Grown Up Furniture

buttercup1958

Hey guys, thanks for responding to my last post! My interview went really well and I think when I apply next year I will get in. So I guess, I'll have to wait and see. V has been accepted into two great grad schools now. I'm very proud of him!

This has me thinking though. He is going to be living far away either in Alaska or Missouri for the next two years. Also since he is moving far away, he is leaving a lot of big items or trying to sell them. Like some of our furniture. We only have a couple of good pieces and everything else is Walmart/Craigslist college furniture. V has always said that we will get "grown up furniture" when we buy a house. He doesn't see the point on buying expensive things when we don't have a permanent place to put them.

I agree with him but its really hard not to go all crazy and buy pretty things for our place. I guess my question is when did you buy "grown up furniture" and what were your reasons for buying it when you did? I've talked to about it to some of my friends and they think we are just trying not to spend money. We are known to be savers and thrifty in our department ha. I'm 21 and V is 29, both planning on grad school and after that we aren't sure where we will end up. Thanks! 

hellosweetie1015

You're making a good choice waiting on grown up furniture. That shit's expensive.

I have bought zero grown up furniture. Neither has FI. And we won't for quite some time. We are not big entertainers, so prettifying is more for us than anyone else, and neither of us much care so long as it's tidy.

maeday2

I feel your pain. 

FI and I both have nice stuff (that's been passed along via our parents). However, we just bought a new house and have more space/rooms than we have furniture to fill. I've been browsing lately at different furniture stores to see what's out there and it's all so expensive, but I do see the value in solid wood furniture. 

Honestly, I see nothing wrong with Craigslist pieces. I have a few pieces I've gotten from yard sales, auctions, and Craigslist that I've put some sweat equity into and I love them. If you're into refinishing furniture, you can find some really nice stuff to make your own. 

blabla89

Congratulations on your interview and V's acceptances! FWIW, Missouri ain't so bad

I had craigslist furniture and a few items from my mom's house throughout my college years. When I moved into my first apartment by myself I bought all new furniture from Ikea. FI, on the other hand moved into his condo and bought all grown up furniture (including a nice leather couch) shortly after college.

I don't like his bed though, and it's been decided that we're keeping my Ikea bed when I move in.

ETA: I do think it's good to wait on buying expensive furniture until you've found a place where you plan to live for quite a while.

katiekessler123

Check out Modern Rust.  If you like classic wooden furniture, they have beautiful pieces!  It's a small family run business, too, which I like!  We bought our dining room table, wine bar, coffee table, and TV console from them and we get constant compliments on them.

cupcait927

We are finally buying our grownup furniture. We just bought a house last year and were also paying for a wedding so the furniture had to be put on hold. We've always scraped by with hand-me-down furniture or cheap stuff because a) we were poor and b) also didn't see the point in buying grownup stuff until we had a house or a nice apartment. We got an awesome tax return this year so we're slowing upgrading our stuff. We actually just bought new couches a couple of weeks ago during President's Day sales and they get delivered next week! Our old couch was finally getting holes in it so it was time to upgrade.

emmaaa

Congrats to you both on the big and exciting things coming up!

H and I just now bought "grown up" furniture after being together for almost 7 years and living together for 3 years. We still rent a place but are in a more stable and permanent place regarding our careers and all. It's expensive. With both of you being students or continuing your education, I would hold off. Our couch, chair and a half (which really measures the same as a love seat), and the ottoman, cost about $1,400 all together and that's on the low end. The furniture was having the new line come out and we got a killer deal plus a sale going on.

luckya23

Even though today is the 2 year anniversary of buying my house, I guess I'm still waiting on the grown up furniture!

That said, I really do like just about all of the furniture that I have!

I was ready and willing to buy a new couch, and found the one I wanted at Ashley Furniture.  I was VERY turned off my a salesman however, and miraculously found the same couch on craigslist a couple weeks later for $1000 less!

My mahogany bed was new, but it was from wayfair.com, and I got the mattress at Big Lots - so you don't necessarily have to spend a ton.

My desk and two new nightstands are from Ikea, but other than that, I found everything on craigslist.  It's not only "curb furniture" on there, though!  People get rid of decent pieces for varieties of reasons.

I don't forsee ever going out and buying a house full of new furniture. 

AprilH81

My first house was furnished by hand-me-downs from my parents and Big Lots.  I was in the house almost 5 years before I needed new bedroom furniture and couches and bought "real" furniture.  I bought from Rooms to Go and those pieces are still being used two houses later.

I would probably wait until the Craigslist/Walmart furniture actually breaks before replacing it.  Then I would do it one piece/room at a time to make it affordable.

If you plan on moving several times in the next few years I would avoid buying "real" furniture because as you move the furniture may not fit right in the new space and then you would need to get something else.

MyNameIsNot

We bought a grown up bed while we were engaged but still renting because neither one of us had a decent bed, and it seemed wasteful to me to buy a "temporary" Ikea bed that I knew we'd replace soon. Pretty much all of the rest of our furniture was hand-me-downs, CL, or Ikea.

When we bought our house, we started replacing things with grown up furniture. I prefer buying real furniture for the house, because I can choose pieces that fit and are the right size. Still, we have thrown almost nothing away. Somehow even our smallish house seems to absorb furniture.

theartistformerlyknownas

Whenever that point is, we haven't hit it yet. Our living room currently has an IKEA TV stand that I refinished, $100 clearance arm chair from Art Van, an upholstered ottoman I made from wine crates, and some nice but free couches that were handed down from a friend when he moved into a furnished house. Guest bedroom is a super cheap bed from fastfurnishings.com with a Big Lots mattress and a refinished garage sale dresser. Basement living room is more hand me down couches.

When we move, I plan to refinish a garage sale dining table and chairs, and we'll need a new bed because our current one is falling apart. If we need more furniture for more rooms, I'll probably hit up Overstock. I don't feel like most of our stuff is crap though. It looks nice, and some of the older things are better quality than a lot of the crap you can buy nowadays. I really don't see the point of dropping a couple grand on a couch I'm going to spill my cereal milk on.

lyndausvi

We did it in stages.   

When we moved back to the states we had to start over, as we didn't ship any furniture back with us.  We bought nice solid wood bedroom furniture and a beautiful wood/metal entertainment cart thing.  The rest was on the cheaper side.  Then a year or so later we bought a nice sectional sofa from Pottery Barn (love that thing).  

Our spare bedroom dresser came from the club.  Some member didn't want it anymore.  It's a nice solid wood piece that I'm sure cost a good amount of money.  We got it for free.  DH is always on a look out for another member to give away something they do not want any more.

We are waiting until we buy a house to upgrade our dining table and chairs.  Those are pretty cheap and I hate them.  We are looking to buy a home in a year or so I'm willing to wait to see what kind of room we have before getting a new one. 

Personally I think starting off with the bedroom is a great start.  You sleep in there 7-10 hours a night. EVERY NIGHT.   Seems like a good investment to me to have nicer stuff.   Then I would move to the living/family room.   Can't beat a nice sofa.  Then I would move to the dining room.

 In the meantime if you come across a nice end tables,  coffee table or a shelving unit pick them up.

That is just my opinion based on how we use each room.  Since it's just DH and I a nice sofa was more important then a dining room set.  Your millage might be different.

katiekessler123

We bought our house about 2 years ago and I'd say we are finally at the point where it is furnished. We had an empty dining room for about a year!   Best of luck..I loved decorating our house!

OliveOilsMom

I bought my first house 6 years ago.  It was filled with hand me down furniture from my parents and my great uncle's estate (I was basically given everything that wasn't wanted since he had no kids).  I also had a co-worker moving out of state and he gave me his couch!  We lived with all of that hand me down furniture until we just bought our new house in November.  We purchased a living room set and bedroom set.  We still have all of the other hand me down furniture, but that is because our new house is 4 times bigger than our starter home was. 

I have recently started joining facebook yard sale pages to look for more funiture and other things for the house.  So far I have found a coffee table, buffet server that matches my dining room hutch, and a chair.  I haven't even looked at craigslist since its so easy to browse these yard sale pages.  I highly recommend them for my area, so hopefully where ever you land, they will also have great groups like that.

NowIamMrsKlein

I was young and single when I bought my first house and it was filled with hand me downs, garage sale items etc.

About a year into living there I got a roommate because I hated living paycheque to paycheque. I used this income to slowly pick away a room at a time. Got a new bed and side tables and a couch. etc.

I've been out of my parents house for 11 years now and I'd say 60% of my stuff is still hand me downs. FI and I sold my house when we had to move north and we've been renting, and have no intention on staying here longterm so we've stopped replacing furniture. We want to wait until we are in a house we own so we buy furniture for that space instead of a short term lease.

buttercup1958

So it seems like we aren't alone! For everyone talking about getting furniture from other places besides furniture stores, V and I will most likely go that route. We would start refreshing, put sweat equity, ect in our furniture now if we could. V and I live in an apartment duplex and we share a driveway with other residents. So we don't have any real place to sand stuff and paint things really. 

Thanks everyone for the congrats too! The only nice piece we have is our bed. But before I moved in, V was sleeping on a twin bed. We only lasted two months in that set up haha. We bought a lamp once from Grand Home Furnishings but they kept spamming us with mail so I doubt we will use them again. V even asked why they needed our address and they said for their "database". He was tempted to go back there with all the junk mail ha. 

ETA: Can't spell, also Craigslist can be awesome too. We found a loveseat for only 75 dollars! And a futon from Walmart that cost 200 but we got it for 65 dollars.

SmileDamnit

Like Lynda, I did it in stages. The first really nice thing I got was my Cali King tempurpedic bed, a very generous gift from my Ma, shortly after I graduated from college. I still have that bed - 12+ years later - though it's on it's last leg. Over the years, I slowly replaced pieces of furniture as the craptastic stuff died. I invested in a really nice couch & coffee table when I broke up with my BF of 7 years, and then DH & I bought a few things when we moved in together a couple years ago. Intermixed is a hodge podge of Ikea/Target/Overstock/TJ Max/Craigslist pieces. You can definitely find quality stuff on the cheap if you look for it.

amelisha

I'm trying not to buy forever furniture right now because we haven't bought a house yet and I don't want it not to work in that house. So we're mostly using my Ikea stuff, which at least matches and was purchased by me so is more or less my style. But we have been gifted some really nice pieces from various family friends lately and our apartment is therefore kinda looking like grownups live in it. We got a great leather couch from FI's dad a few weeks ago, we're being given some beautiful loveseats from friends of my parents before the wedding, and FI's stepmom is giving us her gorgeous dining room set next month. I'm even taking the hutch, although it's way too big for our little dining room right now, because I'm hoping we'll have space for it in the future.

I am DYING to buy a decent bedroom set instead of my squeaky-ass Ikea Malm crap and FI's ancient dresser, but I want to upgrade our queen to a king and I'm afraid to do it in case our next bedroom isn't the same size as this one (and I want the built-in style wardrobes from Ikea, actually...they're Ikea but they're so nice and functional But it's stupid to buy them when I don't know what shape our future room will be.)

I'm more and more tempted just to buy a house now because I'm sick of our furniture, haha. But the economy's taken a little dive recently in our province so I'm hoping that'll hit house prices and maybe make us able to get something under $400,000. Houses are pretty pricey here and I'm worried about buying something and having it immediately devalue, you know?

arrippa

I finally got my grown up furniture a few years ago. I ordered a living room, dining room and bedroom set from Bob's discount furniture (they are in the NE). What I liked about them is they took my old, crappy Ikea furniture and delivered and set up my new furniture. Super easy.

buttercup1958

amelisha Yeah homes becoming devalued would not be great at all. Where we live now the cost of living is pretty low. Our rent right now is 300 for each of us and I know this is really cheap compared to a lot of places. But V and I have no idea where we would end up so we don't want to buy stuff and then have it not fit/ look right in a house. We are pretty open to living almost anywhere really. Except the south east region, no offense but its way too hot and humid for us there! 

Also, V and I aren't really looking into buying a biggish house anyways. We aren't sure if we want kids ( we both have health issues that we wouldn't want to pass on to kids). So I'm sure when we take the plunge, it wouldn't be too bad and we can do it in stages too. We actually like our apartment, it has a good layout and a lot of windows. Plus we are surrounded by trees. If it was somewhat bigger (it's 480 sq ft) and was a single family home, it would be our ideal place. We definitely don't want to be house poor and we rather do renovations ourselves than buy brand new. 

JennyColada

DH has lived in his house for 5 years and has pretty "adult" furniture, I just don't like the style.

But when we got married we bought a whole new bedroom set (we moved his old set into the guest bedroom). Last week we also bought an awesome Boos butcher block/kitchen island.

DH was really waiting for a permenant partner before making any big furniture changes. If he hadn't found me he probably wouldn't have bought any of this.

levioosa

Congratulations for V and on your interview, OP! 

I am so glad you started this thread.  I'm looking for furniture right now too, although I'm probably going to have to settle for an ikea bedroom set.  I'm coming to terms with the fact that my apartment is going to be all mismatched for awhile, but I would like my bedroom to be cohesive.  I'm going to suck it up and spend the money on a good mattress.  I want the little sleep I will be getting to be good quality.  This morning I was laying in bed trying to figure out how ghetto it would look if I brought my twin bed to the apartment and used it as a couch since there is zero money to buy one.  ha. 

climbingsingle

I also did it in stages. I bought a lot of new stuff with my ex when we bought a townhouse 10 years ago. When we split up, we split the furniture and things I had to replace I bought from IKEA. Over the years when I had the money, I would upgrade to nicer stuff.

Bubblegum5586

We bought our house in June and upgraded what we had but I still wont say it's grown up. We had never purchased anything new previously and wanted to get an $800 sectional at Bobs - so again not the highest quality. They had one in the pit (a few of their stores have a section called the pit where there is anything from a small pull or ding to bigger damage all priced at a discount). They had the couch we wanted in there for $400! Half the price but I did find a few small pulls. My mom said to me "if you have pets or kids don't waste your money on full price/nice things now" so we got the $400 and my dang cats have caused wayyyyyyyy more pulls in it! So glad I didn't pay full price for them to damage that one!

So learning that lesson and knowing we want a family soon... I will likely wait on nicer things until we are older and keep with Ikea level quality and price.

buttercup1958

This all really interesting, thanks guys! This has definitely shown me what we are doing right now, is the best decision for us. Plus we don't entertain either so it's just us in the apartment. V and I have a running joke from House Hunters that everyone loves to entertain except us.  

NowIamMrsKlein

amelisha said:

I'm trying not to buy forever furniture right now because we haven't bought a house yet and I don't want it not to work in that house. So we're mostly using my Ikea stuff, which at least matches and was purchased by me so is more or less my style. But we have been gifted some really nice pieces from various family friends lately and our apartment is therefore kinda looking like grownups live in it. We got a great leather couch from FI's dad a few weeks ago, we're being given some beautiful loveseats from friends of my parents before the wedding, and FI's stepmom is giving us her gorgeous dining room set next month. I'm even taking the hutch, although it's way too big for our little dining room right now, because I'm hoping we'll have space for it in the future.

I am DYING to buy a decent bedroom set instead of my squeaky-ass Ikea Malm crap and FI's ancient dresser, but I want to upgrade our queen to a king and I'm afraid to do it in case our next bedroom isn't the same size as this one (and I want the built-in style wardrobes from Ikea, actually...they're Ikea but they're so nice and functional But it's stupid to buy them when I don't know what shape our future room will be.)

I'm more and more tempted just to buy a house now because I'm sick of our furniture, haha. But the economy's taken a little dive recently in our province so I'm hoping that'll hit house prices and maybe make us able to get something under $400,000. Houses are pretty pricey here and I'm worried about buying something and having it immediately devalue, you know?

***SIB***

I hear you on the house prices! They're so high right now, yet the economy sucks so its a waiting game. We're hoping to move to Calgary next spring so hopefully it will be reasonable by then.

Sugargirl1019

I am out of the ordinary here. I graduated college, got my big girl job, moved into a newly built apartment (and DH moved in a few months later) and furnished it all myself with grown up furniture immediately.

I went to Rooms To Go and did the 0% financing for 6 Years or whatever it was. I furnished my entire bedroom plus a dresser for the guest room (DHs old bed) kitchen table with 6 chairs, leather sofas, coffee table, side table, and media stand. I also bought a tall bookshelf and a large wooden desk from OfficeMax.

We just moved into our first home together, and have not had to buy anything yet. There are things I want to buy, like a credenza to put pictures on, and another sofa for our media room area, but we have everything we need to function from what I bought when I graduated college.

lyndausvi

buttercup1958 said:

This all really interesting, thanks guys! This has definitely shown me what we are doing right now, is the best decision for us. Plus we don't entertain either so it's just us in the apartment. V and I have a running joke from House Hunters that everyone loves to entertain except us.  

House Hunters is so ridiculous.   

Plus I'm insanely jealous of the housing costs in other parts of the country.   3000 sq ft house for $250K.   I would be so happy.

Nope, where I live there are 3 mobile homes for $194K that does not even include land.  Then then prices jump up to $400K for a mere 1200 sq ft and still needs another lord knows how much for reno.    Which is fine, we can afford that much, but it's more that they still need work. And no I don't mean they need to look like they are right out of Property Brothers.  These places have 30 year old smell carpets, really outdated cabinets, tiles broken in the bathrooms and the worse, foundation issues.

Now, now to be fair there are 2 units under $400K, but they have HOA fees of over $500 PER MONTH for nothing more than snow removal and trash.

So depressing. 

lovemesomemonster

Congrats on everything! Sounds like you have a lot of exciting things going on in your life!

We are living in the second house we have bought right now and still haven't "upgraded" a lot of furniture. The only thing we bought new when we moved in was a king size bed because FI thought it would give him more room with the dog in it (yeah right, she's a cuddler). We didn't want to buy a king frame so we built a custom one that we love and built matching night stands. I have refinished a lot of things to match what I want right now like the guest bed frame which was his from college but in good shape, and my dresser. I got a sectional off craigslist because our old couch just wouldn't fit in the space (the old one is sitting in the basement until we set that up). I do eventually want to get a new couch for the living room but we would rather put our money into increasing the value of the house so "grown up" furniture is on the back burner for now. You can always do little things like get a nice throw for the couch to vamp it up a bit, or repaint an old dresser to give it new life until you are ready and want to put the money into new things!

julieanne912

We just bought our first house together, and assuming all goes to plan, it's our "30 year house" meaning, we plan on living here til we retire and even beyond (I'm 32 and FI is 31).  He had bought some nicer couches in his last house, so we still have those, but otherwise, we are just now starting to buy nicer things.  Even his couches don't quite fit with the style of the new house, and we will eventually get new ones and move his to the basement when we finish it out.  We just bought a "grown up" king size bed with Sleep Number mattress, and a dining table and chairs that can accommodate a Thanksgiving dinner if needed.

I completely agree that you should wait til you're in a somewhat permanent spot to start buying a lot of nice things though.  For one, moving furniture around isn't good for it, even if it's good quality, it will get scratches here and there from moving a lot.  And two, it may not even fit in your final resting spot.  I have two mid century walnut dressers that have traveled far and wide with me.  In our new house, they're sitting in the basement because there isn't really a good spot for them upstairs.  I'll eventually use them when we finish the basement, but for now, it's sad that they just sit down there as they're really nice pieces.  

buttercup1958

lyndausvi I actually may end up in Colorado. I'm applying to a grad school there. It's insanely expensive though so I may pick another school. 

@lovemesomemonster and other people who mention craigslist. I've been eyeing a lot of stuff on there. But I'm trying to be good with my money! I need to save up for a lot of things living wise and school wise. Pinterest is the main evil here. Its feeding my dreams of all the pretty things. I've actually tried to stay away from TJ Maxx and others so I won't be temtped too. This is FWP ha.