I feel like there's the Ikea (or Target/WalMart) furniture that's basically disposable, you can take it home in your small car, cheap, but will probably break if you move it or disassemble it. It's great in college or after when moving between multiple apartments. It's flat-pak, all the materials are thinner so the design follows that.
After settling down I wanted to invest more in furniture that wouldn't break or slide around. It definitely costs 3-5x more, looks better, but isn't great quality either. It's not flat-pak, cant be disassembled, wont fit in your car. I don't know if my calibration is off for what decent furniture should cost, or if everything started cheaping out years ago, but it seems like the worst of both worlds. The design is nice, but since it's wood veneer you can't really touch it up or repair it because the fiber board is showing through. I'm not sure where to find decent furniture. I feel like I'd have to pay through the nose for something bespoke.
Swedes (where IKEA is from) are famous for saying their IKEA furniture is just what they use until their kids are old enough not to wreck the good furniture they have in storage.
The trick is finding better than IKEA quality furniture. You might wind up paying more for something that is still IKEA quality.
It seems like the main way to find decent quality furniture at non-ridiculous prices is older stuff at thrift stores/flea markets/garage sales. Gets harder and harder to find every year though.
IKEA does carry a few items that are actually made of wood, though most of those are pine. Not great but a step up from particleboard.
Home Depot of all places sells some reasonably nice self-assembly hardwood furniture. Some of them are available pre-painted or stained but a lot of them you have to finish yourself.
> Ikea [..] furniture that's basically disposable [..] but will probably break if you move it or disassemble it
Of all the entry-level furniture we've purchased since starting a family, it's always been the stuff from Ikea that's survived being disassembled, moved, and reassembled in a new location. We've heard the same from various moving companies too.
I've bought a dining table, and desk off wayfair that do well with disassembly (after 3 moves now), but they are probably double Ikea prices. That said, I still have every one of the 10 Kallax shelves I've bought over the years. they transport extremely well, and are actually great small home depot moving box holders.
When we self moved last year, I double stacked my short kallax shelves along the front of the box truck, then load them up with moving boxes, then our tall ones in front of that, and load them up with boxes, then the rest of our furniture in front of that. It made the truck a lot more organized, and no boxes were crushed under something heavy.
I'm in Britain, so obviously not very well aware of what's available in the US, however how does something like this compare to what's available on your side of the pond:
www.oakfurnitureland.co.uk
[Edit]: turns out they do sell in the US as well.
Keep in mind that the 20% VAT in the UK is included in the British prices, while sales tax (where applicable) is not included in the JC Penney pricing.
re: Oak Furniture Land and VAT/Sales Tax/cheaper UK prices.
The furniture is likely manufactured in the EU, thus there import tariffs and shipping to the UK are much smaller than the cost to import and ship to the single US location, likely being the reason the same chest of drawers is almost double in price.
yeah, my perception is that there's a lot of companies trying to target the feeling of "outgrowing" your ikea furniture with their marketing, but aren't really selling anything better than ikea. it's just the same cheap crap, but with a different brand so you can say you didn't get it at ikea.
After settling down I wanted to invest more in furniture that wouldn't break or slide around. It definitely costs 3-5x more, looks better, but isn't great quality either. It's not flat-pak, cant be disassembled, wont fit in your car. I don't know if my calibration is off for what decent furniture should cost, or if everything started cheaping out years ago, but it seems like the worst of both worlds. The design is nice, but since it's wood veneer you can't really touch it up or repair it because the fiber board is showing through. I'm not sure where to find decent furniture. I feel like I'd have to pay through the nose for something bespoke.