Price range for retail seems to be $100-250 for IKEA stuff that will fall apart in 3 years, or $1,000+ for something better. Is there nothing in between? Would prefer to buy new with risk of bed bugs or other contaminants but open to other options if I’m missing something.
The problem you’ll run into is that good furniture is made out of solid hardwoods, and IKEA, et al. is made from particleboard. There are major differences in the ways you work with the two materials; there’s not really a great inexpensive way to make hardwood furniture that’s going to last for 50+ years, and there’s no reasonable way to make particleboard furniture last 50+ years at all. (Plywood lasts longer than particleboard, but I wouldn’t use it in making furniture that I intended to be around long after my death.) I am, for instance, a big fan of Gustav Stickley’s “Mission” style; I absolutely can not afford it, since a full bedroom set would cost about as much or more than a brand new BMW M3. OTOH, my grandfather made some craftsman style furniture (Stickley published a lot of the early plans) in the 20’s, and my parents–in their 80s–still have it, and it’s still in very good condition overall.
I just need to get a cabinet saw, thickness planer, replace the blades on my jointer, pick up a bandsaw, and find a good Powermatic mortising machine–and get my basement wired for 440v 3ph–and I can start making my own. And that would still be cheaper than buying it at full retail. :')
Most of the hardwood furniture I see is actually veneer.
Yeah, you have to get pretty spendy to get solid wood. Even “nice” furniture is often hardwood plywood with a veneer. The way to check is to see if the side and end grain matches with what you see on the face. If the growth rings don’t line up, it’s a veneer.
Ikea have plenty of solid wood furniture.
Not really. It’s very, very limited. Some of the shelving is solid wood (mostly their utility shelves, and those are pine), they used to have a bent wood chair that was laminated hardwood, they have the wooden countertops, and that covers most of it. Most other things are plywood with veneer, particle board, or even something close to cardboard with and MDF and veneer shell (the Malm bedframe is one that I remember being made like that).
https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/cat/wood-furniture-700203/
There’s 149 items currently covering most catergories. I would call that a wide range.