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I've caught a used furniture bug. This shouldn't come as a shock to those of you who know me, as it's simply the next step in the evolution of my furniture shopping preferences. Three of four years ago when I first got an apartment and became interested in cramming it full of furniture my criteria was simply the cheaper the better. In keeping with this, I accumulated a fairly large collection of free furniture: two chairs that were discarded following the Olin Library remodel, a loveseat from one of the engineering societies, an old desk chair, and some of my parents' discarded furniture. Price was the main -- arguably the only -- criteria I used when selecting this furniture. It had to be free.

Then I began to slowly ramp up my spending, primarily on cheap new furniture. The results of this phase were a kitchen table with four matching chairs, a matching coffee table and end table, a desk, an entertainment unit, a dresser, and some bookcases. The results of this phase were mixed. The dinette set, coffee table and end table, entertainment unit, and desk were pretty successful purchases, but the dresser and the bookcases didn't hold up as well. This illustrates an important point. In the world of inexpensive furniture, there is a fine line between the bargains and the simply cheap. I think about it this way: a bargain is a purchase where you're getting more than your money's worth while the cheap purchases are those where you get exactly what you pay for. More often than not, the reason a piece of furniture is really cheap is because it is made of poor materials and will look and function poorly.

The simple solution to the problem of cheap furniture is to just throw more money at it, and that is exactly what I tried next. I didn't buy any $3,000 couches or anything, but I did up my price ceiling from around $200 to closer to $400. I was still looking for bargains, but in the absence of a bargain I was more willing to pay extra for looks. I'm very happy with all of my purchases from this phase of my buying -- notably a matching couch, loveseat, and chair; an entertainment unit; and new bookcases -- but I'm not as excited about how much money I spent on those purchases.

So there I was, used to buying nice furniture, but not willing to pay for it. The logical solution was to investigate the used furniture market. And I like what I've found. There are some great pieces to be had and you won't be emptying your piggy bank to get them. The big trade off is time. You have to be willing to commit to a lengthy search process with no guarantee of finding anything. And if you do chance across the right chair or the right table or the right whatever, you need to be able to act immediately. If you find a nice item, it means that you've chanced across the right combination of location, timing, and price. Those three are not too likely to stay fixed, and if you spend to long pondering a purchase, someone else will make the decision for you by buying the item your interested in out from under you. During the course of my search for a kitchen table, which I discussed in a previous post, I found three tables that I really liked, but the first two were sold before I made up my mind whether to buy them. So when I found the third, I acted quickly and I've been very happy with my decision. The table isn't perfect or even nearly perfect, but it meets my needs very well and it cost next to nothing.

I've now made another used furniture purchase. After I bought the new table, I wanted some chairs to go with it. I got lucky and, after a visit to four consignment shops in two states and some trips to sellers of new furniture, I found what I wanted on craigslist. Take a look at the chairs in the picture below:

I'm pretty happy with this purchase. The wood on the chairs matches the table very well (although I think the chairs are cherry and the table top is mahogany veneer -- but that mostly only effects that grain pattern) and I like the grey fabric. As our illustrious leader might say, "Mission Accomplished."

Posted by on 30 November 2005 at 1:31 PM

I'm a fan of unfinished furniture,and have done a bit of that to save money. But I agree that some new stuff is really poorly made. There is an abundnace of good used furniture because people seem to want new stuff and get rid of their old, very serviceable stuff.

Posted by rkc on 30 November 2005 - 11:13 PM

I can't wait to see your new stuff, especialy the freebie stuff. I'm a huge fan of deals and free stuff, especially things that that you don't love at first but take it anyway because it's free/cheap... but then grows on you as you spend more time with it and notice its beautiful nuances. Much of my apartment is furnished with 70's office furiture from when my dad's office downsized their space. This stuff looks ugly to some b/c of its distinctively 70's orangey color but it's very much me, especially since I've began mixing it with more modern stuff of my own. I don't even want new furniture!

Posted by Yang on 1 December 2005 - 10:59 PM