Do you like your furniture?

Not necessary MCM. Just something simple.

There's a store here that I watch: http://www.thegoodmod.com/collections/new. If you like MCM you'd adore this store.

They have a sofa posted on there today that I might have to have a look at.

I've been hitting all the thrifts and consignment shops, etc. in my quest. We considered having our reupholstered, even got estimates. We'd bought it at our old house and it never really fit the room here that well so we decided to replace it instead.

I don't actually like MCM. I have some repurposed MCM furniture

What I do like about MCM is the simple lines and the solid wood. I've got a mishmash of styles - some Mission, some Art Deco streamline pieces, some Shaker reproductions. What they have in common is that there is no fussy ornamentation. I like straight lines and very simple smooth curves.

Patience. It took us about 10 years to convert from cheap kid and pet abused furniture to what we wanted for the rest of our lives. And the change in furniture will change our pet choices. Our current dog is 10, was a rescue, and dug up a lot of my back yard plants and ate a few pieces of furniture. Not again. If we get another dog we will go back to purebreed Newfs.

If both money and pets are still a problem for you then I would suggest that you are trying to get your permanent furniture too early. You should live well into your 80's, there should be lots of time to enjoy it if you are not planning to downsize into a retirement house.

We only came close to despair once, when we were looking for a sectional for the living room. We actually had hit most of the stores between Olympia and Sea-Tac not finding much of anything close to working. Then one day I happened to walk into the little furniture store up the road that I had been in several times over the two years it had been open, and there it was.

We aren't looking for permanent furniture at all. We're looking for something to last us 10 years or so. We will always have pets so "investment" furniture will probably never be in our future. I figured 2 -2,500 would buy us a decent sofa, especially if we bought used. I don't think anything new in that price range will withstand our life for very long simply because it isn't very well made. We are really hard on furniture.

Have you looked into furniture being sold as grandma is moved into a home and the house is sold? It would be dated but retro can be cool, and likely well made as it is likely to be several decades old and was their permanent furniture choice. I assume that you would be looking at Craigslist or estate sales/auctions.

EDIT: If I were in your shoes I would keep an eye on Craigslist Seattle, Ya it would be a pain to look at it and get it down to portland on a u-haul, but I was close to going to this much work with some restaurant equipment, I looked in both Seattle and Portland.

People pick houses online now you know, still will need to actually see it before buying but you might fine the perfect piece at the perfect price .

I was just going to make a similar post.
I bought some great items in and around my last small home town in northern California, and I bet Oregon has places like that.

I've been remembering a place I used to like in the 60's in Westwood called Contempo; they had danish furniture that I admired, probably still would if I saw it all again. The store is long gone, natch.
I guess you have already looked up sites for used scandinavian furniture, but 'well made used' must be out there somewhere at a reasonable price.

edit to say I see ehBeth gave a link that's a possibility..

My own furniture - my mother's old mahogany tables, bed (broken by movers), and some chinese chippendale like dressers. I doubt the dressers are the real thing but they're well made anyway. There's wear and tear on all of these, some of it charming to me (you could see writing on the dining table surface, what with the advent of the ball point pen..)

New furniture? I bought a small sofa bed in the sixties, a new sofa (eh!) in the seventies after a dreadful lapse with this foam futon thing (egads), some chipboard shelving (I know better) for my garage studio. All of that now long gone. Since then, all from thrifts, some pretty neat buys - a very well made sofa from perhaps the '40's, an armoire I actually liked, some old bentwood chairs, some carolina hickory chairs for $5.00 each that we ended up using in our gallery, and one not too obnoxious velvety wing chair.

I left the armoire with the Venice house (it had no closets), gave the neat sofa back to St. Vincent de Paul's, the old hickory chairs to Habitat for Humanity, and the bentwood chairs are going there too, and soon.


Pacco and The Chair
That house was built just before or after 1920. Would look funny peculiar with modern, to me.

I think I just look at furniture as a functional item. I don't have to love it -- it just has to be the right stuff for us. To be honest, what I could spend on it and what I'm willing to spend on it are two different things. This morning there are five teenage boys, one dog, one puppy, and two old, cranky cats asleep in my house. Spending a lot on furniture just doesn't make sense.

But I totally agree on your larger point about not settling for something that you don't really want. That's like throwing money away.

Absolutely I'm watching craigslist and estate sales. I love a lot of the retro "atomic age" look furniture but our house is built in a very distinctive style so more neutral furniture looks best in it. We do dabble in the industrial look at bit.

I haven't checked Seattle but I doubt I could get Mr. B to go for it. I found some great stuff in Bend (a wealthy ski resort area of Oregon where people have homes (and furniture) that sit unused for the majority of the year) but Mr. B isn't willing to make a 3 hour drive to look at furniture.

Maybe I'll peek just to see. I think the boys are trying to find some Seahawks tickets so maybe Seattle would work.

I really like old furniture but I don't really like sitting on it.

I have a lot of great older pieces so I'm trying to find something that will mix in with what I already have. The more modern stuff looks like will work best since the lines are really clean.

I love that photo with Pacco!

I actually found a great deal. I had to drive to Seattle to get it and that was a pain but I only overspent my budget by a bit and got some secondhand, seriously well made leather furniture made by Gamma Arredamenti. It's in perfect condition at about 1/5 of the price it would cost new.

I'm pretty proud of myself.

good for you

then you can relax and enjoy the season or christmas in comfort

Just googled them - some of their stuff is super-gorgeous. The balance is good-looking

This is the closest one I could find online:



The arms on ours is wider. We got two small sofas (large loveseats?), a large ottoman and a chair for $2,900, so I overspent by $400 but got much higher quality, and a lot more furniture, than I expected.

I think it will last us a good, long while.

that's an excellent deal!

She still had the receipts from when she bought it 6 years ago -- $15,000+., after a few discounts. It looks brand new. Mr. B wanted to haggle on the price and I was giving him the stink eye. The only other sofa that even came close was a Moroni that they wanted 2,300 for.

I'm glad Hawkeye suggested I browse Seattle craigslist because it really paid off. (Thanks, Hawkeye!)

I'm having to completely reevaluate my room trying to get it all to fit in a reasonable way though....

Contact some decorators and see if they have access to furniture not commonly available to the masses.

i have 2 set of sofa's and that really consuming lot of space .moreover they are useless, and i am quite happier with rest of the furniture.

I have somehow mania turns me what little furniture. Before you buy something to check if it will fit inside me. All in all a few years I did not mention the furniture.