What's Your Fav Website for Shopping for Furniture?

The following are good because you can also track down the retial store and look at it as well. They are mid level price point, but not as inexpensive as ikea.

z gallery
west elm
pier one imports
cost plus world market (this is where my dining room table is from and got a killer deal buying a marked down floor model, I love the rustic finishes because I don't bother with table clothes or place matts, and even let my kids do crafts on it)

on the more expensive note:

crate and Barrel
pottery barn
restoration hardware

craigs list is a great place to find used dinning room sets since it is one of those items that often does not fit in a moving situation.

You should go to your local stores and look around. Sometimes you can find great deals on discontinued items and/or furniture that have been marked down. They don't always advertise items like this.

I would also think that most stores will be having a Presidents day sale this weekend so you may find a deal that way. You could see if they offer layaway so you can pay it off by the time you move.

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL STORES!! How fun for you! At least I assume you will enjoy this process! We just bought a new house in Dec and moved. We bought a lot of new furniture. I looked around at locally owned stores instead of big chainstores where who knows where the money goes. I like supporting my local familes and not sending all my cash to some far away state or country. Id check thrift stores, and consignment shops. I have returned to one consignment shop about twice a week looking for a certain item and have seen the fast turn over rate of nice tables and chairs. There are a lot of people moving, and trading up or downsizing and need to buy for the space they are moving to and it could be your lucky day when you walk in and find their big table and 8 chairs for a low low price! I feel like things in a consignment shop have more character and I like to amagine the story of a happy family sitting around that table for holidays and it gives me a thrill to bring it home and continue the story. And most used furniture will already have a few little dings and scratches and you wont live in fear of all the kids making that first mark. OOOh Im excited for you!

I LOVE the dining sets at Cost Plus World Market. If you go on their website, they are always having furniture sales. I might even have a coupon for 10% off if you need it ;) You can sign up for their email ads and get a coupon via email.

Also, I came across a great site for checking out web stores before you purchase...sitejabber.com. I was going to order a purse from a place that claimed to be an outlet. But, the place was in China and kept my money....so pissed!

Have fun and congrats on your new big pad!
Kimberly

I love looking at antique shops and such. A lot of really neat, quality furniture for some really great prices.

Pottery Barn has some really neat stuff.

Congrats on the new house! I agree with K's mom, shop local and shop from a place that actually "makes" the furniture!

We have many places here where the wooden furniture is handcrafted by local artisans. Yes, it's expensive, but worth it considering next to your bed, and maybe the couch, it will probably be the most used piece of furniture in the house -- in fact probably used many times during the day, by many people. The wooden handmade furniture is usually heirloom quality and most important "durable."

There is nothing better than a well made dining room table that has removable leafs so you can make it bigger or smaller, and is tough enough to take spills, sticky, grimy hands, things scraping across the top etc. If it's handmade and you do have an unfortunate incident such as a scorch mark or scratch, you can get it easily repaired by a professional or easily do it yourself with a repair kit from a hardware store. Unpainted furniture places is a good way to get handmade cheaper. If you can splurge go Amish made. Their furniture is not only beautiful, it's practically impossible to destroy.

So many tables today are covered with veneer and once it's damaged you're out of luck...you'll have to live with the damage or get a new one. Real wood can be sanded and refinished and more often than not can be restored to good as new.

You can also have as many chairs as you need custom made. Pre-fab sets come in only sets of 6 or 4 with no option for extra chairs without a lot of hassle.

oh gawds, i just can't furniture shop on line! i have to see it, touch it, pick it at like an ape.
so no help from me. but i'm so thrilled that you've found a bigger house! is it still close to the water? do you love it?
:) khairete
S.

Try Home Decorators Collection. They are owned by Home Depot. They have a really great selection of furniture and home decor, and are always running specials. We were searching for end tables for our living room that our toddler would not destroy. We ended up getting these two beautiful cherry wood tables with a marble top (practically indestructable) for under $300! My little one is now almost 3 and they have really held up. Their customer service is great too. Upon our first order of the tables, one of the boxes was not packed quite right and the marble top was damaged. They didn't hesitate to immediately ship another out and UPS picked up the damaged one. They were courteous and gave us no hassle whatsoever!

I've been really surprised at how much nice stuff JC Penney has. We've ordered from Home Decorators before and some of it is nice, some of it is poorly constructed. Just read the descriptions really well to ensure you're getting what you think you are (ie - most stuff isn't solid wood, and it will say in the description).

I really like overstock.com, and JCPenny.com
I got my kitchen table on clearance at JCpenny.com in their "outlet" section for $100!!
But, be careful with JCP, they wanted to charge me more for shipping than the table cost, so I had it shipped to the store for WAY cheaper and picked it up myself.
I have quite a few pieces from overstock.com. I just couldnt get over that they delivered two ginormus chairs to me for $2!!

Ashley Furniture has a crappy website, but if you have one in your area its awesome! I could spend the whole day in there and I think they are really reasonable!

Yay I love furniture! Happy shopping and congrats on a bigger house!

I love Crate and Barrel, Ballard Designs, West Elm, Pottery Barn and such. But I grab those items on CraigsList for a fraction of the price. I just saw a Crate and Barrel dining table that I had been oggling in the stores ($1900) for $400 on Craigslist. I love bargain hunting!

I LOVE everything pottery barn but they are very expensive. You could try world market or pier one maybe? I'm not sure about their quality but their prices are much better than pottery barn