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Try Natuzzi, from Italy. Wonderful stuff and not as expensive as you would think. And, the micro-fabric stands up easily to 4 cats!
Avoid 'Direct Buy' (http://www.infomercialscams.com/scams/direct_buy_scams/start/100 - broken link) like the plague, lest you want to pay north of 4000 bucks up front in order to buy furnishings unseen -- only from a picture -- that you can easily find just as cheap elsewhere.
Try Natuzzi, from Italy. Wonderful stuff and not as expensive as you would think. And, the micro-fabric stands up easily to 4 cats!
Avoid 'Direct Buy' (http://www.infomercialscams.com/scams/direct_buy_scams/start/100 - broken link) like the plague, lest you want to pay north of 4000 bucks up front in order to buy furnishings unseen -- only from a picture -- that you can easily find just as cheap elsewhere.
Take a look at Thomas Moser (he has a website). Quite expensive, but beautifully hand crafted furniture which will last generations. I LOVE his work. We have several of his pieces.
If you want fine furniture, you gotta check out the craftsman from Borkholder Furniture. Some of the finest ever and they do custom work too. I have a whole house full of their products.
True American, English, and French antiques are the highest appreciating investment there is, appreciating, on average, at double-digit rates every year. You want to know why rich people fill their houses with antiques? That's why. The furniture only appreciates in value.
Yes antiques are expensive but they'll bring more at sale than what you paid.
I don't know where your live - But, if it is within a reasonable distance to North Carolina, you may do very well there. And, the more furniture that you are looking to buy, the more reasonable the distance.
If you are only looking for a few pieces - then shopping locally makes sense.
But, if you are going to buy quite a few pieces or sets - Then a trip to NC would be worth it.
Most people know of High Point - But, I feel that the row of furniture outlets and discounters along Hwy 321, going north from Hickory all the way to Lenoir is a good place to buy furniture. There are also furniture malls in Hickory, and independent dealers in the surrounding areas.
But, along Hwy 321, you will find plenty of variety, as there are numerous dealers and outlets.
Take a look at Thomas Moser (he has a website). Quite expensive, but beautifully hand crafted furniture which will last generations. I LOVE his work. We have several of his pieces.
Wow you know how to buy furniture! Solid woods, classic, yet slightly updated styles, sensuous, deeply carved, totally functional, old fashioned furniture. Moser pays attention to details like matching up wood grains, dovetailed joints both where you can see them, and where you can't. I think the Moser furniture is going to be the Stickly-Shaker-Amish classics a century from now.
I hesitated to join this thread since most of what was being talked about was mass produced, even the good stuff. A lot of the names mentioned are now having their stuff made under their brand name in China. caveat emptor.
When I decided to buy some new furniture, I first searched the net for artisans who were members of their state's crafts guilt, and made furniture from their own designs, in their own workshops, and in open workrooms where I was welcome to visit and see it being made. Not all that I visited lived up to their self-proclaimed image. Here are a few that did:
Granted these are three traditional New England companies, but shipping was a factor, though Vermont Precision does sell through various retail stores acress the country, and Moser has a half dozen of his own showrooms.
I am also near Gardner, MA where there are half a dozen factory outlets (similar stores are in the Pennsylvania and North Carolina areas where there is still active furniture making going on.) The trick here is to avoid the "big sale" fallacy. Whatever the claimed price savings, learn about furniture before you invest your hard earned money. I visit the stores there a couple of times a year looking for treasures. I have found a few and gotten good prices. Each is a gem.
It is as easy to make a piece of junk look like a million bucks as to make a trollup look like a princess. Only close examination will reveal the real identity. Get down on the floor and look under that desk, turn that wardrobe around and see how the back it attached, and its composition. Often gorgeous appearing fronts have thin, stapled backs. Learn now to tell the difference between veneer, solid wood that is 95% pine instead of cherry, or MDF. Learn about mortise and tenon construction, see if the drawers are solid wood or just the facade, dovetailed in the back as well as the front.
And above all, avoid the "hot" looks of today, they will be the throwaways of tomrrow. Remember when formica countertops and garish oak cabinets were the rage, and gold and avocado the preferred color scheme. Who is to say that garish granite countertops and deeply carved dark cherry cabinets won't be tomorrow's albatross?
Let the most conservative member of the household have the biggest vote. Especially if they claim to be familiar with what their personal color balance is.
And don't worry in any case. 95% of today's furniture will have no second life. It's all from China and big box stores and not destined to last. It will only make a brief stop in the buyers house before being sent on to the dump.
But what fun it is to find a unique heirloom piece and have the family squabbling over who will inherit it. That's the way to buy furniture, slowly, one carefully considered piece at a time.
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Fine Furniture
