Is it True? Don't Buy Nice Furniture Until the Kid's are in High School???

[Anonymous]

We just bought a house. I'm itching to furnish it. I've been living w/hand me downs too long, and I am so psyched about finally having an "adult" home.

However, my mom warned me not to buy anything nice, lest the kids ruin it. Our child is only a toddler. Hope to have a couple more.

What do you think of this advice? My in-laws have beautiful old furniture (Henkel Harris, Baker, Hickory White, etc.) that they've had forever. But then again, they were very strict with their kids, and I don't have that kind of energy.

So, how did you furnish your house? Did you hold off on the "nice stuff" until later? Or do you buy the nice stuff know, figuring that good furniture is built to withstand wear and tear?

[Anonymous]

Our kids are 5 and 7. We are still in the "hand me down" phase, with the occasional easy care stuff thrown in - our new sofa is washable microfiber. If we ever get to move to our "forever house" maybe we'll buy some grownup furniture and have a more cohesive look as opposed to our current "eclectic" style. Until then, we're OK with the easy care. OTOH we are very low maintenance people in general and don't entertain a lot, so our cozy comfy stuff is fine for us for the time being.

[Anonymous]

Buy reasonably priced stuff. Cover the couch with a blanket and teach the kid/s not to eat around the house, on the furniture and keep all messy stuff like markers and pens away till they can be trusted. We got some new stuff and our toddler is fine on it. Glad we did it.

[Anonymous]

depends on your financial aspect, you only live once, so you will waste 15 years not enjoying?

[Anonymous]

My kid is almost 7 and still writes on her furniture and walls, no matter how many times we punish her for it.

[Anonymous]

We arent waiting. We love mid century modern and are furnishing the house slowly but the way we want it NOW. I am not overly strict with the kids but we still manage. I want to enjoy my house and belongings sooner than their years at high school! That said, we have more expensive lines in the living and dining room and we have ikea in the family room/tv room. The kids spend most their time in there so it made sense to be more practical. Our living room and dining room is more for when people come over even though we all go in and out of there daily. Snacks and playtime happen in the rooms with the ikea and lesser expensive or washable stuff.

[Anonymous]

Just about everything we own is scratched, stain, torn or otherwise ruined. It used to bother me, but not anymore. DH and I agree that we won't buy anything nice until the kids are older. I'd prefer not to be devastated that my new beautiful sofa has a new stain.

[Anonymous]

We are waiting. The stuff we have we brought into the marriage, but we each had pretty decent crate and barrel type. Three kids now too tough on what we have to buy our dream furnishings. Can't wait to donate or trash everything in a few years when the scissors crayons permanent markers (where did THEY come from) glue and paint are all gone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just about everything we own is scratched, stain, torn or otherwise ruined. It used to bother me, but not anymore. DH and I agree that we won't buy anything nice until the kids are older. I'd prefer not to be devastated that my new beautiful sofa has a new stain.

I started to type virtually the same first sentence! For the longest time all of my clothing had vomit detritus as well. Good times. Enjoy it in the moment!

[Anonymous]

My parents bought their "nice" furniture starting when I was in elementary school. They just built up their collection over time, piece by piece, which is also nice when you are buying super expensive furniture. There are things that kids are less likely to damage, like bedroom furniture or console tables or stuff like that, and as the kids grow older you can buy more heavily used pieces. That's what I plan on doing at least. Furniture like Baker will last for decades no matter what, you just don't want it to look like crap because your kids were always spilling stuff on it and ruining the finish.

[Anonymous]

Furnished my house with Marlow/Room Store quality, but very stylish. Didn't pay much for anything, most furniture microfiber so it's easy to clean. Everything looks great, but probably won't last more than about ten years.

Years ago, I found this beautiful couch. I could afford it, but decided to think about it for a few days. During those few days I realized that I'd be buying a headache and I would never enjoy that couch. We could never eat popcorn together while we watched movies. If someone bumped you while you had a glass of wine, it would be a disaster. Just not worth it for me. But, like I said, I found great furniture for not much money.

[Anonymous]

I think elementary school is a good age to start upgrading to decent furniture. That is, when your youngest hits elementary, because the difficulty of having more than 1 child is that the oldest acts as young as his/her youngest sibling, and the youngest wants to get his/her hands on whatever the older ones are using. We dumped our old living room couches for a lower-end sectional about 2 years ago, and boy am I glad I didn't get the $5k model.

[Anonymous]

heres the deal. If you buy veneer furniture then yes don't buy it until the kids are old. If you buy real solid wood furniture that can be sanded and refinished go ahead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:heres the deal. If you buy veneer furniture then yes don't buy it until the kids are old. If you buy real solid wood furniture that can be sanded and refinished go ahead.

Leather lasts well with kids. Not with cats, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just about everything we own is scratched, stain, torn or otherwise ruined. It used to bother me, but not anymore. DH and I agree that we won't buy anything nice until the kids are older. I'd prefer not to be devastated that my new beautiful sofa has a new stain.

I started to type virtually the same first sentence! For the longest time all of my clothing had vomit detritus as well. Good times. Enjoy it in the moment!

agree - it's very freeing to have old stuff and not care at all when glitter glue accidentally gets on the sofa. but i'd be very upset if that happened to my brand new sofa. i'm waiting until the youngest is in kindergarten at least.