[starkhorn]

Hi Folks,

I just posted a thread regarding NZ Home appliance stores and I just realised that I have more or less the same type of question but for furniture stores as well.

I've spent the past 6 years getting enough furniture to fill a 1 bedroom apartment of about 80metres and I'm trying to figure whether it's worth shipping it over or re-buying when I get there.

My initial plan was to rent a furnished place, then check out the prices when I got there and then decide whether to ship my stuff out or not..... but I figured some research in advance wouldn't hurt. :)

So I was wondering if there are any furniture stores in NZ like IKEA in europe where I can check prices either for new or 2nd-hand furniture ?

Does anyone know of any good sites which I can check or have any experience on this type of question?

Many thanks in advance.

Cheers
Starkhorn

[Moorf]

Here's one:

http://www.freedomfurniture.co.nz/

[starkhorn]

Thanks Moorf. That's a nice site.

I was looking at the stuff about "What's in store?", especially the beds and I was wondering what's included in the price.

In IKEA in europe they have a seperate price for say the bed structure, then the planks to support yourself, then the mattress etc etc.

Just wondering like for say the below bed, would that price just be the structure or would it include mattress as well? I guess delivery costs more as well?

http://www.freedomfurniture.co.nz/wis/live/358/p/587.asp

Sorry to ask such a silly question but I can't quite seem to find an answer to that question in the product description.

Many thanks in advance.

Cheers
Starkhorn

[Avalon]

Id definately ship stuff over - especailly if you like IKEA - in fact - id buy up the store before you leave!

I really like Freedom Furniture - but it is more expensive, and the range isnt there. Not only that, but there just isnt the option here in NZ (that ive found anyway) to get modular storage options.

A company called Lundia, sell shelving based in the IKEA Ivar model (but nicer) - but It can be VV expensive. ( lundia.co.nz )

Also - there is a thread somewhere covering the NZ Ikea Importers - check thier websites for price comparisons ( I suggest sitting down with a BIG drink first :laugh )

Ive found furniture to be expensive, especailly for what it is here, and I persoanlly think we made a big mistake selling (or giving away in some cases) a lot of our stuff :no

[woo]

[QUOTE=Avalon]Id definately ship stuff over - especailly if you like IKEA - in fact - id buy up the store before you leave!

Yip thats what I intend to do, then it will be all flat packed and ready to ship over!
woo hoo got it sussed!!! :laugh
had a look at the freedom furniture though.. very nice indeed x :)

[GeorgeM]

There is a bit of 'you get what you pay for' involved here...

We've bought a number of items from Freedom and in all cases they have been far superior to anything we bought from IKEA when in the UK. I've nothing against IKEA, but never found that its products were particularly well made - a bit like an up-market scandinavian MFI (IMO).

[zardell]

Ditto, GeorgeM.

However, my daughter would not agree. Her house, lovely as it is, is full of IKEA furniture and I have to say that although I love the design, I feel that the quality leaves a little something to be desired. (IMHO)

Cant comment on Freedom.

Julie

x

[Moorf]

Agree GeorgeM, Freedom is my fav furniture shop and I don't think the prices are too bad. Much better quality than IKEA (we only went there for glasses and meatballs :laugh ) but not quite as good as John Lewis - a bit inbetween, maybe more like Habitat (in its early years before they started stocking cheap tat too).

I've just rung Freedom regarding the bed you posed as an example - the cost is excluding the mattress and excluding delivery. The cost of a queen size mattress at Freedom starts at $549 and goes up to $1800. Delivery is c. $30 - $80 depending on your distance from centre of town (Chch in this case).

If you have a nice bed already I'd bring it with you. Whilst I don't think furniture is that much more expensive (for instance, for that bed, I think £360 is pretty good), but I do find the choice more limited, but hey, it focusses you on what you need rather than what you want :laugh

[Smiler]

Oh lurve freedom furniture. Yes like Habitat before the cheap tat. I've been buying FF stuff on trade me too, its not fall apart stuff at all.

We bought our sleigh bed from Radfords but it is really not the sort of thing I would have expected to see in there TBH, more like Java down under.
$600 onsale :clap inc 2 bedside chests. The tall boy cost $100 more than that but was priced wrongly and they said they had to honour that. :nice1 Similar bed in Early Settler was $1500 on its own.

Mattress, good quality firm ortho one $1100 from wellingtons beds, waived delivery charge.

I love comparing prices but i don't convert back anymore :p

D x

[Avalon]

There is a bit of 'you get what you pay for' involved here...

We've bought a number of items from Freedom and in all cases they have been far superior to anything we bought from IKEA when in the UK. I've nothing against IKEA, but never found that its products were particularly well made - a bit like an up-market scandinavian MFI (IMO).
Cant argue with that! Lundia is the same -10x better quality than Ikea, but just not as good if you are on a tight budget.

Talking of which - we have just splurged $420 on 10 bookcases from the Warehouse. Total tat - Melamine chipboard - maple laminate. But at $42 for a 5 shelf bookcase - we now have a hallway doubling as our very own LIBRARY!!!!! (they are sooo cheap we actually bought extra ones to nick the spare shelves out of to get an extra 2 shelves on each bookcase). We were going to get lundia - but havent got enough money to get all the books out.

[starkhorn]

I've just rung Freedom regarding the bed you posed as an example - the cost is excluding the mattress and excluding delivery. The cost of a queen size mattress at Freedom starts at $549 and goes up to $1800. Delivery is c. $30 - $80 depending on your distance from centre of town (Chch in this case).


Hi Moorf,

Wow! Thank you so much for phoning freedom furniture, that was really really nice of you. I can't thank you enough. I was about to email them with the same question but now no need thanks to yourself! :)

So I've seen names like:- Freedom furniture, Radfords, Lunida, Early Settler and even the Warehouse for places where decent and reasonably priced is available in NZ. Many thanks for the list and if anyone can think of any more then that would be great as well.

Our personal circumstances is that we've enough furniture that fills quite well our 1 bedroom flat of 80m2 here in europe. So that's about 1 bed, 4 large tables, 6-7 large book-shelf cabinets, 5-6 small tables, 3 kitchen cabinets.....then of course the fridge, cooker, washing machine, tv etc, All furniture is self assembled so most can be flat packed.

Not a huge amount of stuff but it would have cost about one or two thousand euros to gather it all up.

I just need to figure out whether the cost of shipping the above stuff out to NZ from europe is more than re-buying new when we get out there. Decisions, decisions....

As many of you have pointed out, IKEA isn't exactly the highest quality stuff and nearly everything I have is from there simply because we lived near a large IKEA store. :)

My feeling at the moment from the freedom site is that we could get brand new stuff in NZ for around the same price as the shipment whereas our current stuff is 5 years old now.

Anyway I need to do some sums.....and get more accurate quotes from shipping companies. Ah the fun! :)

Many thanks again.

Cheers
Brendan & Isabelle

[Moorf]

If you have the luxury of time, how about getting the removal companies to give you two quotes ... one to ship just your personal effects and one to ship the whole house? Then you can work out how much extra it is to take your furniture and appliances and compare it to how much it would cost to replace those items in NZ.... sorry if this is a case of teaching grandma how to suck eggs :o , but it's something I wish I'd thought about before being so gun-ho about selling stuff.

[starkhorn]

Hi Moorf,

Thanks for that post and yes what you are saying is a really good idea. Something that I'm going to do for sure.

Cheers
Starkhorn