I am tired of the particle board with veneers that pretty much all the furniture stores sell now. Most of the stuff at the unfinished furniture store is all wood, but it still seems kind of cheap. And with my skills, I doubt the finish would end up great. I look on Craigslist, but most people are selling really ugly stuff or their old particle board crap from Ashley or Rooms to Go.
Any ideas?
Amish is the best quality for the money at retail, otherwise Craigslist is your friend
Seeing the title of the post, my 1st response was unfinished, but also consider local auction/estate sales. Me, I'd rather have cheap pine painted than particleboard E36 M3!
Cheb
Another vote for the amish,
But, I use my father. I'd say find a local fine-woodworker
Our christmas present, benches for the dining room table:
Unfinished or the antique shops. You can also find it at high end furniture stores but be prepared to leave them your eldest child as a down payment.
I have some wierd brain thought that everything I have bought must be solid wood and support the weight of me (a 6'4" big dude). I refuse to buy cheaply made furniture.
My last purchase is my office desk that is an old 32"x60" solid library table from Indiana University - $100 from a guy at Kane County Flea market. We have also bought furniture made by "Floyd" the woodworker from Iowa when he goes to Kane County.
http://www.kanecountyfleamarket.com/
I have been married 24 years and have most of the furniture we bought since the early days and expect it to last until I die.
http://hardwoodartisans.com/
these guys advertise in the Post every Sun. Pricey tho'.
Antique flea markets seem to be the best place for good prices around me (SW Ohio).
If you just want something thats lighter than particle board, though, and aren't looking for heirloom quality, some of Ikea's stuff is primarily pine.
dunno if they are around you, but woodcraft is a chain here in SW ohio, and they sell good quality pine and hardwood furniture, stained or raw. Prices are good. We have a sleigh bed, and a sofa table from them. Both are good quality and at least $100 cheaper than the big name furniture stores. No pressboard in sight...even drawer bottoms are at least plywood.
Craigslist is the best place for me, but I find it helps to use certain keywords (and their alternates or misspellings) to aid my search. ie: cabinet, cabnet, cupboard, dovetail, dove tail, mahogany, mohogany, old, vintage, antique, handmade, hand made, heavy, classic, etc. Also, search for the brand names you like, or if you can identify the style or era of furniture you like you can use that too. I usually set certain parameters in my search to narrow the results, such as a minimum price of a dollar - a lot of spammers will not put a price and that gets rid of them. If you click on the category drop-down menu once you have pulled up your search on craigslist, you can choose 'Furniture-By Dealer' or 'Furniture-By Owner', these are not options you can see on the main craigslist screen, so a lot of people don't know you can weed out (most of) the dealers with this simple step. You may also just do a search of vintage furniture and your location in google and see what you get. I just did that and discovered a cool new shop I didn't know about!
Etsy! I even sell furniture there (shameless self plug)
We've managed to pick up a couple of nice, solid wood antique furniture at garage sales in the 'better' areas around here.
A lot of the regular antiques around here are a bit 'timeless' (they were ugly when new and haven't improved) but you do seem to be able to find nicer items in the older and more affluent areas of town.
Thrift stores.
TRoglodyte wrote:Thrift stores.
I see a lot of really solid older furniture at Goodwill & Salvation Armani that needs shining up or some re-finishing. It is usually really "Grassroots" as far as price !
When I picked out my new bedroom set, I made sure to only look at well built solid wood peices at the big box store. It ran 2x the price of the cheaper stuff, but It was worth it.
Yep, estate sales, antiques stores etc. Everything I own is oak. Use a 50/50 mix of linseed oil and mineral spirits to clean it up and lube the grain.
Dan
Seriously, check out Etsy. Everything on there is handmade by actual people. It's a good group to support. I even buy shaving soap there.
http://www.theoaksuperstore.com/
About a mile from my house.
If you are worried about durability, buy surplus government steel furniture. I had a friend who furnished an entire apartment from auctions. Everything was steel, everything was green, everything was from the late 50's and everything would survive the second coming.
pinchvalve wrote:If you are worried about durability, buy surplus government steel furniture. I had a friend who furnished an entire apartment from auctions. Everything was steel, everything was green, everything was from the late 50's and everything would survive the second coming.
Yeah, the wife just wouldn't dig that.
In the bay area http://www.thewoodenduck.com/ It's worth waiting for a sale b/c their stuff is pricey.
