Is it possible to buy "real" wood furniture without going broke?

[Arkitech]

Well I lost another TV stand yesterday, it literally fell apart when I picked up the TV. So instead of moving it across the room like I intended I moved it straight to the trash. Is it possible to buy solid wood furniture (desks, tv stands, beds, table, etc..) without breaking the bank? It does'nt even have to be new as long as it's durable and well built.

 

[Howard]

Strange. How did the plywood fail?

 

[Pliablemoose]

Originally posted by: Howard
Strange. How did the MDF/OSB fail?

Edited for accuracy...


Arkitech, find a finish it yourself furniture store, add some elbow grease & you have some nice furniture, or barring that, hit the garage sales/estate sales.

 

[Arkitech]

Originally posted by: Howard
Strange. How did the plywood fail?

who knows? All I know is that picked up my television and the TV stand literally fell over like a house of cards

 

[Arkitech]

Originally posted by: Pliablemoose

Originally posted by: Howard
Strange. How did the MDF/OSB fail?

Edited for accuracy...


Arkitech, find a finish it yourself furniture store, add some elbow grease & you have some nice furniture, or barring that, hit the garage sales/estate sales.

that's a great idea, runs off to do a web search

 

[DougK62]

Amish FTW

 

[George P Burdell]

Switch to wrought iron furniture... dunno about looks, but that stuff doesn't fall apart.

 

[FelixDeCat]

Sure - dont buy cherrywood, buy pine!

 

[Arkitech]

Originally posted by: FelixDeKat
Sure - dont buy cherrywood, buy pine!

funny you mention that I was thinking about that, but pine tends to have a lot of knots

 

[KB]

IKEA, but not the squished fiberboard stuff, the solid wood.

 

[farmercal]

no

 

[mugs]

plywood or particleboard?

Edit: Yes, you can get used solid wood furniture for a reasonable price on eBay, but it won't look "modern."

 

[Codewiz]

Just dropped 3k on solid mahagony bedroom furniture.....

 

[dullard]

Remember: real wood furnature prices are always negotiable. Often you can talk the price down a lot. Fake wood furnature prices are rarely if ever negotiable.

 

[mercanucaribe]

Build your own. My TV table is solid wood though, and it was $50 at Ikea.

 

[CrackRabbit]

Originally posted by: KB
IKEA, but not the squished fiberboard stuff, the solid wood.

 

[AdamSnow]

I bought my bedroom set (8 pieces) for $1000.00 Canadian a few weeks ago... so yeah, you can get really good deals on real wood... just shop around...

I bought my stuff at a Mennonite furniture store... awesome prices, great product!

 

[gigapet]

I'm very important. I have many leather-bound books and my apartment smells of rich mahogany

 

[Pepsei]

ikea, the good ones.

 

[waggy]

If you want real wood. go to a local woodworking store and ask if anyone will sale furniture. I am having someone build my daughter a bed for the cost of the wood. Granted it may take the guy a few months since he only does it as a hobby. But far cheaper then buying it at a store.

 

[L O L]

buy a steel one?

 

[jemcam]

Hence the reason I got into woodworking myself.

I did find out very quickly that nice wood is very expensive itself. It cost me over $600 just to buy the wood for the dining room set that I made. I bought a bunch of 1.5" quarter-sawn oak though.

I have made a lot of my own furniture, but if I'm going to spend the time to do this, I only buy the best hardwood I can get my hands on. Walnut, Cherry, etc. I'm completely off oak now, I don't really care for it any more.

 

[Scarpozzi]

See if you can find an unfinished furniture store. If you don't care about style, you can always check yardsales, estate sales, etc..

It's hard to buy anything from stores these days because they're trying to make furniture look solid and old. Even the wood stuff is made out of cheap pine and has a tendency to crack apart after the wood dries out. The problem is that too many companies want to sell nice-looking designer furniture, so they're getting a picture of what they want to sell and sending it to a shop in China....pieces are then manufactured there to mimic the picture and they're sending them back. This is resulting in a lot of crappy stuff on the market....(that's not even counting the stuff you buy at Target or Walmart that isn't REAL wood)

So be careful and make sure whatever you buy is heavy enough and is solid. Remember that if you buy quality, it should be the last one you ever buy...

 

[jdini76]

Don't you assemble the "cheap" furniture yourself? If thats the case, then all you have to blame is yourself.

 

[TripleAAA]

Go to craigslist and look in your area under "Furniture". People want to get rid of stuff on there for cheap and some of it is very nice.