Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Procuring Furniture on the Cheap

In an effort to keep costs down I've been looking on eBay for used furniture.
Craigslist locally has turned up nothing in my budget and in my style sense.

I have very specific ideas about what my dining room table set needs to look like and how much it needs to cost(not much).
And I don't want something "cookie cutter" I see in every furniture store.

I found this used set for $350, but it's in Southern CA and local pick-up only.

Gosh, I LOVE this!



By the time I pay someone to haul it to PA, I could have ordered something similar new from Italy!lol
Fat chance I'm going to find something as awesome as this around here.....

I found a few sets that would work but they seem to be in Illinois or someplace to far to rent a truck and go get it.  sigh.

I am tempted to buy these chairs, aren't they cool?!........



And then find a metal chromed leg birch or glass topped modernistic table to go with them and use it all for a dining room set.
It's a small room so many of the sets I see are just too massive and big.
I want something fun that will be able to go with us to the next house.

Oh decisions, decisions.

I may have to break down and go on an excursion to Ikea down Philly to window shop some furniture and kitchen cabinets.
Can you believe I have never set foot in an Ikea before?  8-0
I've got my eye on a leather loveseat there.....

I hear both good and bad things about Ikea furniture.  What's your opinion and/or experience with them?

What kind of furniture do you have in your dining room?


Sluggy
 

9 comments:

  1. Early attic, actually the whole house is early attic. Old servants table from big house in Sweden, pressed back oak chairs. Hate them but better than the folding chairs we had for years.

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  2. I don't have a dining room. Well, I do, but it was used for the baby's bedroom and then a sewing room and then a computer room. It will hold almost any size table. But, I have a huge kitchen with a dining room table in it, bought in 1968--Mediterranean style. The table is so generic, but it was a set and seats six. If I had ever wanted a dining room, the furniture I would have wanted would be the price of a good-sized new car. I said "wanted" not gotten.

    I like old furniture. From what I have heard, Ikea is just temporary furniture and from what I have seen does not fit my style sense at all. So, that part is just my preference. My friend said she encouraged her son to get Ikea because it is cheap and will last long enough for him to get really good stuff. Okay, the last ottoman she bought cost $600, so that is how "good" she means.

    I have never been in Ikea either. But, I don't think I would last the forced march through it. Are Ikea cabinets solid wood as opposed to pressed wood?

    Out my window, that sounds like great furniture!

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  3. I LOVE those chairs. Go to Philly on trash day in a ritzy neighborhood, maybe even to thrift stores.

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  4. nice furniture pix; too bad they ain't here. :(

    I have an oak table and hutch (from my SIL) in the dining room. not exactly my speed, but the price was right 14 years ago when we bought our house. she also threw in a living room sofa.

    I have ikea bookcases; they were easy to put together. AND you don't have to go into philly, there's an ikea in plymouth meeting!

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  5. I've never been to Ikea either, but I like their designs. I don't know about the quality. My dining room table and chairs are solid maple from Ethan Allen. My sideboard and jelly cupboard are pine from Southern Pine Craftsman in NC. I think they're out of business. I bought my furniture in the late 80's when country was the big thing. Before that I had some Scandinavian teak stuff, which looking back now, I wish I would have kept. I plan to keep what I have for the long haul.

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  6. My dining room furniture: an oval, dark oak Pennsylvania House table with 6 chairs (2 are captains chairs with arms, all are high backed) that I paid a whopping $129 plus tax at Salvation Army when I divorced. I have a secretary desk that my grandfather built in the 30's or 40's that is closed up, using the top as a side board and the 3 deep drawers to store linens. Works for me. Do you have any thrift shops? Yes-lots of worn out, junk, but some treasures as well.

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  7. All of my parents' furniture came from second hand stores. I've heard good things about IKEA, and a lot of funny things. The quality is a bit of "you get what you paid for", and not made to last a lifetime like say, real oak wood furniture, but they're stylish, cheap and durable for all intent and purposes.

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  8. We so need all new furniture. These kids have been monsters. But I'm not buying a thing until DJ is out the door. We just can't have nice things with kids. LOL

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  9. I have never been to an Ikea either I don't even know where the nearest one would be. I dont use the dining room as a dining room so the only space I have is in my kitchen. I bought a new used table the other day that I blogged about. Not really what I want but with kids you have to do practical and not breakable

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