• @agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works
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    26210 months ago

    Remember like two weeks ago when someone posted a question asking why IKEA was in business when good quality wood furniture was basically the same price? Hilarious.

    • Apathy Tree
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      9810 months ago

      Even the used furniture market is obscene.

      Used flat pack shit that lasts maybe 10 years in optimal conditions goes used for only half the price, bad lean and all.

      Anything solid wood you might as well buy new, cuz it’s nearly the same price, like damn.

      I now go to habitat for humanity restore locations or goodwill, because they -can’t afford to charge a lot for big stuff- because they don’t have the space to store it. It’s not great stuff, but refurbishable.

      • @PraiseTheSoup@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        My local reStore wants $100 for a 20 year old washing machine with a tag that says “we don’t know if it works”. They want $50 for a shitty old door ripped off your parents house. I used to love that place, now it’s not even worth looking.

        *Edit: grammar

        • @swiffswaffplop@lemmy.world
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          2810 months ago

          Yeah, I used to love thrifting. Could find really awesome stuff for a couple bucks. Now it’s too trendy. They’ve figured out that people were buying it from them dirt cheap and then reselling it in their own “vintage” shop for like 20x the price. Society has even ruined thrifting.

          • @Maybe@lemm.ee
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            910 months ago

            This doesn’t apply to furniture but the Goodwills in my area ship all the good stuff to a central location two counties away where it can be listed for sale online. The stuff in store is mostly garbage.

        • Apathy Tree
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          310 months ago

          Fair. I live in a LCOL area, mine don’t touch appliances, outdoor stuff, etc., can’t even donate to them, so it’s really just a place for cheaper remodeling stuff.

          They have furniture, cabinetry, and building supplies. That’s about it. Limited plumbing fixtures, limited lighting, some “extra” paint and carpet tiles in mostly neutral colors.

          Doors (no frame) are like $5-10, same with window sashes. Doors with frame are iirc $25, I never looked at windows with frame.

          An entire very nice kitchen cabinet set ripped out of a newer condo is like $600.

      • @socsa@lemmy.ml
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        1510 months ago

        Shit, there is an upscale consignment shop near me where they have “vintage” flat pack furniture straight from Wayfair marked above list price. I know because I have the same fucking table. The whole midcentury modern revival has gotten completely out of hand.

        • Apathy Tree
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          -110 months ago

          -.-

          No offense to your flat pack, but it was garbage then and it’s not better now (you have apparently taken good care of it to not have it fall apart since)

          I have had a lot of flat pack stuff because poverty, including a full wood coffee table that sat in a box for 20 years (mom bought it) before I used it. Took 6 months before that one started to wobble from normal use.

          It’s never been good. I’d almost argue they are better now than 20 years ago, because people can’t afford legacy furniture and everything is flat-pack. And that is not saying much.

          • @BarrelAgedBoredom@lemm.ee
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            410 months ago

            Put some thread locker on those shitty table leg bolts. That’ll keep it sturdy until the bolts rip themselves out of the pressboard garbage they’re glued to

            • Apathy Tree
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              110 months ago

              That wasn’t the problem, it was just shoddy construction, but thank you.

      • @CobblerScholar@lemmy.world
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        510 months ago

        Then the next thought is, “oh I can make that, doesn’t look too hard” and then you realize the tools you need to make it and make it more than a couple boards nailed together are as much if not more. And that’s not even counting how expensive the wood itself will be

    • @bitsplease@lemmy.ml
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      2010 months ago

      Hell even making wood furniture yourself is expensive as hell with lumber prices as they are right now

    • @saigot@lemmy.ca
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      10 months ago

      IDK maybe it varies by area and what you a re looking for but almost all my furniture is thrifted/scavenged and I think the most I paid for a single thing was a 100 bucks. I go to a local thift store not one of the big chains. I also don’t have to buy with any sort of time pressure.

      E: the idea that it invalidates IKEAs existence is crazy though.

      • HematiteOP
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        510 months ago

        Thrifting gets pricey nowadays. I’ve had better luck scouring FB Marketplace and Craigslist for curb alerts, if not trawling around the neighborhood looking for stuff to pluck up and take home myself. For free, even!

    • oats
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      710 months ago

      This usually depends on the country/region. For example in India ikea is obscenely expensive for what they are selling when you can get a miles better product at a similar price.

      At least in Delhi you can get really really good furniture at a fair price.

  • @Holodeck_Moriarty@lemm.ee
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    5310 months ago

    Real talk though, where do you all buy your furniture? I have a hard time finding shelves that land between between “affordable and flimsy” and “outrageously expensive and only for the 1%”

    • @hedgehogging_the_bed@lemmy.world
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      8810 months ago

      The secret is it’s ALSO Ikea.

      Go to the Ikea website and search for bookcases. The standard Billy bookcase is $89 in my location. It’s made of wood veneer over particlebaord. They last about 10- 15 years or so before the glue holding the particles together breaks down and they become fragile.

      Then use the Materials option to limit to “Solid Wood”, the same size Hemnes bookcase is $250. Same height, similar styling, made of solid wood and going to last much longer.

      You can buy solid, long lasting furniture at Ikea, but it’s not the cheapest option so people often miss it.

        • @blackluster117@possumpat.io
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          410 months ago

          I got my new dresser from IKEA and it’s all solid wood. I was looking for something similar to the particleboard one I had before, since the configuration was nice, but the bottoms were falling out of the compartments. @hedgehogging_the_bed@lemmy.world is completely on the money.

    • @UniDestroyer@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1810 months ago

      I feel you. I resorted to making all of our shelves. Its a fun hobby, but I wish I had better options. Also I don’t know how to make non-shelf furniture.

    • Hyperreality
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      10 months ago

      Europe? Second hand.

      High quality but modernish oak furniture? You can often collect it for free. Paint it white if you think it looks too dated and attach a few new knobs.

      Want to pay a bit more? Antique cupboards over 2 meters are invariably easier to dissassemble/reassassemble than an IKEA cupboard. You need less bolts if you make stuff from actual wood. Often just 4 bolts for a huge antique cupboard or no bolts at all just wood clamps/pegs. The top decoration can also often be removed. I’ve transported a 2.4x1.8m cupboard in the back of a VW Passat. But people don’t know that and are scared it won’t fit in their house or car, so don’t buy them.

      Wood is also easy to repair. I’ve bought early 19th century biedermeier cupboards for under 50Euros that now look like they just came out of a palace. The 16th century cupboard I bought, literally came from a castle. 100 Euros. 2m40 tall. Scares people off, they don’t realise it’s easy to dissassemble and that the top bit is usually detachable/extra, or they want ikea crap because it’s what the neighbours have. People will tell you how much they paid for them(often thousands), then thank you for buying them at less than 10% because they simply don’t sell and they would otherwise have been forced to chop them up for firewood. Often old people downsizing and moving to a retirement home. They’d be forced to pay hundreds in storage fees for each month it’s not sold.

      Some of them look bad when you buy them. I either use a (dark) furniture bees wax or pledge furniture renovator. Not a bit, but a lot of the stuff. Quality wood and you can rescue something that’s been stuck in a damp shed and covered in pigeon shit for a decade, and make it look like new. Cracks? Two planks, some wood glue, some bricks. Holes? If the bees wax doesn’t fill it, there’s filler or wax for that. Etc. etc.

      Some of my furniture has no screws, all dove tail carpenter stuff. Some has handmade screws, because they’re from before industrialisation.

      Only thing to avoid is wood worm, unless you have a large sauna, are willing to take a gamble on the wood not cracking as you cook it, and want to spend an entire day filling tiny holes afterwards.

      • AggressivelyPassive
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        610 months ago

        Old furniture is usually from rather high class households and thus often made for large rooms. In a regular apartment, you can’t really use much of that. My great grandma had a bunch of these pieces, often older than her. But they take up tons of space that most people simply don’t have. And the fact that they’re usually pretty dark doesn’t help.

        You can get a piece or two as a highlight, but not more.

    • @ALilOff@lemmy.world
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      610 months ago

      My friend upcycles old furniture they find and I pay them for their work.

      Essentially she finds broken furniture (not fully broken maybe paints all scratched, chair missing a few legs, etc) and fixes them up. Local pickup furniture people are giving away for free cause they moving or something like that.

    • @Dylan@lemdro.id
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      610 months ago

      If you can track down liquidation sales they are a pretty good source for desks, chairs and even shelving. I spent $50 on a beat up butcher block slab and with $20 worth of materials I cleaned it up into a decent looking desk.

    • HematiteOP
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      410 months ago

      I bought a metal filing cabinet that would ordinarily go for $400-$500 online for $15 off of Craigslist. I also scoop up and repair free shit from the curb. FB Marketplace and Craigslist are a mixed bag between shitty and overpriced and ridiculously cheap for what the actual retail value would be.

    • JJROKCZ
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      410 months ago

      Like someone else said, ikea and don’t beat it up. Most of their stuff isn’t high quality lumber but it’s not particle board like Walmart either.

      • Hyperreality
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        110 months ago

        I bought particleboard furniture from a German company ten years ago. One of the planks weighed more than an entire new IKEA book cupboard.

        IKEA quality has gone down hill significantly.

        It used to be cheap but relatively good quality.

        Now it’s often (but not always) overpriced low quality stuff.

          • Hyperreality
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            10 months ago

            The matrasses too.

            They’re counting on no one using it, because a matrass is annoying to transport, but that’s really worth it.

            IME they rarely last ten years, but that doesn’t matter. You simply return them every few years, once they start sagging a bit or get dents. Just use a matrass protecter against the worst stains, obviously.

            Very affordable matrasses too, compared to other places.

              • Hyperreality
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                10 months ago

                Yeah.

                I speak four languages on a semi-daily basis. It’s almost impossible to avoid the occasional flub without a spell checker.

                Matelas, matras, matratze, and mattress.

                Another one is succes, success, succès. No success without the SS in English.

                There’s also occasional, ocasional, occasioneel, and occasionnel. Read stuff like that too much and your eyes go wonky.

                The comma rules are also subtly different. At least I think they are. I’ve given up caring.

                Weirdly, I get its/it’s right more often than monolingual English speakers. Dutch has a thing where sometimes the plural is denoted with a 's. The greengrocer’s apostrophe it’s sometimes called in English when you make that mistake.

    • @xNekoyaki@lemmy.world
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      410 months ago

      Thrift stores, basically. I worked in various thrift stores for 5 years and mostly furnished my home that way. Just be thorough when you’re inspecting it before you buy it! Check for bugs, broken/missing pieces, wiggly legs, cosmetic damage. We’ve gotten some really cool stuff in great condition for actually reasonable prices. My favorite is an ancient La-Z-Boy for $12, in decent shape.

      If there’s a Re-Store near you, they’re great too! We got an adorable coffee hutch for $65, a decent couch for $80, a couple nightstands for $10-20 each, a solid, heavy duty coffee table for $30. It requires patience to find what you might be looking for, and it helps if you already know which thrift stores tend to get better quality items. Antique stores are worth a shot too, if you’re ok with spending on the upper end of cheap? You can get some really well built, old, beautiful furniture. Or see if there’s a furniture consignment store around you!

      I think things like IKEA or Target are fine too, as long as you take care of your furniture. I’ve never had any problems with anything from IKEA, even when I buy used, but it probably helps I don’t have kids, lol.

    • @oillut@lemm.ee
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      410 months ago

      There’s a small town near where I live where you can walk to a bunch of small furniture stores, some with antiques/used and some with new stuff. Prices range but you can usually find a good deal. I’d look for one of these types of things, or IKEA

  • Dojan
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    1610 months ago

    Gosh I miss Nat’a videos. I hope she’s doing great.

  • JJROKCZ
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    1010 months ago

    It better be made of solid gold and ivory for that price

    • @bitsplease@lemmy.ml
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      310 months ago

      I’ve got no idea about the specific book case, but it also probably had a lot of hand carvings. People underestimate how much real wood carvings add to the cost of a piece of furniturw

  • Ziro
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    210 months ago

    Natalie Tran! Someday, perhaps she’ll post again on YouTube.