Furniture recommendations ...

Oh Rosie, please don't tell me you bought IKEA candles with a Yankee Candle within, say, 12 hours of your residence.

It is totally worth the time to get to Yankee Candle. I love to just smell the place. Yes, I have a female side.

 

I don't. But maybe if I sweet-talk someone and tell them about my pitiful journalist wages, they might be able to help me out.

 

You know, you can get Yankee Candle candles from Bed, Bath & Beyond, right?

Edit: And in the interest of full disclosure, I have a huge lilac-scented candle in each room. I LOVE that smell.

 

Not to threadjack, but am not a big fan of Yankee Candles. They are carcinogenic and have oil, wax, benzene and all kinds of other stuff in 'em

stumbled on this place while in Newport, RI last year.
http://www.4gel.com/

gel candles burn much cleaner and they burn longer.

 

This is a strong piece of advice.

Sometimes the same goes for shoes.

 

Mr. Rosie's back is trashed, completely and totally. We got a sleep number bed a few years back and it's been a godsend for him.

Candles. Well, ya see, I was with a group of friends when we went to Ikea and it was a spur of the moment purchase. I have one friend who sells Party Light, and another who makes soy candles -- so I usually get my candles through them.

 

I love my king-sized sleep number bed. It's why MrsExpendable and I are able to sleep in the same bed.

 

B_R --

In our little household, we're suckers for Arts and Crafts/Mission style furniture. This company, http://www.stickley.com/ is the alpha and omega for same. Beautifully made, but breathtakingly expensive. Lasts forever, though. We wait for the scratch-and-dent, floor demo sales. We'll generally buy one piece a year. The authentic antique Stickley is even more expensive.

That said, here are three strategies for cash-savvy New York furniture buyers.

1) If you like oak furniture - like the Arts and Crafts style specified above - rent a truck and a trailer and go to Kansas and/or Nebraska for a week or ten days. Hit the flea markets and antique stores. You'll find the same furniture for about a quarter of what it costs on the East coast. This is how we furnished our apartment.

2) If you're more a modernist, rent the same truck and trailer and head for High Point, North Carolina. This is the home of furniture manufacture in the US. You can save a ton by buying right from the factory - or the factory outlet centers - and hauling it home yourself.

3) Keep your ear to the ground for big institutional changes in your area. By which I mean this: A library closing or public school remodeling project. Then jump to see if they're going to sell off tables or chairs or cabinets. Sometimes you can even grab stuff for free this way. We have a very resourceful friend who snagged four quarter-sawn oak library tables this way. These are 4'x10' tables built in the late teens. Gigantic. Weigh a ton. Beautiful. He got all four for $10. The dozen solid oak library chairs he got for free.

A thought.

 

Be practical and buy based on an informal cost/benefit analysis.

Are these furniture pieces that you'll be using extensively yourself? Or is it a case of needing a couch and a recliner for the three nights a year when you're actually entertaining friends?

Spend for quality on the stuff that you're buying for extensive personal use. My girlfriend talked me into buying a very expensive king-size mattress/box spring, but it turned out to be a great investment because it's guaranteed eight restful hours of sleep a night.

On the other hand, I have a living room sofa set that pre-dates my GF, and I overpaid for it. I'm seldom in that room and don't do a lot of entertaining at home, so the furniture mostly collects dust. I would have been better off going cheap on the living room and buying a couple of classy executive desk chairs for the desk in my den.