I have only ever had cheapish self assembly dining tables.
We have recently re-decorated our dining room and have painted the walls matt Dulux diamond white and have had a wooden oak floor fitted over 1 inch thick ply to replace the collapsed chipboard floor detailed previously - and I'm still smarting at the cost of that!!!
I thought a nice rug and a wooden, perhaps pine dining table for about £500.
That's not what Mrs Z was thinking. First to Oak Furniture Land where you don't get much change from £1,000. But Mrs Z decided that it would be too much wood, what with the wood floor.
So I was dragged to the nearest Furniture Village where she liked a marble table with chrome legs as a statement piece for £2k!!!!
There must be a catch with them - how can I put her off!?
The second choice was an similarly expensive ceramic table at £1800. Again, any known problems?
I'm thinking of popping down to Argos and getting a good old fashioned self assembly job for £200 whilst she's visiting her mother tomorrow afternoon.
Next she wants a replacement bed and in Furniture Village, she was keen on a £3,300 model. I was hoping for £400!
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Seriously? This is a battle you will never win. Suck it up and let her buy what she needs. If you buy Argos she will either resent it for years or you will end up replacing it in short order. Imagine if you had settled on, say, a Jag and she went out and bought a Sandero for you instead. Or would this delight you?
The problem then is how to buy the furniture at the best price. There are outlets (Trade Secrets near Banbury for one) that specialise in high quality “as new” returned furniture goods from M&S, JLP etc. Or even charity furniture shops or local websites for second hand furniture . It’s surprising how much stuff people now change on a whim and then sell the old stuff cheap.
If you do need to buy at what you see is a high price it’ll still be cheaper than a divorce.
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We have a wooden floor in the kitchen/diner of the house we moved to a year or so ago and Mrs CS felt the same way regarding your 'too much wood', as our existing (very heavy) pine dining table and chairs were more or less the same colour as the floor.
So, we thought, should we buy new or should we have a go at upcycling. We chose the latter, using chalk paint and wax polish, and the result was far better than we expected.
We also did the same with two pine bedside tables.
Last edited by: Clk Sec on Sun 30 Jan 22 at 07:52
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If these are not life changing sums of money to you, which I suspect is the case, concentrate on getting what she wants at the best price.
Pine is being given away, nobody wants it now. You'd get something really nice at auction for very little money if you can wade through the junk.
Beds are a notorious rip-off.In fact furniture generally, unless proper top makers, is invariably priced to be sold at half price if you know what I mean.
We've spent all our insurance money, including the contents pay out, on building the house so we will be refurnishing from IKEA (bedrooms probably) and/or the auctions.
Couldn't use it unfortunately but I saw a beautiful arts and crafts hall stand for a couple of hundred in Emmaus. I'll definitely be looking into the place at Banbury that Martin mentioned.
Last edited by: Manatee on Sun 30 Jan 22 at 07:34
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Marble top table with chrome legs? Tell the woman if thats what she wants you'll take her to Pizza Express once a month.
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Like Manatee I've found IKEA to be just the job for beds and other household furniture.
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When we wanted a new table I looked underneath the one SWMBO wanted and found the manufacturer's label. They had a website where their stuff was a fraction of the price in retail outlets - delivered. Cheeky perhaps.
Bedroom furniture I'd never consider second hand. Have you ever experienced bed bugs? Our bed was delivered flat pack, a very solid pine job. Matresses were eye wateringly expensive, but we realised the same mattress was sold under different names in different stores. Found an online supplier for a much lower price.
A common source of bed bug infestations is cross contamination in lorries, removing old mattresses when delivering new ones. Our mattress was delivered sealed in plastic, which I removed in the garage, so it never entered the house.
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>> I'm thinking of popping down to Argos and getting a good old fashioned self assembly
>> job for £200 whilst she's visiting her mother tomorrow afternoon.
I have tried to give you good advice over the years, zippy, and I think this another one of your good ideas!
What could possibly go wrong?
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November 2 years ago we had decided at last to replace the 8x4 28mm MDF sheet that has sat vertically in the back room for most of the last 20 years, and replace it with a large Table and chairs for the up coming Xmas meal. Previously we had 2 small gateleg tables as supports, which were both good quality but in need of some tlc.
Plenty of large tables in varius designs available on FB market place, and for a princely £200 picked up 8 fabric coverered Oak chairs and matching very heavy table in as new condition. Probably originally Oak FL or similar. Only mistake was that really should have bought an extending table, to make best use of room space.
Covid struck, and so far has meant that the greatest number of people that have sat down to a meal at the 'new' table has been 2! At least the mdf finally went this xmas but I had to get 2 people in to take it away.
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You can still buy old oak gate leg dining tables in auctions for under £100, the nicer ones are bargains IMO.
A friend of mine has a very large polished oak oval table, must be 8' or 9' long and >5' wide, beautifully made. Apparently it's a coffin table!
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Get yourself on gumtree or ebay tons of second hand furniture for very little. Our last dining room table came off gumtree i think it was 70 quid, bargain. We've had loads of second-hand furniture over the years, if you've access to a van/trailer you can pick them up for peanuts.
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Why not start a new post on this site asking for recommendations for a new table, we can then reply pointing out how terrible the expensive tables are and what problems they bring and point you in the direction of Argos. Show swmbo the post in a couple of days.
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Argos? Seriously guys, I am a cheapskate, but Argos? You all make me feel so superior.
Ikea, as a minimum.
(we have a light wood second hand JLP table and chairs, with a centre fold out leaf seats 8)
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Just at the start of lockdown I bought an extending oak table and 6 chairs from Facebook marketplace for £100. Took me two trips to Glasgow to get it all in my car. This was at the time we weren’t allowed to cross Council boundaries.
We had a 15-20 year old Next table, the small square one that the top flipped over to seat 6 round it. We sold it and 4 old chairs for £40.
So the table and chairs that seats 10 easily, that is absolutely solid (I have the bruises to prove it). cost me £60.
After working in charity shops for 12 years, there are some items of furniture I wouldn’t ever pay new shop prices for. Dining tables and chairs come into that category.
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"Seriously guys, I am a cheapskate"
Yeah? Well, I have a lovely dining table which I've had about 20 years or so. I dragged it out of a skip in Herne Hill.
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We are still using a dining table and sideboard which my (recently departed b-i-l) gave us as a wedding pressie in 1976. it was expensive teak G Plan and the sideboard is near-perfect and the table has a few marks but is really good for its age. The orig chairs are in the loft as we acquired some more comfortable ones a few years back.
I expect it has virtually no value.
Daughters are now suggesting we should start upgrading the house and contents. It is "of our age" but all in good nick and to our taste. I suspect they are now looking ahead a bit and don't want to inherit a shrine to the 70s :-)
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>>I expect it has virtually no value.
Check G Plan on ebay. 'Mid-century' including 70's furniture is very popular now, especially Ercol.
We have 2 Ercol Jubilee sofas and 3 armchairs that we've had for 30 years or more. Suddenly they are worth proper money even though the covers are shot. We've just renewed the webbing and we'll get them recovered.
I lost a few Ercol pieces in the fire, got paid replacement value fortunately. About a year ago I found an Ercol Pandora table on ebay, cost me nearly £300.
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Our G-plan extending Teak Table, 6 chairs and Sideboard were ordered mid-March 1972 and delivered the last week in June.
The total cost was £235.80. This does not sound a lot but was actually around 3 month take home pay for my wife who was a teacher for over 6 years. Still in daily use.
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>>Our G-plan extending Teak Table, 6 chairs and Sideboard were ordered mid-March 1972 and >>delivered the last week in June.
Sheesh! Nearly a fifty year wait!
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>> Sheesh! Nearly a fifty year wait!
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...be alright if they held the price, though....
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Are sideboards still a thing??
What do you keep in it?? The wedding China set?
We are very minimalistic. In fact had visitors last week and only after they commented did we realise that we do not have a single picture on any of our walls! Took everything down this time last year when the painters came in and haven’t put anything back up.
Keeps things simple……
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"What do you keep in it?? The wedding China set?"
Hahahaha hahaha hahahahahaha
Well yes, actually, nearly anyway. A (potentially quite valuable) Royal Doulton load of crockery inherited from her dad which we never use. And games, and napkins, and biros, and numerous packs of cards and other tut.
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>> Well yes, actually, nearly anyway. A (potentially quite valuable) Royal Doulton
Ditto
And no - at auction its of no value whatsoever
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I knew someone who used to buy similar sets at auction for peanuts but then sell the pieces individually on eBay. They used to do quite well at it. I couldn't be bothered.
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Exactly, its only value is in single bits to replace bits other people broke in their sideboards.
Think of it like a car down the breakers yard.
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No good for Zippy if Mrs Z doesn't want wood but if anyone else wants top quality custom made furniture I can seriously recommend this guy -
www.mark-ripley.com/
He's made some stuff for us, the latest being a low-level wall unit in Light American Oak that stretches along one wall of our living room and curves into an integral corner TV/Media unit. He only works in solid hardwood and the workmanship is top-notch.
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I saw a glass table with chrome base and chairs in an Emporium yesterday for £1,450.
If I was spending four figures, I personally would like this. The picture shows how good it looks with white walls and a wooden floor. I might be biased as we had a full sized one in my childhood home, came with the house and stayed when we left. So much more fun than a glass table and a great conversation starter when guest realise what it is.
tinyurl.com/yddonvux
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>> stayed when we left. So much more fun than a glass table and a great
>> conversation starter when guest realise what it is.
>> tinyurl.com/yddonvux
You would have to leave the room, its for Gentlemen only.
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Dining Tables - martin aston
