Where to buy furniture?

I found a warehouse behind a house chocka with mid century stuff, ercol, g-plan etc. Bought a sideboard and had a choice of a few.

But I have forgotten what it was called or where it is unhelpfully. Somewhere Chilterns way roughly.

So that sort of thing. ( I will try to find what it was called).

Watching this thread as I want a leather sofa, one that won't fall apart the day after the warranty.

Watching this thread as I want a leather sofa, one that won’t fall apart the day after the warranty.

go to fleabay and search for danish leather sofa

We've been looking around for 2nd hand garden furniture to fill some big unused gaps. I tell you what, BHF and a few other charity shops have some cracking stuff for daft prices. A bit of a deep clean and refurb if necessary and you might be lucky enough to pick up a bargain. Sadly for us tho', not much garden furniture.

I know Ercol have an eBay shop

We bought direct from Ercol via eBay or thier Facebook page. It's great.

We got an oak TV unit, made in UK to order (but done in a couple of weeks) from these guys.

https://www.blueislandhome.co.uk/

Simple but really nicely made and they will do minor tweaks foc or custom at a reasonable price. Good mid point between high street and a full one-off from a cabinet maker.

Watching this thread as I want a leather sofa, one that won’t fall apart the day after the warranty.

@Caher
Springvale Leather furniture Rawtenstall, bespoke sofas etc. Family business.
Their furniture is top quality, really good solid heavy frames, high quality fabrics and hides, best quality foams (Vita) and fillings. Will make any design or style to order, they have a nice showroom.
Excellent vfm - not expensive.

My connection is that I live opposite so have known them for 25years. We have their sofa.
Peter the owner is a super nice guy, has an orphanage in India for street kids that any profit goes into, he pointed out the sofas we were sat on in the council planning office (he helped fund a community planning opposition) were his and circa 20years old that still looked like new. I honestly cannot recommend them highly enough.

For mid century furniture check out Old Mill Oldham Rd Manchester, we've had a few bits from their. All our furniture is Danish/mid century. **** IKEA.

**** IKEA

Never understood this. For the money you can't beat IKEA and it doesn't claim to be anything other than flat pack furniture. There are far worse culprits in my experience. The retailer we've had most issues with over the years has been John Lewis. Their own brand stuff really has not been good.

We have some G Plan too though. Old and battered but still looks great. I'd like to get it refinished/restored one day.

Hard furniture I have always gone 2nd hand, solid wood. Better made, nicer and way cheaper than any modern stuff.

I now have a thing for Ercol at the moment. Solid elm. Fab grain and style. Only Blonde/Golden Dawn stuff upto 1990 though when they stopped using Elm due to Elm disease. Picked up some great pieces silly cheap via gumtree, facebook. Even some mint Windsor display cabinets freecycle a few weeks ago. Just waiting for some pebble tables to be picked up from 300 miles away. More excited about those than the fancy steel hardtail frame I bought a few weeks ago.

Its incredibly easy and satisfying to light or heavy restore as well.

If you're anywhere near Leeds go to Christopher Pratts.

They're very good

Never understood this. For the money you can’t beat IKEA and it doesn’t claim to be anything other than flat pack furniture

@dmorts
It's cheap and cheerful - for young people setting up a house together or on a budget its great, me and MrsRNP furnished our first place together with IKEA and we're still together because/despite it.

BUT...I'm older and wiser now, theres more middle-aged fun to be had sniffing out Gplan Astro coffee tables amongst dead people's possessions than traipsing round Ikea with hoardes of loved up young couples on a Saturday afternoon following the prescribed one way systems with their fake plastic TV sets. The only joy to be found in Ikea is finding a 'wormhole' to teleport you quicker to the 75p beaks and bollocks hotdogs or winding as many clockwork kitchen timers as you can before they go off. Sticking the sucker washing up brushes as high as possible never gets boring either....unless you work there. But best of all **** you Ikea - I've got a yellow bag......at home.

@RustyNissanPrairie

Both sets of my grandparents had those G Plan Astro nest of coffee tables 🙂 fond memories

I think we're in the nether zone, still extending our Pax wardrobes to store the ever accumulating kids' stuff, but would love some more quality pieces.

We have these drawers (from my grandparents)

Do you use the yellow bag around the house and switch items into a blue bag to take them to the car?

Do you use the yellow bag around the house and switch items into a blue bag to take them to the car?

correct - I never take it outside and I only mentioned it on here because nobody knows me in 'real life'. Its like having a stolen da Vinci

We have quite a lot of Oak Furniture Land and other solid oak or mango light wood furniture. We bought most/all of it second hand and it’s need great. Only a single item has needed a small repair in 8 years. Very well built, a good range of designs and freely available at good prices.

I hate IKEA furniture. It always goes wrong at some point and it’s not particularly cheap for cheap furniture.

I just bought a sofa, footstool and chair at Tetrad factory shop in Preston. You just missed a 20% off everything though. They post pics of stock on their fb page. V happy with it, some real tat that's been there for ages but the good stuff sells quickly. I paid c 30% retail price, best thing you can go and sit on them to try them out. I was in there ages, staff weren't bothered at all.

In defence of IKEA, we have one of their leather sofas from 10 years ago. Definitely not flat pack.
Nothing has gone wrong with it, still in excellent condition - leather has perhaps bagged a little but not much, the stitching is fine and stitch holes are fine, and there’s no wear on it.
IKEA does some cheap junk. They also do some practical mid-price stuff (our two home offices are getting a lot of the Kallax storage) and some really good stuff.
Other parts of the house have a load of solid oak stuff, metal bed frames, bespoke pieces we had made.
Horses for courses.
I don’t like the drawers pictured above but that’s just my taste versus someone else’s.

Personally, I would commission bespoke pieces from a furniture maker.
Probably one who also rides bikes, so you know what you're dealing with.

Personally, I would commission bespoke pieces from a furniture maker.
Probably one who also rides bikes, so you know what you’re dealing with.

Did you have anyone particular in mind?

2nd hand furniture - displaying the best and worst of the internet era. On the ups you have access to a much wider number of sellers. On the downside I think there a lot more people who know the value of the stuff they are getting rid of, some also over valuing. A lot of the potential bargains are being hoovered up by sole traders 'flipping' their purchases at very inflated prices after some crude refurbishment. The chances of finding a good value unrestored piece that you can give some proper tlc to is much slimmer now.

I mourn the loss of Made.com for better quality flat pack plus style of furniture. Also as above - not all IKEA is the same quality - it's easy to dismiss it all as Billy bookcase style of super cheap.

John Lewis' stuff is pricey, no idea on quality though - most of it looks basic/old fashioned to me (although I guess that's 'style' to other people :p )

A lot of the potential bargains are being hoovered up by sole traders ‘flipping’ their purchases at very inflated prices after some crude refurbishment

Lolz,Etsy is awash with those chancers 😆 🤣

I've got loads of IKEA stuff.
Big solid leather sofa in the living room. Been through 4 cats, 2 kids, daily use and more parties than you can shake a shitty stick at and it's over a decade old. Not going to say it looks new, because it doesn't. But it's still in excellent condition.

The big fabric covered 6 seater in the kids room is also IKEA, pop a new cover on it (which you can still buy) and it'd look like new. That's 20+ years old and we emigrated with it.

Dining room table and chairs, kitchen, the desk and chair i'm sat at now.

Thing is with IKEA, if you buy the cheapest stuff, you get, um, cheap stuff.
Buy the expensive stuff, its a lot better.

(My coffee table is actually an "original" IKEA, it was bought from the second or third printed catalogue, in the 1950s. The relative it came from used to live in Hässelholm, which is local to Älmhult.)

If anyone wants nice dining chairs I have a set of 6 g-plan freso that need re-upholstering and will be a bargain.

Did you have anyone particular in mind?

Not off the top of my head 🤔

There are mountain bikes working for these guys.......just have your mortgage application at the ready before making a purchase.

https://www.barnsley-furniture.co.uk/shop/

Are you near Cheshire?
Arighi Bianchi in Macclesfield has decent furniture.

Don't expect to get what you want just like that but a auction is fun but you want a local one as to might go and there be nothing of interest one week and just what you want another

I much prefer well made wooden furniture to mdf and chipboard flat pack too. If you aren't in a hurry for something then ebay can turn up some bargains on modern ercol as well as the vintage. Which is good as their rrp prices seem to have got even more eye watering.

A lot of large pieces, sideboards, dinning tables, cupboards and so on, basically anything larger than the size that will fit easily in a family batchback, seems to sell relatively cheaply. Shiply is great for getting very reasonable quotes to collect and deliver the big stuff across the country though. I've used them a couple of times and been very pleased.

Try Thomas Lloyd/ Sofasofa - we’ve had 3 from them and good quality for the price in comparison to overpriced DFS- we bought a footstool a long time after we bought a pair of sofas, they came back and asked if we wanted it to match our sofas even though the leather colour had been discontinued.
We have some really solid coffee and side tables from IKEA from their durable living range.
Certainly worth looking at Marketplace or eBay for collection only bargains - we gave away lots from our old house, just didn’t suit the new place.

We've a mix of new and antique in ours, current sofas are looking a little tired at about 20 years old, but with a few buttons sewing back and a bit of TLC would look as new. They have had a hard life with kids and dogs in a mucky household like ours. I'm all for keeping them, but mrsmidlife fancies a change and redecorate the room. They are Tetrad, but were sold through DFS of all places. Google DFS Tetrad Oskar, there are always a few for sale. Tetrad Eastwood is their other classic model if you prefer sat in cloth cushions rather than leather.

https://www.hemswell-antiques.com/antiques/c20th-decorative-arts-furniture-and-collectables/furniture-etc

This place in Lincolnshire is worth a trip just for the scale of the place, it's always got something you want, even if not the thing you thought you were going for.

As well as all the Ercol stuff there are quite a few people doing refinishing and colour changes on Stag Minstrel, stuff which will last forever, but the dark brown colours aren't in favour anymore. You could buy ready refurbished or get the bits you want all together then get a sprayer in.

A few suggestions, in no particular order:
- Christopher Pratt in Leeds
- Ponsfords in Sheffield, clearance usually has some good stuff but check for dings/marks as these are ex display
- Hopewells in Nottingham, same caveat as for Ponsfords
- Lord Brown's ebay store for pre-owned high end
- Airport Antiques on ebay for storage/display cabinets; G Plan, Ercol, Stag, Cumper, Titchmarsh & Goodwin usually feature
- check if Duresta, George Smith or Bridgecraft have factory shops/outlets
- Red Brick in Batley
- antique shops/centres generally for dark, solid wood furniture
- any local upholsterers as some pick up items from house clearances etc with intention of stripping to bare frame, fully renovate/rebuild and re-cover in fabric or leather of choice
- John Lewis but only for established and recognised brands; their own brand(s) in all departments are, generally, not the quality they used to be - mattresses and bedding excluded.

There was a positive comnent earlier about Oak Furnitureland; I wouldn't but...each to their own.

Good luck!

We have quite a lot of Oak Furniture Land and other solid oak or mango light wood furniture.

Yeah we have used them loads in the past (going back to when they were just an Ebay shop and dirt cheap). All the stuff is solid wood, not flat-packed and will last a lifetime. Not used them much recently though so not sure what they are like now.

I'd usually look for secondhand G Plan or whatever on eBay, but depending what you're after it might be worth a look on Wayfair.

There are THOUSANDS of lines to wade through, as I think it's an aggregator, but they can be very reasonably priced and decent quality. And there are usually enough reviews to give you a idea what to expect.

Find an auctioneer that does house clearances. You can pick up quality stuff for next to nothing if you aren't terribly fussy about colour etc.

You're also saving on landfill and waste, and it's more fun than trailing round Ikea or DFS etc.

No love for Furnitureland? Seeking out a bespoke furniture maker seems needlessly pricey, but then my road bike is a Boardman which shows my level of sophistication.