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Everything You Need to Know About Buying Used Furniture

Everything You Need to Know About Buying Used Furniture

Well over half the furniture in my home is used furniture. Some we’ve acquired as hand-me-downs and some we’ve bought thrifting and looking for cool pieces with lots of personality! The chairs in this photo are one of my favorite finds ever!

When you’re getting furniture from family for super cheap or free, you take what you can get! But when you shop for new-to-you pieces, there are some things to look out for before you hand over your hard-earned money.

Everything you need to know about buying used furniture | My Breezy Room

There are a lot of advantages to buying used furniture, but sometimes it’s hard to know if you’re getting a good deal or not. The condition of a piece of furniture determines how much it’s worth. It’s too easy to look something over quickly and fall in love with it. Then when you get home, you notice some imperfections that didn’t catch your eye at first.

What you might accidentally overlook when buying used furniture:

Maybe the drawers don’t slide easily. Or they slide well but you don’t notice that one of them is actually broken and you can’t tell until you completely remove the drawer.

Maybe there’s damage on a the side or back of the piece that you don’t see until you unload it at home.

Maybe this awesome piece is mostly veneer or even made of particle board when you think it’s solid wood. That can easily happen if you aren’t that familiar with buying used furniture.

I learned the hard way to spend some extra time getting to know a piece of furniture before buying it. Not every imperfection is a deal breaker, but it’s nice to know what you’re getting into. Then you can decide what you’re qualified to repair on your own. And you may even have more leverage in negotiating the price tag.

I put everything you need to know about buying used furniture into a guide so you can save it or print it off.

Author

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Tuesday 23rd of January 2024

[…] Everything You Need to Know About Buying Used Furniture […]

Dan Moller

Friday 1st of December 2017

Hi, Kala, I've been looking for furniture design ideas for my new flat since I just moved out of my parent's house. I wanted something that's contemporary and homey and shows that a man lives in the house but I don't want to burn a hole through my wallet so I'm looking at buying used furniture. I would agree that it's important to not just look at the outside but to also check the inside for hidden damages that may be a dealbreaker for you. I'll be sure to keep this in mind once I've completed a list of the furniture that I want for my new flat.

Kimberly

Thursday 19th of January 2017

Great resource, thank you!

Jennifer

Thursday 19th of January 2017

This is the perfect post for someone like me! I spend hours on pinterest pinning 'upcycle' ideas, but I haven't the first idea about what I need to look for when buying furniture. Thanks for sharing!

Kala

Thursday 19th of January 2017

I've learned by buying a lot of the wrong things and being in over my head once I got home! Hope you learn something! ;)