Dining room furniture

[shruley]

My husband and I will be looking to purchase a new dining room table/chairs and a buffet after the holidays. It's been awhile since we've made big furniture purchases. Any ideas or places to check to get a good deal? Or good time to look for sales?

 

[pklein09]

What exactly do you want? Most of our wood furniture is second hand purchased at auctions while our upholstered furniture is new. Our dining room set is 1950s Duncan Phyfe mahogany: table, 6 chairs, china cabinet, long server, and small server. We paid $650 for the whole set. I sold our existing Queen Anne cherry table (also purchased at auction) for $400 on Craig's list. In my opinion, it's better made....no pressed wood....all solid. Our taste is not modern, so second hand furniture works for us.

Good luck in your search! New furniture is exciting....at least it is for me!

 

[eliza61]

Pklein09 has it right, so many variables.

Solid wood is going to cost a lot more. do you want complete sets? Are you the type that wants pieces to last decades or are you more of the redecorate every 10 years type?

I'm a bit different from Pklein, I find estate furniture tends to "dark, heavy" and a bit old for me, so I haven't had much success. If you don't need a cabinet, server, etc you may do well at stores.

I don't particular care for Ikea stuff. cheaply made. I purchased a bedroom set for my son when he went away to college, by the end of his first year, the drawers in the dressers were falling apart and the frame of the bed had come apart from the headboard. I brought a kitchen table to stage my house when I was selling it. it was scratch up and dinged after a few months.

one of my favorite stores is called Arhaus. excellent quality stuff but not cheap. North carolina used to be the furniture capital of the US. tons of stores that now do online selling, drawback to that is that you don't see it in person.

 

[NJlauren]

We got ours at bobs discount furniture.
Randomly I know two other people who purchased the same set with in a few months of us.

I got 8 chairs, table, two leafs, and the buffet for around $1200 I think. I'm not sure what your looking to spend.

If you need more or less chairs or other items they can adjust the price and pieces.

Not sure if you have a bobs near you, or if people even feel that's a good price.

 

[Jake&IzzyLand]

If you are interested in real wood just plan to spend a huge amount. Pottery barn, arhaus, amish made furniture etc is going to cost you, but it will last. Anything cheap will look pretty banged up in not a whole lot time. Buying used can be a good deal too, it just might take some sanding and refinishing. If you find a used farm house table go for it! They look amazing with any type of chairs.

 

[pjlla]

Kind of seconding what some folks have said here..... personally I'd put my money toward real wood furniture that will LAST and try to stick with a style that is more timeless. Craigslist, local antique shops/consignment shops, auctions, estate sales. But that kind of shopping takes patience. If you are anxious for furniture in the house within a few weeks you will have to stick with a traditional furniture store. Personally I would avoid most of the chain stores.... Bob's, Jordan's Ikea and the like. Hard to find real wood, made-in-America type stuff there..............P

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

World Market sells a lot of furniture that is real wood at very reasonable prices, especially when they have their big sales. I got my dining set during their friends and family sale and saved a ton. It is solid wood, sturdy and looks great. My mom loved it so much that she bought a similar set the next year for their condo. I also got my first set of living room furniture from them when I got my first apartment. I was never interested in throw away particle board furniture, so I spent a little more than the average first time apartment dweller probably would, but I still have this stuff in my loft area and just upgraded to Crate and Barrel for my living room.

They are currently running a 25% off all furniture sale. FURNSHOP online or go to the website for a printable coupon to shop in store.

 

[HM]

We bought ours from Haverty's. I love our set.

 

[CandleontheWater]

Have you looked around to see if you can find someone to custom build something for you? We bought a dining room set (table, 8 chairs, buffet) from the Basset outlet in NC last year, and spent over $3K, which I am now really regretting because through friends I found someone who custom builds furniture and the prices are so much more reasonable! They are building us a whole wall media center, two end tables and a coffee table for $1800. I have been looking at those whole wall units for a while, and if I went to a traditional store it would be twice the cost for just the wall unit. I wish I had found these guys before we bought the dining room set, now I am really kicking myself!

 

[shruley]

Thanks for the ideas. I would like something a little more modern so I'm not thinking estate sales would be our thing. This will be for a dining room that isn't used much other than a couple times a year, so we'd like something decent but I'm not thinking the quality needs to be super high. We had an Amish one that's about 15 years old that is in great shape, but even though the design is neutral the light oak color doesn't match and we can barely sell it for anything right now, so I don't want to drop a ton on a different set we might not like in another 15 or 20. I had not thought into checking into someone who builds but I will look.

 

[LJSquishy]

I like World Market for affordable wood furniture...they have some nice dining tables and if you buy wood furniture from there it tends to hold up pretty well.

Also Wayfair.com might have something you like in whatever price range you have in mind. Plus, you won't have to leave your house! LOL

West Elm is a more modern version of Pottery Barn (same company) and they do sell dining tables but I don't like the selection they have right now. I love a few of the Crate & Barrel choices but they aren't cheap! At least not the ones I like!

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

If you are interested in real wood just plan to spend a huge amount. Pottery barn, arhaus, amish made furniture etc is going to cost you, but it will last. Anything cheap will look pretty banged up in not a whole lot time. Buying used can be a good deal too, it just might take some sanding and refinishing. If you find a used farm house table go for it! They look amazing with any type of chairs.

I have to disagree that Pottery Barn has a lot of quality furniture. There used to be an outlet near my house and they sold a lot of their banged up furniture. I was amazed at what was underneath the very thin veneer of the wood furniture.

 

[kathy884]

We looked at antique malls, furniture stores in our area, and lol after a lot of searching decided to just get our existing set refinished and chairs re-upholstered. Our initial set was second hand antique, but just wasn't in the pristine condition that it was in when we originally purchased it. As we sent ours out for this vs. doing any of the work ourselves, it really wasn't that much less expensive than getting something new, but it was the chair comfort and perfect fit of the existing set that got us to stick with what we had. We looked at three furniture stores, two antique malls, and one place that specialized in refinished high quality furniture.// I didn't know this till I started looking, but found I was more a fan of the older stuff than the new. Seems more solid. I think, though, much of this is going to be your decorating style and taste / what looks good in your home and what works for you. // A big reason we were considering a new set too, is that we really only had four chairs that were part of the set and three additional chairs that were purchased separately. I was originally looking for six matching chairs. With the refinishing though, we have the side chairs stained to match the original set and the seats upholstered the same way, making them blend in quite well. It's a compromise to have this vs. complete matching, but I found the comfort and quality of the four chairs just so good I didn't want to part with my set.

Our initial set was one we bought second hand from the little old lady we bought our house from. She was moving into a smaller retirement apartment and asked if we'd be interested in purchasing her set as she was downsizing and it wasn't going to fit into her new place. She must have only used it for rare family gatherings, etc. as it was in pristine shape, no scratches or anything when we first got it. We use it daily for dining -- no eat in kitchen, daily for homework, fairly often for playing cards, etc. and that means that the chairs especially periodically (every 10 years or so -- need refinishing and re-upholstering.)

 

[DisneyMandC]

Another vote for World Market. We just bought a dining room table there. Cute stuff. We didn't buy our chairs there since they were a little pricey. We got a set of 4 on Overstock for about $110 I think. Honestly, they are not super great quality though. It's what we could afford right now, but I will invest in nicer ones in a few years. You get what you pay for though, so I can't complain too much.

 

[arminnie]

I had dining room furniture from the 1930s that I finally let go of. Wanted something totally different - more farmhouse rustic. I looked and looked and looked everywhere. I finally found what I wanted (need to be extendable to seat a lot of people) at Overstock.com. With all of the discounts, etc. I got a huge table and a great buffet for about $1600. I bought 8 chairs also (different date) for about $700. The chairs are not super but they look wonderful and will do for using maybe once or twice a month.

 

[SuzanneSLO]

Thanks for the ideas. I would like something a little more modern so I'm not thinking estate sales would be our thing. This will be for a dining room that isn't used much other than a couple times a year, so we'd like something decent but I'm not thinking the quality needs to be super high. We had an Amish one that's about 15 years old that is in great shape, but even though the design is neutral the light oak color doesn't match and we can barely sell it for anything right now, so I don't want to drop a ton on a different set we might not like in another 15 or 20. I had not thought into checking into someone who builds but I will look.

If it's solid wood, can you have it refinished in a stain that works for you?

 

[DisneyHardin]

We bought ours from Haverty's. I love our set.

We also bought ours at Havertys. We got a solid wood table and 6 chairs and I think it was about $1500.

 

[jedijill]

Try American Furniture Warehouse. They are based in Colorado but ship all across the country. They have some fantastic prices and I've always had good luck with them.

https://www.afwonline.com/

Jill in CO