In praise of quality furniture

fields5069

I just thought I'd post about an excellent experience I had with some quality furniture recently. Now it turns out that we actually, over the years, have got some pretty nice furniture into our house, either through discounts/sales, or shrewd purchasing, and sometimes both. Like the time my wife persuaded BHS that their £500 sale price on the solid oak dining table actually included the six chairs.

However, our first port of call is usually IKEA for any wardrobes, random tables, book shelves etc. Well recently my parents have been feeling flush and decided to get my daughter some bedroom furniture. I was a bit shocked when they didn't bat an eyelid of her choice of wardrobe and dressing table in a local furniture store. They were taking the piss in the store, actually trying to sell for more than RRP, and I felt bad for my parents so found the same online for what I thought was a fairer price. It may not seem like much to some - £1400 for a 2-door wardrobe, dressing table and mirror. It's the type of furniture which I don't really go for - pristine white, French style, just a bit "nice" for my liking, a bit OAP if you know what I mean.

Anyway, I was aware that this was going to be pretty good quality, but I wasn't prepared for what turned up yesterday. The dressing table was in one piece, net weight 50kg! They had to leave it downstairs as we hadn't finished cleaning the room, and bloody hell it was a bugger to get upstairs. But such a leap in quality over IKEA, for not really that much more money. I think the dresser was £500 - soft-close drawers, proper "secret" jewellery drawers with inserts, nice mouldings. Some could be MDF, but I think the majority is solid wood even though you can't see it as it's all "painted" white. The mirror was definitely solid wood - you could see it on the exposed ends before I assembled it.

Luckily the wardrobe comes in more pieces, and the bottom section which is already assembled with a drawer is "only" 30kg.

I always assumed that the vast majority of furniture which wasn't antique, and had a solid finish on it, would be approximately as dodgy as IKEA stuff. How wrong I was.

fob

I like the idea of a solid wood mirror - maybe you get a more responsive reflection.

Where did you buy from in the end?

fields5069

I went with Mattressman. I could have got it slightly cheaper, but they seem to have a good name in the online furniture business. The furniture is by Bentley Designs, the Chantilly range. It's built to order, as I understand it, so took about 4 weeks to arrive.

shrinkwrap

You can't beat old furniture, what's called 'brown' in the trade. Prices have plummeted. Something from the 1930s should last another hundred years, unlike most Ikea stuff.  But yeah Ikea is convenient for price and range  - and kids hate old stuff.

munckee

My brother has furnished his house with solid oak varnished black in the 60s and 70s which he has stripped and lime waxed - - paid peanuts for it from second hand shops.

Apart from our playroom which is wall to ceiling ikea for storage we only get solid wood.  Sometimes pine which we paint or oak.

Iamnobody

The chipboard shite you get from most high street shops won’t survive a couple of aggressive swings on the door by a toddler...It rips the hinges out. I know this from first hand experience. Once the holes are elongated in the chipboard there’s no going back. Except for work around like bolting which doesn’t look great.

The ikea stuff is better - it’s survived said toddlers and a house move and is still going strong - I think it’s primarily MDF construction.

Looking to buy wooden furniture for my daughters bedroom upgrade next month. Probably white painted pine.

Sassafras

For that price I'd expect the wardrobe to be a gateway to Narnia.

ICBM

Fashion is a problem - a lot of people seem to think well-made furniture is ‘old people’s stuff’ and can’t see why you would want to spend a bit more on it. My kids also like Ikea furniture, so we’ve bought a fair bit for them, but it really is mostly crap... MDF and one-use threaded inserts do not make for long life.

GuyR

shrinkwrap said:

You can't beat old furniture, what's called 'brown' in the trade. Prices have plummeted. Something from the 1930s should last another hundred years, unlike most Ikea stuff.  But yeah Ikea is convenient for price and range  - and kids hate old stuff.

Look at the online catalogue for your local auction house. A Victorian mahogany chest of drawers can often be had for £50-100. Similar prices for wardrobes of similar vintage. An Ikea item at the same price is made out of chipboard, with hardboard drawer bases, held together with plastic bolts, sat on runners with loose ball bearings. Which one is going to be more durable?

In my local auction house recently, I recently picked up a 9 foot dining table, arts & crafts style, all solid oak -the top consisting of three solid wide planks. £90. Why waste money?

boogieman

The only real advantage with Ikea stuff is it’s cheap and easy to transport and assemble, although some of their stuff is reasonably well made. I put in an Ikea kitchen once and it’s still going strong at my old house after 20 years with no breakages. I doubt it will outlive really well made furniture though. Years back I was given a 1960’s G Plan gateleg table. Nasty dark oak poly finish but still a good solid thing with nice proportions. I stripped it and found it was a lovely piece of solid mahogany underneath all the crappy varnish. I refinished it with just coats of wax and it looked great. It lasted me for probably twenty years, then when I moved in with my current wife we gifted it to her niece who’d just bought a new home. It’s since been passed on again twice. You can still pick them up for £20-30. 

fields5069

This stuff has some typical construction methods, for the flat-pack part of the wardrobe - cams and bolts etc. It's just so solid though, but a bit pristine for me. Anyway, on to the wardrobe today, a 2-man job apparently.