Anyone Bought Sauder furniture or found a good manufacturer that is not SUPER expensive

[mlmeadows]

Has anyone bought sauder furniture for bedrooms? what is your opinion on them are they sturdy or cheaply made.
Looking for decently priced furniture

Thanks
MM

[JustMare]

I have this Sauder computer armoire. It's okay. It doesn't match my decor, but it was cheap and services it's purpose. I didn't want to spend a lot of money (every computer armoire I liked was over $2,000), so I got what I paid for (MDF, not real wood). I do love that it's completely functional for my home office purposes.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=1850474&cat=91791&type=1&dept=4044&path=0%3A4044%3A103150%3A91791

Now, would I purchase Sauder furniture? No. I have seen the Sauder Nursery furniture at Baby Depot and it's very cheaply made and the one thing I hated most was the armoire height, it's child's level. I had to bend to see the hanging rod.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=2013578&cat=91784&type=1&dept=4044&path=0%3A4044%3A103150%3A92352%3A91784

I too, didn't want to spend a small fortune on baby furniture. I looked into Forever Mine and was not fond of the lack of styling and again short height of their armoire. I was considering going the nude furniture route, but didn't find any bargains.

Just last night, DH and I ordered our furniture from BuyBuyBaby. I searched and searched for something reasonable. I truly didn't want to spend thousands. We decided on the Jane Collection by Status Furniture.

http://www.statusfurniture.com/img/new/777%20final-b.jpg

We ordered the Armoire and Changing station/dresser in white with powder blue doors. I know DS will out grow the powder blue in a few years, but we can just repaint the doors another color.

The Baby Bargains book rated Status Furniture a B+. I'm happy with it. It's not very high quality, but it's adorable, unique and whimsical - exactly what we've been looking for. Plus we didn't break the bank. Both pieces with tax and delivery came to $970. Just a few dollars more than the Forever Mine furniture.

We don't have a closet to use in our nursery (DH has converted the walk-in closet to his home office) therefore, I needed an armoire.

If you only need one dresser, look into Mother Hubbard. They're reasonably priced and very good quality. The Book highly recommends them. You can also purchase an inexpensive changing table ($50) to use with it. That was my alternative plan if I had a closet to use in the room. Mother Hubbard will match any crib color, I know they charge more (10%) to match a Pali or Ragazzi crib. But your'll still be spending less money.

Hope that helps some. I know I racked my brain for months over the whole furniture issue.

Now on to find a cute bookcase. Why can't Pottery Barn come up with something like the dollhouse bookcase for boys??? Perhaps a firehouse???? Ugh!!!

[angusmom]

I bought a Sauder entertainment center from http://www.afo.com/, and my mom bought a Sauder Queen book case headboard from them.

The entertainment center was very heavy and came by truck in two boxes that weighed almost 150 lbs each yet there was no problem with it at all. The only problem with it is that we didn't put it in exactly the right spot in the living room when we stood it up after assembly and it's so heavy that we can't move it now (because you can't push on it to slide it like regular furniture since it's not solid wood). We get many compliments on it because it doesn't look like pressed board furniture at all and has nice trim and glass doors.

My mom's headboard came by UPS and had many slightly damaged pieces but she called Sauder and they shipped new ones no questions asked. We put it together and it's beautiful in her guest room!

I've seen the Sauder nursery furniture at Baby Depot and it looked terrible, but I have had such good experiences with their furniture that I think this is Baby Depot's issue, not Sauder's. First of all furniture in a store is really going to get beat up by hundreds of people which doesn't happen in your home. Second of all, Baby Depot might be more lax than other stores with keeping their floor models nice and replacing them when they get beat up.

Sauder is a very good company and I have nothing but positive things to say about them. It is TRUE however that, like any manufacturer, they make different grades/qualities of product for different retailers. For example, they have contracts to make pieces for Wal-Mart and these aren't made to the standard that they make many of their other furniture collections. The Sauder stuff at wal mart is really lower quality than other stuff in my opinion.

If you contact www.afo.com they will send you a full Sauder catalog AND you can request finish samples, too!

Anyway, that's what i would say about Sauder - which isn't direct experience with their nursery furniture but maybe will help! :-D

[lindalouky]

We didn't have a lot of money to spend on furniture that wouldn't be used for very long. I found a crib I just love at K-Mart!! It is made by Childesigns and is the Carrolton Sleigh crib in cherry. I'm going to try and post a picture of it.



http://www.windsorpeak.com/dc/user_files/919.jpg


We haven't put it together yet, but if I remember correctly it got a B+ in the Baby Bargains book. The price that K-mart lists on their website is $114, but when we went to the store, they only charged us $79!!!! I also got a dresser from JC Penney in cherry for $99. We splurged on the mattress and got a Colgate for $100--that's the important part anyway!

[peanut4us]

We bought a Mother Hubbard Cupboard combo unit and LOVE IT! It is by far the most well-made of all the brands that we looked at (you name the brand, and I think we looked at it). THe prices were very reasonable too. Our crib is bonavita and a nice thing about Mother hubbard is that they can match stains to any of the other nursery furniture manufacturers... our combo unit matches the crib extactly!