We have come to the portion of Moving Into a New House where we are considering buying some new furniture. We have plenty of furniture, from the old house, but there are a few things that are missing from our collection. Plus, there are a few things that we’d prefer to replace because they just aren’t right for the current space.
The thing is, we have never really had to buy furniture before. We are deeply spoiled: most of the furniture in our house was handed down to us by my husband’s parents, who have moved several times over the years and who accompanied each move with gifts of furniture. Hand-me-downs from my in laws include two couches, two loveseats, an armchair, a kitchen table, The Piece, a desk, some filing cabinets, a baby grand piano, and lots of artwork. I know. We are very, very lucky.
This means that, aside from purchasing two bedroom sets and assorted furniture for our child, we have no experience buying furniture. But… buying furniture is kind of hard? And unpleasant? Like, how many couches do you have to sit on before you decide that THIS ONE is the right combination of firm and comfortable, that it is formal enough for the space, that it will fit in the room, that the quality is good, that the price is reasonable? And then you have to choose the fabric?! Yikes.
In an instance of great good fortune, my friend Jen (HI JEN) happened to send me a photo of her couch (it wasn’t really of her couch, it was of her beautiful and charming children), and I asked about it (because it looked comfy but also aesthetically pleasing) and she gave me the details. And THEN our local Macy’s had several of the very same couch IN STOCK. There was only one person working in the entire Macy’s so my husband and daughter and I were able to sit on all the different options and examine the different sectional combinations and look at all the fabric samples completely unbothered by salespeople or other customers. With Jen’s assurance that this couch is a good couch, and the evidence of our own sitting, we are now going to order this couch. SO. That’s one big thing to check off the list.
But we have other furniture needs and I don’t really know where to begin. You have Furniture Opinions, yes? Because I need your input please.
- Where do you get lamps? We have looked at Target, and the lamps are… limited, and also a lot of them look kind of cheap. I am aware that Target does HAVE perfectly acceptable lamps; our old bedside table lamps were from Target, and they lasted a long time and I liked them just fine. We would not be looking for new beside table lamps had I not broken mine during the move. I have been suffering for my sins, lampless, since August. I looked at Crate and Barrel for lamps and it seems like you can’t get a lamp for less than $100, which is far more than I feel like I want to spend on a lamp. So maybe my question is not, “where do you get lamps?” but “where do you get nice, sturdy, aesthetically pleasing lamps that aren’t a million dollars?”
- What is the deal with slipcovers? My husband and I had a hand-me-down loveseat in our bedroom for twelve years. Neither of us noticed until now that the loveseat is wearing a slipcover. The slipcover is not, as I would have assumed, covering anything; I would have thought you would have purchased a slipcover to conceal a fabric you no longer liked, for instance. But now that we KNOW, we feel like we might want to get a new slipcover. One that is more our style. That is as far as I’ve gone with this line of thinking because I don’t really know where to go next. And also, are we stuck with the skirt part?
- Do you have a yoga mat you’d recommend? Does a yoga mat count as furniture? Let’s pretend it does for the sake of not wanting to revise the post title. One of my favorite parts of the new house is a dedicated room for exercise. But the flooring is Very Hard; my princessy bones have apparently grown accustomed to working out on a yoga mat on top of a plush carpet, and my tailbone and shoulder blades scream at me if I try to work out on a yoga mat on top of the floor. My solution was to get a nice thick yoga mat from Amazon. But, while the new mat is technically thicker than my old yoga mat, the material is much squishier, so it is not any more comfortable than what I already have. I tried to stack the yoga mats, one on top of each other, but they slide around. What I really want is a GIANT yoga mat that is also thick. Does such a thing exist? Rephrase: Does such a thing exist for under a million dollars?
Those are the most pressing furniture questions I have at the moment. Don’t even get me started on end tables. I think we’ll need at least one – maybe two – for the upstairs living room. We will also need couches and chairs and a rug for that space, but we’re living with our old hand-me-down couch and no rug for now. I don’t have the mental fortitude for ordering more than one couch at a time.
For lamps I would recommend HomeGoods!
I know the feeling! As an only child of an only child of an only child…I did not need to buy furniture when I moved out of my parents’ house. When the hubs and I got together we did not have a decent couch between us, and it was a long process to get something that was comfortable and looked good and wasn’t too expensive.
I’m a slipcover veteran (that’s why I didn’t own a decent couch in my single days) and if I could go back in time I would have gotten a cheap couch and saved myself the trouble of straightening the slipcovers every frickin’ time I sat on my couches.
Lamps tho! Ikea is my go-to. I like Elizabeth’s idea of Home Goods.
I spent about three years furnishing our house when we first moved in. Remember me going to endless numbers of antique shops looking for chests and bookshelves and a hall tree? LOL. Anyway. We also will have to look for a new couch soon and I am dreading it.
We do a lot of ordering from Wayfair and Overstock for things like lamps and rugs, so maybe that’s an option?
I have no yoga mat solution. I stack two yoga mats on top of each other when I am doing yoga on wood floors. Otherwise, I like to do yoga on a nice soft rug with a pad underneath. My knees are the weak link!
Furniture selection is hard! I moved last year and had similar issues. I got my couch and chair for living room from Bob’s Discount Furniture, which doesn’t seem to have stores everywhere. I had to wait a couple months (!) for delivery but I really liked the look of the couch, so I didn’t mind waiting. Target had some decent end tables.
My favorite yoga mat:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09WF2LLWP/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Hard questions about lamps. Whatever you do though, buy one with a shade as they are atrociously expensive by themselves. I find decorating extremely difficult; I don’t have much of an eye for what goes together PLUS I hate making decisions!
For lamps, I second Home Goods.
Wayfar is also a good option for furniture.
Also, IKEA?
I clicked on your yoga mat link because I love my mat, but I’m wondering if there’s a wider one available? I have the same one as you! 🤣🤣I don’t believe there is a perfect one. If Engie can’t come up with an answer, maybe Nicole will.
HomeGoods has amazing stuff, but you may not get everything all at once. It takes time to curate.
The hood thing about slipcovers is that they are generally washable.
I believe you must always have a skirt though.
I love Arhaus for furniture. They are on the high side, but it’s mostly made in the USA and it’s great quality
Not hood thing—-unless you’re a hood rat. 🫣😂
What? A skirt?! NOOOO!! Suz, I cannot disagree with you more. Skirts are a temptation for cats who will use it to hide under the couch and then scratch at it. Skirts hide dirt and dust. Skirts are No Good.
I don’t like skirts either. What I meant was a slipcovered couch, by nature of design, will always come with a skirt. That is the negative.
Following along here for furniture ideas (especially!). In my town there is ONE real furniture store. I’ve bought a few decorative pieces (and lamps) at Home Goods, TJ Max, and Wayfair. Once in a while I will buy something from West Elm (online). I took a gamble and bought a couch online (Wayfair) and liked it.
For a larger yoga mat I like Gorilla Mats, they usually have a Black Friday sale.
https://yogorillamats.com
Oh God, furniture shopping. I live very near the furniture capital of the world; so you think it would be easy. It’s not. Too many options.
I also recommend Home Goods/TJ Maxx/Marshalls for lamps. And, if you have one nearby, AtHome (formerly Garden Ridge, I still grumble about the genius who re-named it). I also second whoever said thrift/consignment stores. You’d be surprised what you can find.
Funny you should mention slipcovers – I just slipcovered our dining room chairs and it was life-changing (ok, not really; but it did make me less inclined to ditch them immediately). I found them on Amazon (of course) and I bet you could find couch slipcovers there too.
WayFair and Overstock most likely have solid options for lamps/slipcovers/end tables. I’d be wary of buying a couch online though. But if you want to skip the upholstery selection portion, maybe go for leather?
Don’t rush the process though. Just take your time and replace things when you find something you absolutely love…since you’re going to be living with it for a while.
I am here for the yoga mat!
I have a Manduka Black Mat. Actually, there are four in this house (I had one for personal practice, I bought one for my husband, I had a teaching mat, and then I had one in this house before we moved so I could have a practice mat when we flew, yes, spoiled, but still). This is how strongly I feel about the Manduka Black Mat. Yes, it is expensive. It is going to cost more than any other mat. But it is, to me, well worth the money. It’s heavy and thick and I will probably be saddling my great-grandchildren with it. It is quality. Other cheaper mats tend to shred a bit, but this one never will. I have had my OG mat since 2008 and it shows no signs of age whatsoever. Now, it can be slippery at first but I also – hear me out – use a mat cover. It’s a soft cover that gets grippier if you get sweaty. So kind of the best of all worlds, plus, I just pop it into the washing machine and I don’t have to worry about cleaning my mat all the time. Again, it’s an investment! But a nice thick mat is a thing of beauty.
The Black Mat is now called the Pro! I just looked it up. It used to be called the Black Mat way back in the day. I would not recommend the Eko or the ProLite.
Have you tried consignment shops for your lamps and side tables? You might find some great deals.
I am a hard no on slip covers (unless it’s PB and they are part of the couch.) I am pretty loyal to PB for lamps, too, but sometimes Crate and Barrel in a pinch. Same for tables. I do adore our local chain Steinhafels— do you have a local store you could love?
Reupholstery is such a better way to go – but also I know some really talented seamstresses who make fantastic slipcovers! Custom slipcovers by small businesses tend to be way more high-end in design.
We’ve gotten lamps at Pottery Barn that have held up the test of time. They are UL listed so not a potential fire hazard which is something I think is important. Also Lowe’s has some nice lamps.
NOT a fan of slip covers. End tables are all over Amazon and if you aren’t going for heirloom furniture they’re good. Ethan Allen & Pottery Barn have better quality.
Ally I had not even considered a lamp as a fire hazard!!!!!!! I will make sure to look up UL listed and figure out what that means.
I sound like an old fuddy-duddy but we had a lamp start to smoke and shoot little sparks. We were in an adjacent room, smelled smoke, and ran to see what was happening. Z-D pushed the sofa out of the way, unplugged the lamp from the wall, and it stopped sparking, but the experience made an impression about what could have happened if we weren’t home. Since then no cheap-o lamps for us.
Yay! Couch twins!
For a yoga mat, what if you cheated and instead of a yoga mat, you got some of those foam lock together mats that we put underneath children when we expect them to fall down a lot? Then you could put whatever yoga mat on top of that and you’d be quite padded.
We had so many hand-me downs. And all our other furniture came from Ikea. People love or hate Ikea but I have to say that the couch from Ikea (that we bought second-hand) in 2008 is still going strong (with new slip cover ;)) while the expensive Lazyboy we bought in 2016 is on it’s last leg.
We have three lamps from Ikea too.
I don’t have any recs on yoga mat, but would trust Nicole’s advice any day.
Secondhand is the best!
I have not bought lamps in a while. Some of ours are from furniture stores., purchased when we got out new couches, etc. There are lots of lamps in our local Steinhafels, Ashely Furniture, etc. Not sure what you have around you. Maybe there will be some Black Friday deals? Our bedroom lamps are- get this- from Target… and I bought them when I was furnishing my first apartment in my 3rd year of college!!!! And now, over 20 years later, they proudly stand in my master bedroom. HA. (I will admit here as well in the privacy of the internet that out bedroom set is also a second hand set that my dad picked up for me when I was in college, for that same apartment! We so badly need to redo our bedroom, but it has fallen to the bottom of the priority list. It’s all still perfectly functional and on the surface looks decent. (The lamps, I will say, look literally brand new.) We have chosen to prioritize higher traffic areas like the kitchen, bathrooms, garage, carpet…. basically everywhere that is not our bedroom. Ha. Bedroom sets are $$$$! And when we do finally get one, I’m sure we’ll want to get a nice one, since it will apparently need to last the next 50 years or something. lol.
I probably can’t help you with where to buy because I’m in Australia but we just moved into a new apartment and although we had some of our furniture we still needed to be some extra things. One was a new bed because we decided to finally get a king size bed. We went back and forth in the bed shop. Tried all the mattresses and then spent about twenty minutes going between our top two, lying on one and then the other. Such a hard decision! Luckily our apartment came with bedside lamps hanging from the ceiling so we didn’t need to do any lamp shopping.
I can not give any helpful suggestions here as my stores in Germany wo’t help much. I do know IKEA has a ton of lamps from cheap to more pricy and design lamps. Maybe that is an option to go.
Other than the I hope you can find all the great things you need and look forward to. It is sometimes really really tough.
I recommend Wayfair for lamps. I’ve had good luck at Target, but not always. I’ve been trying to find a table lamp and Target has NOT come through like I expected. Well, unless I want to spend, like, $80 on a table lamp and I DO NOT.
I hate furniture shopping. So many decisions and everything is so expensive. I wish you luck!
The best way to find furniture you love is by treating it like a treasure hunt! You have to be patient and wait for the right pieces to come along. Get something as a placeholder and when you go shopping, keep an eye peeled. It will be a slow and steady process but so worth it. Antique stores are my go-to for large furniture pieces like couches, tables, etc. The kind of antique stores that have multiple dealers are the best. If you don’t like used furniture or don’t want to pay for re-upholstery/cleaning, I recommend outlets and warehouse sales. Companies like Anthropologie have warehouses where they sell old or defective merchandise for a fraction of the cost. For small items, you can’t go wrong with thrift stores. Make sure to check independently owned thrift stores in wealthy/remote areas. Goodwill is hit or miss. Lastly, for yoga mats and things of the sort, I would definitely invest in something new. I like websites like earthhero.com and companies like Alo. It’s worth investing in something pretty! Make sure the things you want to engage with the most often are so beautiful that you can just leave them out.