Furnishing a house......

[Blue Shutters]

So where should we start? Brocantes first as I am quite happy painting lots of cheap buys, love washed/painted furniture...... best ones in the Poitou Charente? Preferably Poitiers, La Rochelle, Angouleme triangle.

..and which are the best furnishing shops, I have found Maisons de Mondes in Poitiers, Saintes, Angouleme etc online and of course know about IKEA!! Any other great finds? Online sites that deliver reliably in a delivery window of say a week.

..and finally, is a there a good place to find house clearance ads (ie expats selling up)

This is for a holiday/rental house......so OK quality at a good price...we will definitely buy new beds/matresses though! I see M&S towel bales are £12 for 2 bales at present so we will certainly be buying some things here and smaller furniture items that fit the MPV....

and finally finally what would be best to buy here, and best in France?

Thank you

[Ju]

La Redoute is good and they deliver. I've bought various bits and pieces from them over the years.

[Fraise]

I've found that lots of brocantes seem to be shutting up shop! A huge one near Saintes closed last year, another I regularly went to in St Genis closed down too, plus another about 20 miles away. In 11 years of owning a place for the first time this year I will actually be taking stuff from UK to France that I would have always bought in France, even some food as the exchange rate is just pants and French prices have steamed ahead, apart from wine....even some water I buy in UK now whereas I always bought in France and brought some back with me. In UK we get so many 2 for the price of 1 offers etc that there is no comparison. Sad.

[Blue Shutters]

We need more confirmation that we are nuts buying at the moment! Just had confirmation on the mortgage and managed to keep the old rate

Yellow pages give addresses, it would be nice to know the ones that stock everyday "rustic" and alterable pieces at everyday prices NOT antiques!

Do Maisons du Mondes, La Redoute and IKEA etc deliver within a specified space of a few days, could be tricky with us not being there all the time!

[J&J]

We loved Maisons du Monde, and have even brought some of the furniture back to London with us as it goes with any style. The items we bought in the shop we just carried out to the car. The sofas were readily available, they just tapped into their store computer to see when we would like them delivered.

Judith

[Blue Shutters]

It looked good online, a bit different and not way off the scale pricewise.

I did notice there's no problem having furniture delivered to UK, bit daft "ferrying" it back again though, so it's nice to know they are efficient re delivery. I presume it would be the same service if ordered online too.

[Martha]

Cocktail Scandinave do good rustic furniture at reasonable prices - we have quite a few things from their "collection brocante"
cocktail-scandinave.fr/
There are some horrors too but ferret about a bit!

Ebay.fr is good for odds and ends.

If you have a local IKEA I think they are very good for all the kitchen basics, inexpensive and easily replaceable. IKEA delivery was fine for us, they gave an actual day. However some stuff didn't arrive! They sent it very promptly but you don't want to be cutting it fine with the timing.

I gave up on Brocantes round here as they are all really overprices but you may have better luck.

Big vide-greniers and flea markets and so on are good.

[Hells Bells]

I took the cowards way out, and purchased all our furniture from Ikea. Our apartment is small, and I could measure everything in the UK, then know it would fit in the apartment afterwards. Being finished very close to the Christmas holidays meant no time to shop elsewhere, and they delivered on the agreed day at the agreed time.We are a bit limited locally to expensive handmade alpine style or overpriced 'beech/pine effect' . As for things missing, I ended up with an extra bedside table. Kitchen stuff was a separate trip by car.

[Blue Shutters]

It sounds like the "sensible, got your head screwed on the right way" route to me. I didn't realise IKEA were very specific about delivery either, I thought we would be carting it out from here, as Nantes and Bordeaux are the nearest I think, about 2 hours to either.

My only experience of IKEA delivery was their business service here in the UK, I needed 22 tables, 88 legs and 22 chairs, the legs and chairs both being pink! It took forever, came from all over the country, and only just made it on time.

[Margaret]

We buy all our glass and china from factory shops. If you can find some good ones, you can get fantastic quality for the same price as stuff from the supermarket. Means you have to buy in large quantities though. If you want easy replacements, supermarket or Ikea is better.

[LaVilleauTady]

Blue shutters, when faced with the same dilemma as you, this is what we opted to do.

Firstly, we offered to buy all the existing furniture from the sellers. Much to our annoyance they chose to sell some of the more expensive antique furniture to a local antique shop without giving us an option to buy. We later discovered a lot of what we had bought was rubbish (chipboard, or on its last legs) but it was better starting with something.

Next we travelled all the brocantes in the area, and there were some very large ones. Managed to get a few characterful bits and pieces, but finding exactly what you want takes forever. Great fun when you have unlimited time, but no good if your in a hurry.

Next we booked a transit sized van from SuperU and travelled to IKEA at Nantes for the Mother of all Ikeas shops! This allowed us to get exactly what we wanted. Got most of our kitchen stuff there, so it is easily replaceable when it gets broken.

Lastly, we like to buy collectables on ebay e.g. antique French bed, candle sticks, pewter jugs, old keys etc. Again, fun but time consuming. We also bought some pieces from Maison du Monde.

[Blue Shutters]

The vendors are moving and definitely want their furniture for their next house, and there is very little that took my fancy (except the gorgeous woodburners and dishwasher, range, hob , oven and fridge that are staying anyway as fitted)

Just had my first ever ebay jaunt and bought an oldish pine chest of drawers for £50..... failed miserably on a little console table with my highest bit of £10, it went for £11.50...but I set myself a 10 mile limit here.

I'm glad that my (oops "our") loose plan is as yours LaVilleauTady, nice to know it's tried, tested and works!

...and such a relief that with lovely shutters (but I will have to paint them blue ) no curtains need running up.

I don't think that with beds like this or this that we can go that wrong. Perhaps the main bedroom should have something like this

...and I need to re read the analysis of leather vs loose cover sofas and best colour! Veering to nice and bright loose covers to "lift" a dark living room in photos.

[Hells Bells]

And Ikea mattresses are very comfortable.

[Blue Shutters]

Well if our house ends up half as nice as any of yours (Ju, Martha, Helen, "Tady", Margaret, Fraise and Judith we will be owing you all a stiff drink of appreciation for all your help......shame there are no Scandanavian Cocktail outlets within easy reach...........

[pete]

I cant access your last link without serious linkage problems, but our experience is quite similar to others in france these days, ie old furniture is too expensive. We have furnished with a mix of Ikea, local cheap shops, the odd french find and some finds on ebay, it has taken time and will take more time in the future to find the look we want, so good luck and dont compromise too much

pete