2026, Family, home, Kids, Uncategorized

Scientific Furniture Shopping

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Daughter is really putting down roots in Tacoma and has purchased a condo. It is quite a bit bigger than than her apartment.

Daughter has enlisted numerous friends to help with the move. She has a dear friend who is an engineer of some sort and who has been through the house buying and refurnishing process and who has taken her in hand regarding buying new furniture.

Daughter needs a new sofa. Friend insisted that the sofa must have a frame made from wood from a certain place in North Carolina for strength and longevity, along with many other caveats for structural stability. The two young women spent the day in Seattle yesterday sitting on sofas. Daughter texted me that she found one she loved at Crate and Barrel and was deciding on fabric swatches. I do hope the internal structure met the engineer’s specifications!

I think I like the advice another friend gave daughter regarding buying furniture: “buy once, cry once”, meaning buy the best you can afford so it lasts longer.

Any furniture buying stories? How do your tastes in furniture style run?

24 thoughts on “Scientific Furniture Shopping”

  1. We spent almost 40 years in Taiwan, and brought no furniture to Michigan with us when we retired, 8 years ago. I am pecunious by nature, so was content to “live with” whatever we might pick up by thrifting. My bride insisted (wisely, it turned out) that we buy a complete bedroom suite, a good mattress, and a brand new couch. I had to turn off my “cost meter” for a while, but now, these several years later, I have to admit that she was right. The rest of the place is furnished with things from her elderly parents’ downsize operation and thrifted items of which she approved. A few other new things came in at a pace that didn’t make me think we were going broke.
    When shopping together, I turn off the “cheap-out” function of my psyche, and rely on here taste.

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    1. David, I need lessons in how to turn off my cheapo meter. In sitting here thinking about it and inventorying in my mind all of the furniture in the house I would say that 75% of my furniture was given to me by others. A few inexpensive pieces. Like the bed frames that we bought on sale at Fleet Farm years ago. YA is fond of IKEA and there are a few pieces of furniture in the house now that she has purchased. It’s definitely early American warehouse style.

      I suppose my best story is a good 20 years ago when I purchased a new mattress. First, they delivered it on a day when I was at work and did not give me warning and apparently thought that by telling me that this was just how they do it was going to calm me down and that I was going to have to pay a fee for having them re-deliver it. When I asked for the legal department, they changed their toon immediately. Then when they did delivery, the two guys carried the mattress and the box spring upstairs and then turned around to leave, I said no you have to take these old mattresses out and put them on the boulevard to get picked up. They said no no that’s not part of our service. I said you gotta be kidding me and I stood there for a little bit and they just stood there for a little bit and then I said well I said I suppose that your company will be happy that you didn’t do this when they’re paying the legal fees when I do this alone, hurt my back and sue you. They moved the stuff down. I gave them a nice tip.

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  3. With few exceptions, when we have changed furniture, it wasn’t because the old furniture failed or was worn out but rather because we moved and the old furniture was unsuitable to the new house, either because of size or style. All that business about a frame from a particular NC manufacturer sounds like typical engineer talk that overlooks the realities of life changes.

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  4. The s&h and gf are busy stocking the new house with furniture and seem to be enjoying themselves, but not overly so. They are so practical.

    I’m enjoying watching it all from afar. They are really to far away for it to be practical to consider moving anything big from here or Chicago out to Maryland, so I am learning to shift my expectations about “heritage”.

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    1. It has also occurred to me that we never had anything from when my ancestors came over ~ 150 years ago max. Maybe we are more transient than I’ve always thought!

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  5. 1. No memorable furniture stories
    2. Ask my wife.

    I’m a quality over quantity guy, so I believe in buying furniture that is well made and expected to last for decades. So far, so good other than getting a sofa reupholstered by the Faribault State Prison inmates about 15 yrs ago.

    Chris in Owatonna

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  6. I just took a walk through our rooms, and the only furniture bought as new are the queen size bed, an oak bookshelf, and our fake fireplace! Everything else is pre-owned in some way… I used to say my furniture style was Early Garage Sale and Flea Market. Friends have helped out at times, such as with PJ’s round oak pedestal table…

    At this point I would buy something new if I needed it, and when we move from here to an apartment some day, we may have to replace some things that are almost at the end of their usefulness..

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  7. I’ve inherited furniture or had furniture built for me as gifts over the years. My former partner, Morgan, was an artist, cabinet maker, and wood worker. He built a number of pieces that I still have today. He built a walnut desk out of black walnut from our woods for my dad when he was still alive. I have that desk. He also built a headboard for my mom, which I have. He built me a trestle-style kitchen table of pine, an Adirondack chair of maple and walnut, and a small cherry and walnut chest. I also have a cedar chest and two small tables that my dad built. I inherited the dining room table that my mom and I chose for our home on Cannon Lake in the early ‘70s. It’s over 50 years old now. It needs refinishing, but it’s not going to get it.

    I never had an actual bed. I slept on a mattress on the floor for many years. I bought an actual adjustable base bed when I moved from Waterville to Northfield. It’s the first bed I’ve had since a dorm room bed.

    When I bought my first house in Faribault, it was an estate. Most of the furniture wasn’t in good condition, and I gave a lot of it away. I kept one dresser and a few cool old lamps. I still use that dresser. It was well made, with dove-tailed joints.

    I have two recliners in the living room now. The Adirondack chair is in the bedroom. I wish I could get it out of there, but I can’t get it back out through the door by myself. I don’t have a couch or loveseat. I kind of wish I could switch one of the recliners for a loveseat, but I won’t.

    I have bought other furniture second hand.

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  8. OT. Next Blevins book club will be Sunday, July 26 at Krista‘s at 2 PM. The books are a scientist The First Ladies by Marie Benedict and The Pluto Files by Neil deGrasse Tyson.

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    1. The Pluto Files isn’t available in my library system or in my Libby… The First Ladies wait is 10 weeks in my Libby, but I might be able to get it faster in a book in my library system. Any suggestions on where to get The Pluto Files without buying it?

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  10. Then, of course, there is the pet issue. We allow our pets on the furniture, so any furniture purchase must take that into consideration. I am happy to report that none of our five terriers were furniture chewers.

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  11. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    My most recent and extensive furniture shopping stories are from AZ. Secondhand furniture there is a real business given the fact old people like us move there and die, leaving their furniture behind. The heirs then sell the high quality, lightly worn stuff to second hand stores. They treat stuff for bed bugs, a must, and then I shopped there for terrific bargains. The best bargain was my two Tiger prints that I got for $30 each and are each worth over $1000 on the market. I am very “Antiques Roadshow” smug about that purchase. Two weeks ago one of his prints was shown there.

    This all worked well for everything but the coffee table I wanted in the condo living room. So my sister and I went shopping For A New One (nearly unheard of) at a furniture store. Our very young, attractive female saleswoman was helpful to us and I found one. I wanted to think about this for a few minutes, and asked for some time before paying. It was, ummmm, very obvious that she had a very recent and generous breast enhancement that apparently was alluring to the other male salesmen who were shamelessly flirting and salivating in her presence. GEtting her attention to complete the purchase was nearly impossible. When we snagged another sales person, she came flying over to us, told off the person assisting me, and took the money and the commission. So. There. But then she had to pay for the surgery and new bras, I suppose.

    The coffee table worked out very well.

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    3. I’m assuming the two “Tiger prints” you’re referring to are works of art of some sort by a well known artist? Can you tell us his name?

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  12. One of my purchases from a garage sale (near Half Moon Bay, CA) was a fairly small wood rocking chair. How to get it home with nothing but a yellow VW Bug?? It occurred to me that, when upside down, the chair actually took up the space ABOVE the empty front passenger seat. I found someone to help me get it in, and it worked, fit right in the front of my VW when tipped upside down!

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  13. My furniture is mostly a mishmash of garage sale and thrift store purchases. I do have a love seat that I inherited from my mother, which badly needs to be reupholstered because of various feline companions who scratched and/or threw up hairballs on it.

    One thing I bought new was a couch with a rattan frame and cushions covered in upholstery fabric. I’ve changed out the fabric over the years, more than once. The rattant did not seem to be attractive as a scratching post, so maintenance is just recovering cushions every so often. I think the frame is going to outlast me.

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