Furniture stores?

[minorninth]

Anyone have any suggestions for furniture stores

Comments

[bagoffarts]

Check out Living Spaces. They have some decent quality stuff.

[minorninth]

Thanks, good to know! I had seen their TV commercials but had no personal experience - and they're more out of the way so we didn't know if it was worth the trip. The same-day delivery seems like a nice perk, too.

[triath]

I was surprised that you might buy leather furniture. No judgment, mind you (I'm definitely not on the high moral ground here), but surprised.

I'm sorry that I don't know the furniture stores down there. I definitely find the local ones up here to have cooler stuff than the chain stores. If you get really desperate, I can point some out when you next come to visit! :]

[triath]

Sticking to it in summer heat.

[minorninth]

I'm trying to be open-minded about leather. All things being equal I'd prefer to not use animal products, but when we go to nice stores, 75% of the store is leather, and most of the fabric sofas are ugly. (I grew up with fabric sofas that were beige with subtle colorful patterns on them - how come nobody sells those anymore?) Also, I've learned that many things that "look" like leather are actually synthetic - like vinyl or microsuede - which is all the more reason to not rule out anything.

Just curious, are there any furniture stores around you that have websites? Cause I'd like to check them out, even if we couldn't actually shop there.

[beth_leonard]

My primary suggestions were in the original post (IKEA, JC Penny, Macy's) and my secondary suggestion of Ethan Allen for expensive stuff is here, so I'm just too slow!

All of our furniture is second-hand, I wish I could help more.
--Beth

[minorninth]

Thanks! I hadn't even looked at Ethan Allen or Z Gallery yet.

[springbok1]

Are you set on buying new furniture? If not, I'd recommend keeping an eye on Craigslist. I got most of my furniture on there. There are a surprising number of people who buy furniture without actually measuring to be sure it fits in their living room, up their stairs, etc. So sometimes you can find brand new furniture on there. And even if you'd rather buy new, on Minneapolis' CL most people will say where the furniture came from in their ad. It's a good way to get an idea of the styles of furniture that various places might sell.

If you would prefer to buy new, a few of the chain furniture stores I've been to that I'd recommend for the type of thing you're looking for are Macy's Homestore (go to a homestore specifically, not just a regular Macy's), Gabberts, and Slumberland. Slumberland does not just sell mattresses, contrary to what I'd always assumed. Also, if they have them in your area, absolutely check out their outlet/discount retail stores. Also, did you go to a regular Penny's or a HomeStore? Because, like Macy's,

[minorninth]

Craigslist can be great - I've bought a lot of things there - but it's generally perfect when I know exactly what I want (or it's a smaller purchase and I don't care). Like, if there's a particular brand and size of something I like, it's easy to troll Craigslist until it appears. With sofas in particular, it's really hard to tell if I'll like something from a picture (and even harder for Ronit!) so we prefer brick-and-mortar stores where we can try them out.

We did go to a Penney's home store, but I didn't realize Macy's had a different home store. There's one in the valley, maybe we can check it out. Thanks!

[morganlf]

Definitely look at West Elm. There's one in Santa Monica, near the promenade. Their furniture is modern, but not fussy.

If you're looking to blow some cash on some *really* pretty stuff, try Modernica!

[minorninth]

Thanks! I had no idea about either of those!

[minorninth]

I just learned that what we actually like is less "modern" and more "contemporary". I might check them out anyway, though, since they're so close...

[triath]

Please educate me. What typifies "modern" and "contemporary"?