ᐅ Which furniture stores would you recommend?

I want to go out for dinner tonight, something that tastes good, is not too expensive, and not too cheap…… that’s what this reminds me of.
Furniture, like the house or a suit, should best reflect the claim to individuality.
With furniture, this is actually quite simple.
I’m not a fan of consistent “mediocrity” and would rather advise you to choose the necessary furniture based on other criteria. The mattress, for example, is very important, and it is often found that especially the budget options from places like bett1 are excellent (I have one myself). A shoe cabinet can be cleverly assembled at IKEA, as can shelves, and there are countless original hacks that allow you to create great things with little money.
My sofa, for example, must offer top seating comfort for me and can be somewhat more expensive, while my bathroom cabinet can be from IKEA again.
I used to change sofas and such more often, but since I started investing in high quality, I have had more or less the same furniture for years (except now with the move, some things are being sold). Since I cannot or do not want to afford this quality new, I only buy such furniture used, in excellent condition.
By now, this has become an interesting market, and companies like revive offer great quality and selection.
My friend, an interior designer, always says that IKEA puts noticeably more energy into design than many other manufacturers.
So I would mix according to necessity, usage, and so on, and avoid uniformity.

Pwnage619 schrieb:

Ok thanks
so it depends more on the brand of the furniture rather than the store

That gives the impression that you’re still sitting on potato crates and have never been inside a furniture store or bought a piece of furniture. 🙄
Everyone, whether they actually need anything or not, strolls through one or another furniture store in autumn/winter, even if it’s just for coffee and cake. 😀

It has already been mentioned here— the furniture store itself doesn’t really matter; what counts are the products on display and how deep your pockets are.

First, measure the rooms and available floor space so you can immediately rule out pieces that don’t fit. If it doesn’t look good and doesn’t fit, that would be a shame.

Note: In furniture stores, the model names are sometimes different so they are harder to find online.

driver55 schrieb:

Note: In furniture stores, the models are sometimes named differently to make them harder to find online…

Exactly, to prevent easy comparison and price searches. That’s also why, with higher-quality pieces, it’s worth checking inside drawers, cabinet interiors, or near the furniture legs for a manufacturer’s label. With that information, you can then find the exact series name on the manufacturer’s website. Armed with this, you can request quotes from various furniture stores and compare them with other sellers. In my experience, smaller, independently owned furniture dealers often compete well—they usually don’t have large showroom spaces (and the associated costs) but still offer popular manufacturers’ products on order. Due to their different cost structures, they can often provide the best deals even without a competing offer.

One of the many tips from the book I mentioned.

Of course, this usually doesn’t apply to cheaper particleboard furniture, since those are typically imported by the dealer in containers from China and sold under their own name—making comparison impossible. In those cases, it’s a matter of "take it or leave it."

Scout schrieb:

On their website, you can find the exact model number, and with that information, you can ask different furniture stores for quotes and compare them with other suppliers.

For a single item, no problem. But nowadays, it feels like there are 37 individual items, whether it’s a living/media wall or a dresser/bedroom set, etc.
Nowadays, quotes with the exact line items are no longer provided on paper, which makes research even more complicated. 😀

ypg schrieb:

Expensive then has soft-close, rounded corners or fancy features in the cabinet wall; cheaper is more likely thin-walled.

That doesn’t really match my experience. Expensive is often the combination of delicacy and rigidity, excellent materials and workmanship in a timeless design.

driver55 schrieb:

Everyone, whether they need anything or not, strolls through one furniture store or another in autumn/winter, even if only for coffee + cake. 😀

Uh, no...

driver55 schrieb:

It was already mentioned here, the furniture store itself doesn’t really matter; what counts are the exhibits and the size of the wallet.

Majority opinion here, from which I distance myself, because

• Everyone who can tell the difference in furnishing quality and isn’t completely clueless realizes that interior design is a creative discipline that requires expertise. Anyone who thinks they can master it all themselves is either incredibly talented or blind. Truly good advice is worth its weight in gold and should, in my opinion, be valued as highly as the work of an interior architect. If I get that in the furniture store, it’s fair to pay for it and not just search for the cheapest price online. Unfortunately, such consulting quality is as rare as a lottery win.
• You can neither buy taste nor imagination with money. The approach of “only product and price matter” is therefore too limited. Often it is creative combinations that create a wonderful living atmosphere, regardless of price. People with the attitude “only product and price matter” usually end up with mass-market furniture, living as “one does” and using their furnishings purely functionally without offering any daily added value for well-being. Then they replace it every few years. By the way, that is not cheaper either.
• When I see how many here discuss gap patterns in handleless kitchens, I’m amazed at the contrast with furniture buying, especially since the stylized kitchen today is part of an open-plan living area with furniture. Should something amateurishly cobbled together be added to that? I find that very odd.

A generous budget certainly helps, but what a skilled professional can create in living atmosphere with a few orange crates, second-hand furniture and textiles beats anything you find in a standard furniture store’s “expensive” TV wall with leather corner sofa and living room table corner.
Interior designers deserve respect, even though they have become rare among furniture salespeople. Therefore, I consider the approach to the art of furnishing more important than just comparing quality parameters and price.

hampshire schrieb:

That doesn’t really match my experience. Expensive often means the combination of delicacy and rigidity, excellent materials and workmanship in a timeless design.

Honestly? My comment was related to the original poster’s question. I have a feeling, like @driver55, that what’s being looked for here is more like “furniture” without having truly found a style in their life yet. There is the furniture-store crowd, which is not a problem. For them, things like display cabinets and built-in LEDs matter more than delicate minimalism.