What furniture do you like?
Sorry if this is a bit materialistic.
I think furniture reveals a lot about people, and the way that people organise their space is really interesting to me. For example I allocate a vast amount of space for bookshelves, whereas some people like to have big open spaces.
Personally my favourite furniture brand is probably Vitsoe. There's also often some fantastic furniture on EBay, or available at auction from offices (a really mad thing is that it's fairly common for office rental contracts to require the entire fitout to be ripped out and the office returned unfurnished – this often means everything including the ceiling panels and floorboards is throw out – even if the next tennant would happily accept the fitout) as people move out.
p.s. people who buy really expensive furniture which looks super ugly just so that they can flex their expensive furniture are the worst
Furniture is such a personal statement and often so expensive that I tend to be very cautious in purchasing. As such I have 1 or 2 very expensive things, and everything else is either ultra cheap or free, serving as a perennial placeholder. I'll wager this is a common scenario here on tildes.
I for one can back up your wager. What I like in furnature and what I have are very different.
I'm in a big saving phase, so very little is what I'd like and very much is cheap / found (after v. close inspection for bugs) / hand-me-down. At the very least, some furnature Ive spruced up/stylised to look a little interesting, so it helps to force creativity.
My fave project is an ugly, unfinished particleboard sidetable a neighbour was throwing out, over which i laminated some beautifully patterned japanese paper + painted.
The perennial placeholders comment is a great way to phrase it.
What I like to look at and what I like to sit on are two different things.
I prefer to make my own furniture. I made my bed and I sleep in it...LITERALLY!
Are you speaking to the bed frame? Or did you make your mattress as well? Was it a difficult process?
I've heard Linus from ltt speak about making his own bed with a small store somewhere in BC. Ive never understood the process though.
Sorry, I mean just the bed frame. I've made two beds, a king sized for my husband and I and a queen size for our guest bed.
See here for the king sized and here for the guest bed.
I also built a pergola and many other things.
I really like having solid wood furniture. I don't build the mattress or any upholstery myself, but those are wear items anyway. I like the idea of building solid wood furniture that will last multiple lifetimes. The things I build are a nightmare to move, but they'll outlast me. That guest bed for example was built out of solid black walnut, no veneers. And no mechanical fasteners other than the bolts holding the rails to the headboard/footboard.
I'm currently working on building/carving a wizard staff. I've been working on it on and off for awhile. But because I'm just that nerdy, I thought it would be hilarious to add a particularly magic detail to its construction story. I set the crystal into the staff last Saturday, at the precise moment of full annularity of the recent annular eclipse. I epoxied it in there, and set the epoxy right at the peak of the ring of fire eclipse. I just imagine Gandalf or Dr. Orpheus screaming, "this staff was forged beneath the light of a ring of fire eclipse! The heavens themselves aligned in its creation!!!"
I'm...a bit of an odd duck...
Just wanting to let you know that by sharing google photos directly you are putting your government name out there! Cool builds though, love the pergola.
Thanks! It's one of those things that I ultimately don't mind that much. Nothing is really anonymous online. Doxing is trivial and not something that can really be prevented. Instead, I just try to not post anything online I wouldn't want my real name associated with.
That's reasonable; glad you are aware!
I love a bookshelf, but there's always the battle between:
Have you considered one with glass doors? That'll mostly keep dust (and cats etc) out while still being visible. Could probably even put some LED strips inside for highlights.
You're not wrong, that is the solution.
I'm a huge huge fan of mid century modern, but less like eames chair (which I kinda low-key hate) but the more beach house style? Hans Wagner getama sofas etc cetera. I bought an interior define Jason sofa, which now that I check, looks to be discontinued sadly, but it's rock solid. Other than that I like Wayfair options if you get them really well, I've gotten some solid wood storage benches, and some side tables, drawers etc cetera. I hate, HATE how disposable modern furniture is, and how overpriced most of it is, so it's been a struggle, I still mostly have handmedowns
I feel like mid-century modern has become a whole new thing with more deviations and sub styles to it. It’s everywhere these days
It's unfortunate because a lot of the things that made it really special are no longer affordable or even produced in a high enough quantity. If you look at the Getama sofas, all the wood paneling is sculpted, the legs are always lathed having slight conical, all the imitation stuff, from Ikea or Wayfair or similar, may be exposed wood, is plenty fine enough quality, but the wood is always uniform in the dimensions with just router smoothing at best, so they don't have that pop that the real mccoy has. But pricing wise....$6k for a sofa is just....it's just too much, I don't have that kind of money, spending $2k-$3k is already obscene by most people's standards, but that at least buys you something generational. I cannot overstate how much I dislike the entire home furnishing scene which encourages payment plans, whole room makeovers, and gratuitous amounts of plastic or composite filled garbage that won't last a year. The sofas I bought when I first moved into my house for sub $1k went straight to a landfill because they were quite literally destroyed, and I have a low traffic household with all of us under 150lbs!!! Just criminal, IMO.
I have exactly two items of furniture in my apartment that I’m proud of:
A desk from Maram which I found when I was looking for desks with integrated cable management and could not be happier with.
A small In Situ sofa configuration from Muuto which I think is a lovely looking couch.
Both have decent sustainability credentials and were nice buying experiences. I did quite a bit of research before purchasing, which is essential with so many premium mark up Alibaba drop shippers around.
That couch is gorgeous, but holy moly nearly £11k!
Wild isn’t iit? We only got a two module configuration as we were moving into a tiny little appartment and our large couch was never going to fit, so we were a far cry from that number!
I generally like wooden furniture - especially oak. I like classic Danish design furniture like Wegner and Børge Mogensen. My absolute favorite is this couch by Børge Mogensen. A classic here in Denmark and my father had one when I grew up, so when I had enough money of my own I brought one. Perfect to read in.
This Ikea arm chair and ottoman is my favorite. I have it setup in my bedroom by the bay windows. As silly as it sounds, I really like that it rocks and is comfortable. I use it for power naps after work and chill at the end of the night before bed.
Aside from that, I'm a bit of a minimalist and like open spaces. I bought a bedframe with drawers, so I wouldn't need a dresser. Speaking of which, that and my mattress are my most expensive pieces of furniture. It's a hybrid Casper mattress. It's worth it because of a good night's sleep and will last for a long time.
Well made/sturdy, brightly colored/interestingly patterned, and varied in style. We do not have a single cohesive style in our house and we like it that way.
Personally I prefer wingback chairs, couches with a single cushion base, and very large desks.
Most of the furniture in my house is of the affordable/midrange variety, with a lot of Ikea stuff present but the one piece I have that I would consider super expensive is my Humanscale Freedom headrest office chair. I spent like $500 on it... used. New it would have retailed for about $2500 in the configuration I have. I work from home most of the time, so my ass spends a LOT of hours in this chair, and my back had been starting to protest after a couple of years working from home in my prior cheap-but-plush office chair. The back pain went away pretty quickly once I switched to the fancy chair, and I have zero regrets.
I am now in the market for a new couch. The cheapo one I have is falling apart after about 7 years...
I like mostly minimalist furniture. I'm one of those people who actually like the monochrome, slick lines, no decoration apartments.
That's because I find a lot of color and more busy styles to be overstimulating and can't concentrate in those environments. In my own space, it's IKEA shit (cuz... money) so lucky me that their design aligns with my tastes.
My favorite piece of furniture is my pc desk, which is an IKEA Utespelare in black. It's all decorated in shades of grey with blue as the color pop. Here's a picture.
In have been fortunate by inheriting several pieces of wooden mid-century modern furniture. I have two pieces of the Esperanto set by Drexel, a modular teak curio, and a danish modern fold away dining room table.
I am also fortunate to live next to a furniture store that has excellent vintage furniture at a decent price, so we also have a craftsman sofa, and a desk-in-a-box.
Bed