Furniture - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

genuinegirly · 02-11-2011, 12:43 PM

I've honestly never given furniture much thought. But today I seem to be obsessing over it. So I figured I might as well ask others, and share what's on my mind.

A few questions to guide discussion...

How do you view furniture?
Is it a long-term investment?
Do you prefer antiques or classic designs?
Maybe your heart is in modern lines?
Does your furniture tell a story?
Or something you pick up on the side of the road?
Is it something you collect slowly, or all at once?
Do you like purchasing sets or individual pieces?

Do you purchase new every time you move, or drag old stuff along?
Does the presence of your furniture make you feel at home?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My parents never wanted to spend their money on furniture. They used what they were given, purchasing cheap bookshelves and other needed items from Kmart. They did try to make sure that colors matched what was already in the room, often refinishing or painting to make them work.

My husband's family had a seemingly random assortment of pieces that were collected over the years from who-knows-where... most of them were quality wood and durable, or (at least, the few pieces that survived 5 rambunctious male children were high-quality wood). When we were married, we took a dresser with us that was a piece to a set that belonged to his grandmother. His brother seems to have the rest of the set, perhaps we'll put them back together someday, but Tt seemed to have an emotional attachment to the dresser, something about working with his brother to refinish it as a kid... so we took it.

When my husband and I were married we were given a gift certificate to Restoration Hardware. It wasn't for much, we were able to purchase three towels on sale... but we spent a couple of hours walking around, pretty much daydreaming as we explored each beautifully-crafted piece of furniture. My husband usually detests shopping, and this adventure was all his doing, so this was a pretty exciting time for me. After that experience, he walked away saying, "When it comes time for us to buy any furniture, I'm going to be looking for pieces like these." The smoothly-sliding drawers, sturdy all-wood construction, etc. really got his attention. He mentioned that he always hates fighting with poorly-formed furniture. Now that we're in the midwest, we find it fun to browse Amish furniture stores, for the same reason. But for all our looking, we've never purchased anything.

The thought of spending thousands of dollars on a single piece of furniture is daunting. But then I think of my favorite pieces of furniture, and I realize that they are all classic, well-built pieces. I suppose I won't complain when my husband finally decides we're settled in enough to purchase the furniture of his dreams.

I love antiques, and sleek, modern edges. I'm especially enamored with antiques from the art-deco era. My mother has been kind enough to hold a few pieces of furniture for us at her house, things friends have passed along: a matching twin-bed bedroom set with art-deco lines. But they're really not compatible with a queen bed in a tiny 1-bedroom apartment. Hopefully soon we'll have the space to bring them along. They speak of my best friend's grandmother's childhood. Too special for this sentimental fool to neglect. One of the dressers has a couple of broken handles. Those will be difficult to replace with something fitting to the era. I look forward to the challenge.

As a teenager I enjoyed refinishing a couple of pieces for my bedroom, really love the do-it-yourself mentality while not needing to develop particularly difficult skills in carpentry or design. Being able to live in my handiwork was a fun perk. One thing about apartment living that I dislike is the absence of a garage or other workshop space.

ASU2003 · 02-11-2011, 02:04 PM

I have made my own furniture (Dining room table, futon, small bedside table), and I have purchased a dresser from the Amish (High quality, real wood, although twice the price of the assembly line stuff).

I purchased IKEA-like stuff that you put together and finish from Target, Lowe's and Ikea before.

And I move it if I have to move. The problem is if styles change, or the theme of your house does, what do you do? The furniture in a pacific northwest log cabin would be different in appearance from a futuristic European loft. Beach home interiors are different than a southwest theme.

jewels · 02-11-2011, 02:42 PM

When I was a tike, my mom used to buy furniture at a farmer's market on Saturday mornings. The farmers would sell their old solid wood furniture which had been painted, for pocket change. This farmer's market is grew into one of the largest flea markets in the northeast now (I think it's still there in Englishtown, NJ?) but I'm sure these deals would never be had nowadays.

So Mom would buy a solid oak table with gorgeous hand carved lion claws for feet. She'd strip off multiple layers of paint and use steel wool and sandpaper to prepare the surface. Then I'd watch her clean and condition the wood, followed by stain and varnish. Every weekend she'd buy new pieces, ranging from 25 cents to no more than $20 or so. As I got older, she'd let me help.

I didn't have a house with a garage until I was in my late 30s, and that's when I began to tamper with refinishing. Although I have no garage now and had to get rid of most of my furniture, I still have a chest of drawers and an end table I've refinished, and I have two night stands that I refuse to get rid of that desperately need refinishing.

So I love refinishing furniture. My tastes have changed over the years but I do mix my few antiques with more contemporary pieces. I miss having a garage, too.

At one point I seriously thought I might love to learn to build furniture as I have an odd fascination with power tools and would love to design my own pieces.

I don't view them as investments, but there are a couple of pieces I would love my girls to want to keep when I'm gone. As far as matching sets, I don't have issue with a couple of matching chairs or dining chairs that match, I just don't care for the overly matchy-match stuff, a la Rooms To Go or others who will push matching sofa, love seat, side chairs and drapes. Ugh.

bagatelle · 02-12-2011, 06:34 AM

I've tried to buy reasonably priced furniture, not everything has been new either, many pieces have come from my relatives also. I've wanted everything finally matching, but I always seem to be in middle of change, having miscellaneous pieces of furniture here and there.

I prefer these days quite modern furniture, simple square shapes. Sofas and textiles in one color preferably, no patterns.

We built the first house in 1994 and the floors were beech parquet, there were varnished pine ceilings and the coloring in closet and cupboards was either beech, pine or light cherry wood. The furniture was mainly pine and ecru, more round shaped.

We changed houses with parent-in-laws and have been renovating for years. The coloring has more contrast now with wenge colored floors and white ceilings. The old look of this house was very yellow, because almost all floors and ceilings had sunburnt varnished pine covering. All walls were white! My mother-in-law thought this is the way to renew the look, by painting walls white or decorating them with white embossed wall papers. This I wanted to have changed and have color on walls.

It would be ideal to be able to buy all the furniture at the same time for the whole house, but we never could afford this and the old furniture has been still useful and would have been wasting money to replace them all.

Even though I don't like the pine colored furniture as much anymore and they wouldn't all match with the floors or walls, I've gathered most pieces into our bedrooms and tried to make kitchen and living room look more modern.

I used to be enthusiastic about decorating, but since the renovating of this current house has taken so long, I sadly haven't planned that much anymore. Now that all rooms are mainly done, it will be time to focus on finishing the decorating as well.

snowy · 02-12-2011, 08:43 AM

Our furniture is cobbled together from various sources. A lot of it is stuff my husband inherited from his parents, or stuff we've gotten from old roommates. Nothing matches, but I don't really worry about it. I'll have matching furniture someday. What I really want is a microsuede sofa and two Stressless chairs to replace our recliners

Someday...

bagatelle · 02-12-2011, 09:07 AM

With three kids and two cats the furniture really wears out fast!

For our sons (now in teenage) we started buying this series of furniture. Hope you can see the photos. They are in light mable/white colors.

The beds have proven handy with roller boxes for clothes underneath. They have some shelves and drawers. They weren't too expensive to buy and I liked how we could combine different pieces together and the size of the pieces.

off axis · 02-21-2011, 11:11 AM

I like rustic furniture with clean lines. Crate & Barrel does this well.

I have a big problem in that it's difficult to find furniture that I really like, and I don't like to spend a lot of money on stuff that's not 'perfect'. So my furniture is a mix of IKEA that serves as a stopgap, and some pieces that I had custom made at significant expense.

Willravel · 02-21-2011, 11:55 AM

snowy · 02-21-2011, 02:09 PM

Someday I want this set of bedroom furniture: IKEA | HEMNES bedroom series

GreyWolf · 02-21-2011, 03:07 PM

My wife and I have extremely different views on furniture. I hate IKEA and the straight-edge/all-angles ugliness that is passed off as "clean-looking". I like my furniture to have character, and to develop its own quirks over time. Furniture should wear well and bear the scars of family life.

But it must be functional/comfortable. My wife loves leather, which I find cold (to the touch). It is often visually appealing, and does wear well. I just don't like it much. She loves antiques. I don't mind them, but they must be originally of quality construction. Just because it's old doesn't mean it's good. If that were the case, I'd be valuable!

As a result, we have an eclectic collection of items that don't match. I will use some of them, and will ignore the rest. My wife, on the other hand, accepts my few additions and effectively has the "run of furniture" while I find myself restricted to those few pieces with which I am comfortable. Fortunately, that includes our bed, the one piece of furniture I would suggest NO ONE skimp on, or buy cheaply.

Charlatan · 02-21-2011, 04:26 PM

I love modern, clean lines. If I had the money I would not have any Ikea furniture but would likely fill my house with other modern Scandinavian design.

Sadly, I don't have that kind of money (or better, I probably do have that kind of money but choose to spend and save it elsewhere).

02-11-2011, 12:43 PM	#1 (permalink)
genuinegirly Eat your vegetables Super Moderator Location: Arabidopsis-ville	Furniture I've honestly never given furniture much thought. But today I seem to be obsessing over it. So I figured I might as well ask others, and share what's on my mind. A few questions to guide discussion... How do you view furniture? Is it a long-term investment? Do you prefer antiques or classic designs? Maybe your heart is in modern lines? Does your furniture tell a story? Or something you pick up on the side of the road? Is it something you collect slowly, or all at once? Do you like purchasing sets or individual pieces? Do you purchase new every time you move, or drag old stuff along? Does the presence of your furniture make you feel at home? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- My parents never wanted to spend their money on furniture. They used what they were given, purchasing cheap bookshelves and other needed items from Kmart. They did try to make sure that colors matched what was already in the room, often refinishing or painting to make them work. My husband's family had a seemingly random assortment of pieces that were collected over the years from who-knows-where... most of them were quality wood and durable, or (at least, the few pieces that survived 5 rambunctious male children were high-quality wood). When we were married, we took a dresser with us that was a piece to a set that belonged to his grandmother. His brother seems to have the rest of the set, perhaps we'll put them back together someday, but Tt seemed to have an emotional attachment to the dresser, something about working with his brother to refinish it as a kid... so we took it. When my husband and I were married we were given a gift certificate to Restoration Hardware. It wasn't for much, we were able to purchase three towels on sale... but we spent a couple of hours walking around, pretty much daydreaming as we explored each beautifully-crafted piece of furniture. My husband usually detests shopping, and this adventure was all his doing, so this was a pretty exciting time for me. After that experience, he walked away saying, "When it comes time for us to buy any furniture, I'm going to be looking for pieces like these." The smoothly-sliding drawers, sturdy all-wood construction, etc. really got his attention. He mentioned that he always hates fighting with poorly-formed furniture. Now that we're in the midwest, we find it fun to browse Amish furniture stores, for the same reason. But for all our looking, we've never purchased anything. The thought of spending thousands of dollars on a single piece of furniture is daunting. But then I think of my favorite pieces of furniture, and I realize that they are all classic, well-built pieces. I suppose I won't complain when my husband finally decides we're settled in enough to purchase the furniture of his dreams. I love antiques, and sleek, modern edges. I'm especially enamored with antiques from the art-deco era. My mother has been kind enough to hold a few pieces of furniture for us at her house, things friends have passed along: a matching twin-bed bedroom set with art-deco lines. But they're really not compatible with a queen bed in a tiny 1-bedroom apartment. Hopefully soon we'll have the space to bring them along. They speak of my best friend's grandmother's childhood. Too special for this sentimental fool to neglect. One of the dressers has a couple of broken handles. Those will be difficult to replace with something fitting to the era. I look forward to the challenge. As a teenager I enjoyed refinishing a couple of pieces for my bedroom, really love the do-it-yourself mentality while not needing to develop particularly difficult skills in carpentry or design. Being able to live in my handiwork was a fun perk. One thing about apartment living that I dislike is the absence of a garage or other workshop space. __________________ "Sometimes I have to remember that things are brought to me for a reason, either for my own lessons or for the benefit of others." Cynthetiq "violence is no more or less real than non-violence." roachboy Last edited by genuinegirly; 02-11-2011 at 12:46 PM..

02-11-2011, 02:42 PM	#3 (permalink)
jewels Eponymous Location: Central Central Florida	When I was a tike, my mom used to buy furniture at a farmer's market on Saturday mornings. The farmers would sell their old solid wood furniture which had been painted, for pocket change. This farmer's market is grew into one of the largest flea markets in the northeast now (I think it's still there in Englishtown, NJ?) but I'm sure these deals would never be had nowadays. So Mom would buy a solid oak table with gorgeous hand carved lion claws for feet. She'd strip off multiple layers of paint and use steel wool and sandpaper to prepare the surface. Then I'd watch her clean and condition the wood, followed by stain and varnish. Every weekend she'd buy new pieces, ranging from 25 cents to no more than $20 or so. As I got older, she'd let me help. I didn't have a house with a garage until I was in my late 30s, and that's when I began to tamper with refinishing. Although I have no garage now and had to get rid of most of my furniture, I still have a chest of drawers and an end table I've refinished, and I have two night stands that I refuse to get rid of that desperately need refinishing. So I love refinishing furniture. My tastes have changed over the years but I do mix my few antiques with more contemporary pieces. I miss having a garage, too. At one point I seriously thought I might love to learn to build furniture as I have an odd fascination with power tools and would love to design my own pieces. I don't view them as investments, but there are a couple of pieces I would love my girls to want to keep when I'm gone. As far as matching sets, I don't have issue with a couple of matching chairs or dining chairs that match, I just don't care for the overly matchy-match stuff, a la Rooms To Go or others who will push matching sofa, love seat, side chairs and drapes. Ugh. __________________ We are always more anxious to be distinguished for a talent which we do not possess, than to be praised for the fifteen which we do possess. Mark Twain Last edited by jewels; 02-11-2011 at 02:48 PM..

02-12-2011, 06:34 AM	#4 (permalink)
bagatelle Psycho Location: Europe	I've tried to buy reasonably priced furniture, not everything has been new either, many pieces have come from my relatives also. I've wanted everything finally matching, but I always seem to be in middle of change, having miscellaneous pieces of furniture here and there. I prefer these days quite modern furniture, simple square shapes. Sofas and textiles in one color preferably, no patterns. We built the first house in 1994 and the floors were beech parquet, there were varnished pine ceilings and the coloring in closet and cupboards was either beech, pine or light cherry wood. The furniture was mainly pine and ecru, more round shaped. We changed houses with parent-in-laws and have been renovating for years. The coloring has more contrast now with wenge colored floors and white ceilings. The old look of this house was very yellow, because almost all floors and ceilings had sunburnt varnished pine covering. All walls were white! My mother-in-law thought this is the way to renew the look, by painting walls white or decorating them with white embossed wall papers. This I wanted to have changed and have color on walls. It would be ideal to be able to buy all the furniture at the same time for the whole house, but we never could afford this and the old furniture has been still useful and would have been wasting money to replace them all. Even though I don't like the pine colored furniture as much anymore and they wouldn't all match with the floors or walls, I've gathered most pieces into our bedrooms and tried to make kitchen and living room look more modern. I used to be enthusiastic about decorating, but since the renovating of this current house has taken so long, I sadly haven't planned that much anymore. Now that all rooms are mainly done, it will be time to focus on finishing the decorating as well. __________________ Life is...

02-12-2011, 08:43 AM	#5 (permalink)
snowy Kick Ass Kunoichi Location: Oregon	Our furniture is cobbled together from various sources. A lot of it is stuff my husband inherited from his parents, or stuff we've gotten from old roommates. Nothing matches, but I don't really worry about it. I'll have matching furniture someday. What I really want is a microsuede sofa and two Stressless chairs to replace our recliners Someday... __________________ If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

02-12-2011, 09:07 AM	#6 (permalink)
bagatelle Psycho Location: Europe	With three kids and two cats the furniture really wears out fast! For our sons (now in teenage) we started buying this series of furniture. Hope you can see the photos. They are in light mable/white colors. The beds have proven handy with roller boxes for clothes underneath. They have some shelves and drawers. They weren't too expensive to buy and I liked how we could combine different pieces together and the size of the pieces. __________________ Life is...

02-11-2011, 02:04 PM	#2 (permalink)
ASU2003 immoral minority Location: Back in Ohio	I have made my own furniture (Dining room table, futon, small bedside table), and I have purchased a dresser from the Amish (High quality, real wood, although twice the price of the assembly line stuff). I purchased IKEA-like stuff that you put together and finish from Target, Lowe's and Ikea before. And I move it if I have to move. The problem is if styles change, or the theme of your house does, what do you do? The furniture in a pacific northwest log cabin would be different in appearance from a futuristic European loft. Beach home interiors are different than a southwest theme.

02-21-2011, 11:11 AM	#7 (permalink)
off axis Upright Location: Toronto, Canada	I like rustic furniture with clean lines. Crate & Barrel does this well. I have a big problem in that it's difficult to find furniture that I really like, and I don't like to spend a lot of money on stuff that's not 'perfect'. So my furniture is a mix of IKEA that serves as a stopgap, and some pieces that I had custom made at significant expense.

02-21-2011, 11:55 AM	#8 (permalink)
Willravel ... a sort of licensed troubleshooter.	I'm a bit hopeless with furniture. I can intuitively find furniture that's functional and practical, but for whatever reason I've always had trouble with finding furniture that matches and is pleasing to the eye. It's odd, because I don't have trouble with aesthetics when it comes to anything from clothing or landscaping. A couple of years ago, I decided to buy some furniture for my bedroom. What ended up happening is I got a black/dark brown minimalist desk, a mahogany tv stand, a pine book case, and a black wicker hamper. My room makes most dorm rooms look like they were designed by Ethan Allen. I can deduce based on my understanding of how things match that it's a mess, but it doesn't bother me to look at. It's not like wearing brown chinos with a pink dress shirt, there the second I see or imagine it, I know something has gone terribly wrong. All that having been said, after googling a bit and looking at some furniture sites, I do see things that I like: ethanallen.com - Ethan Allen \| furniture \| interior design \| lifestyles \| looks \| dusk \| guest sleep ethanallen.com - Ethan Allen \| furniture \| interior design \| lifestyles \| looks \| serape \| live ethanallen.com - Ethan Allen \| furniture \| interior design \| lifestyles \| looks \| earth \| work ethanallen.com - Ethan Allen \| furniture \| interior design \| lifestyles \| looks \| earth \| entryways ethanallen.com - Ethan Allen \| furniture \| interior design \| lifestyles \| looks \| west side \| live ethanallen.com - Ethan Allen \| furniture \| interior design \| lifestyles \| looks \| west side \| work ethanallen.com - Ethan Allen \| furniture \| interior design \| lifestyles \| looks \| meadow \| work ethanallen.com - Ethan Allen \| furniture \| interior design \| lifestyles \| looks \| pop \| entryways ethanallen.com - Ethan Allen \| furniture \| interior design \| lifestyles \| looks \| groove \| entryways ethanallen.com - Ethan Allen \| furniture \| interior design \| lifestyles \| looks \| savvy \| work ethanallen.com - Ethan Allen \| furniture \| interior design \| lifestyles \| looks \| savvy \| entryways Apparently, I like both deep earth tones and gray-scale. And Ethan Allen.

02-21-2011, 02:09 PM	#9 (permalink)
snowy Kick Ass Kunoichi Location: Oregon	Someday I want this set of bedroom furniture: IKEA \| HEMNES bedroom series __________________ If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

02-21-2011, 03:07 PM	#10 (permalink)
GreyWolf Sober Location: Eastern Canada	My wife and I have extremely different views on furniture. I hate IKEA and the straight-edge/all-angles ugliness that is passed off as "clean-looking". I like my furniture to have character, and to develop its own quirks over time. Furniture should wear well and bear the scars of family life. But it must be functional/comfortable. My wife loves leather, which I find cold (to the touch). It is often visually appealing, and does wear well. I just don't like it much. She loves antiques. I don't mind them, but they must be originally of quality construction. Just because it's old doesn't mean it's good. If that were the case, I'd be valuable! As a result, we have an eclectic collection of items that don't match. I will use some of them, and will ignore the rest. My wife, on the other hand, accepts my few additions and effectively has the "run of furniture" while I find myself restricted to those few pieces with which I am comfortable. Fortunately, that includes our bed, the one piece of furniture I would suggest NO ONE skimp on, or buy cheaply. __________________ *The secret to great marksmanship is deciding what the target was AFTER you've shot.*

02-21-2011, 04:26 PM	#11 (permalink)
Charlatan Getting it. Super Moderator Location: Lion City	I love modern, clean lines. If I had the money I would not have any Ikea furniture but would likely fill my house with other modern Scandinavian design. Sadly, I don't have that kind of money (or better, I probably do have that kind of money but choose to spend and save it elsewhere). __________________ "My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars." - Old Man Luedecke