would be good to have furniture around that lets you be relaxed about any accidents.
I sort of had plans for that sofa as a focal point of a future room arrangement, but I don’t really mind re-planning now that the dog has pretty much put paid to my original plans. He’s a good dog.
My taste has evolved…but my house is “layered”. My den has a marble table from the 50s, mahogany bookcases, new…and other old stuff. The bedroom furniture that we have was a birthday present from my parents at age 14. I will keep this forever. Our (my) taste is quite traditional with zaps of new stuff (pillows etc) to change the look.
…one of my best friend’s daughter has her grandmother’s furniture…the same set that I have. Grandma’s furniture was made in the 30s? Still looks great.
My motto is to get something that’s comfortable and preferably on sale/free if possible.
As someone who isn’t hung up about stylistic elements of furniture or residential fixtures like kitchens, I’ve always been puzzled about the time, aggravation, and expense many go through for the sake of “new styles”…especially when it is done more frequently than once every decade or two. Sometimes, the expense would be such they end up heavily in debt.
Sometimes to the point of asking for loans from colleagues or junior employees like yours truly back then…and of course my answer was NO.
Thumper - it’s not just you - I don’t like IKEA! Went there once when it opened to see what the fuss was about, went there one other time to buy a cheap desk needed for a desktop computer, don’t see the big fuss!
The maple furniture from my childhood bedroom is in D’s room. It is much higher quality than what is sold now. H refinished it and changed the hardware years ago.
Timely thread for me personally. I bought a pair of really expensive sofas about 7 1/2 years ago. I have hated them for the past 3 or 4 years, but didn’t feel I could justify replacing them because of their cost. They are dated in style now, and the color doesn’t go well with our new house (gold/bronze sofas in a house with pale gray kitchen cabinets and black granite counters). I did the best I could to blend them in with an area rug and simple drapery panels, but I’m done with them.
I think that because an expensive sofa outlasts my affection for it, I going to buy much less expensive stuff this time around. Not cheap, because I do want them to last a few years, but no more really pricey stuff for me.
@thumper, I’m with you on IKEA furniture. Back in the day, I think it was much better quality, but most of the stuff they carry now looks like it would barely make it intact through a move from one room to another.
And ditto with you on futons.
@syrstress, my DH’s bachelor furniture was all the black lacquer stuff. Blech. It was gone in pretty short order. We sold it to some other bachelor.
I also have some furniture that was in our house when I was a kid - a couple of dressers for example. The quality is better than what you can get now and my parents did not go in for trends, it is classic.
As my folks are in their mid 80s, I have started wondering what I will do with their furniture that is in their condo down the road from me. When they moved, they could barely give away their beautiful Henredon dining room set - such a shame. People would rather have some piece of junk from Ikea (yes it is junk mostly, and I have a couple of things from there).
@cobrat, I agree that going “heavily” into debt for furniture whims is really foolish. However, depending on the style chosen, some furniture can look very dated within a decade, just as clothes can. I have been in the process of changing over my furniture style from the heavier old world style that was really popular here to a cleaner, more contemporary style (called “transitional”) that I believe will hold up a little better over time. I don’t consider it aggravation; in fact, I love looking at furniture-as opposed to shopping for clothes, which I HATE HATE doing. And we’ve got the money, no debt whatsoever other than a small mortgage, so it’s simply my “thing,” like you might enjoy buying new guitars or upgrading your technology in your home.
Nrdsb4, regarding husband bachelor furniture…when I met my husband , he had recently sent furniture he bought in his home country here. It was not my taste AT ALL ! It was a combination of very dark oak and for the chairs and sofa , leather and wood. It was also far too cumbersome for the room it was in. Most of is has disappeared over the years , but we still have one last piece that I wish I could get rid of. It is a china type cabinet. It looks like it belongs at a Harry Potter or Ren Fair . We have talked about replacing it with a similar size piece that my husband bought me for my birthday that we have in our living room. This one was made by a custom furniture maker who uses reclaimed barn wood. My husband wants to get a similar piece of furniture that can hold and hide the TV.
They are both still complaining.