North Carolina furniture

[Vishenka69]

In our search for the perfect furniture we've realized that many of the pieces we like are made in North Carolina. A number of pieces aren't available in any stores here and need to be ordered through a catalog. I'm a bit apprehensive on spending thousands of dollars on something I've never seen and touched. Has anyone gone down there to furniture shop? Is it worth going? I also heard/read that there a number of manufacturers have outlets there and that generally things are cheaper with bought direct by skipping the middleman.

DH has some time off in November and December that we don't have any plans for yet and could drive/fly down there to look at stuff. But can't figure out if the time/money spent on the trip would be worth it. There's no guarantee that the exact pieces I want will be available in the showroom or that the shipping we'll have to arrange for won't offset the price difference. I'm also wondering if getting something from NC vs abroad or some other place means higher quality or really depends more on the individual manufacturer.

[medpedspouse]

I knew a co-worker who bought all her furniture this way. She was a gifted interior designer - not by training. She wanted furniture that was unique as in not like what everybody had. She thought the NC shopping was a great deal. Then again, her DH had a giant pick-up truck and a trailer. So, getting the furniture back was not an issue for them.

[fluffhead]

I've heard that there are actually people who drive up to Brooklyn with a truckload of furniture from NC and you can buy it off the truck. Not sure of details, though.

My dad and his wife drove there and drove home with a truckload of lovely furniture. They saved a LOT of money. And one of my neighbors ordered her bedroom set from NC directly and even w/the shipping to KS she managed to save a lot of money.

There is a Rustic Carolina website or something like that. I recognized some brands on there (mostly lighting). Ask Makai, perhaps?

[DCJenn]

Yup- Totally worth it. I'll get the skinny from my friend Leslie. Her search for a couch was ridiculously painful but in the end, it's gorgeous. We drive down to some place in Virginia that has all of the NC places but is hours closer to DC.

J.

[Vishenka69]

In all our years of living in Brooklyn, I've never heard of a truck with NC furniture. I'll ask friends who still live there may be it's a new thing.

Jenn, VA info would be great, as it's also closer to us than NC.

We're finally ready to replace our 9 year old IKEA stuff but can't do everything at once and I'm not sure if going for one or two pieces at a time is a good idea. May be we should wait until we can afford at least a couple of things.

[fluffhead]

In all our years of living in Brooklyn, I've never heard of a truck with NC furniture. I'll ask friends who still live there may be it's a new thing.
.

My info was 15+ years ago. Definitely a fly-by-night operation.

[moonlight]

Is High Point, NC the only locale? I'm new to NC and wanted to check out this furniture. I didn't know where to start.

[DCJenn]

High Point, NC and Danville, VA (I just pulled the name from my arse)

Jenn

High Point & Hickory are the main places to go, but there are furniture dealers throughout the state. We've purchased most of our furniture from a little shop in town....I went to High Point so I could see what the furniture looked like in person and then ordered it from this local shop because she has a lower mark-up.

Vishenka, what manufacturers are you interested in?

Since you're only planning on purchasing a couple pieces now, I don't think a trip to High Point would be worth it. You might not find what you're looking for in the outlets and custom orders usually take at least 2-3 months so you wouldn't be able to drive the furniture back with you anyways.

When you're ready to do the whole house, or at least have a plan for how you'd like to do the whole house, then a trip might be worthwhile. Just keep in mind that the only thing to do in Hickory and High Point is shop for furniture, so there are probably better places to spend vacation time.

If you do plan to do some shopping, Furnitureland South is a ginormous retailer in High Point. You might want to start with them since they sell just about every brand you can think of and then check around to see if anyone else can beat their prices...www.furniturelandsouth.com.

This is coming from a proud native North Carolinian, but I have say that in my opinion the quality of NC furniture in general is superior to most furniture manufactured abroad.

I’ll second the recommendation of Furnitureland South as a good place to start. It’s overwhelmingly huge, but great if you want to see a universe of choices.

I’ve purchased pieces from smaller retailers in High Point and surrounding areas, and they offered very reasonable shipping charges.

I don't know how this compares to other places mentioned, but they have good prices compared to other web retailers. A while ago I was looking at lighting and their prices were competitive. Recently I've been looking at bed frames and noticed that not all the furniture on the website comes from North Carolina. I was looking at a few things from Charleston Forge, which is from NC, I believe.
http://carolinarustica.com/

[Vishenka69]

The two manufacturers that we like are Lee and Bernhardt. We're particularly leaning toward Lee because they seem to be the only ones who put springs in their sectionals. They also offer a lot of customization. I do realize that there are probably lots of other manufacturers that I never heard of that are just as good.

I think the main problem is that we can really only afford to buy one piece at a time and I don't know if going down to NC for each one separately will be cost effective. None of the websites have what I'm looking for though.

ETA: just want to share the prices we've got here to see if those of you who went down to NC paid much less. The king size bed from Lee was quoted at about $1800 w/custom upholstery. A pretty big sectional also from Lee is around $5K.

[DCJenn]

The thing to know about the NC places, and even the places in Danville is that they're HUGE. I mean not kidding warehouse sized places of rooms and rooms of furniture. and they sell everything, from the biggest piece of furniture to the tiniest knick knack. You have to really be disciplined. It's like going to 10 different IKEA stores but of solid furniture, not build your own.

It's well-worth a trip, if you want to comparison shop or buy. If you're just in the beginning phases, I'd wait. The trip to Danville was after my friend literally went to every single furniture store in DC- high end to Sears and couldn't find what she wanted. She was milli-seconds away from custom ordering.

Check out how far it is to Danville, because you may be able to combine the trips. You'd need at least three or four days on top of travel time, though.

There are buses that head to High Point from DC. At least there used to be before people stopped buying stuff!

Jenn