Furniture Shops

When you go to look for furniture, you can expect to encounter a few types of furniture stores depending on where you live.  Assuming you live in a fair sized city, you will probably have access to a large funiture store that has its showroom filled with furniture from a large manufacturer, such as Ashley, which is perhaps the largest producer of furniture in the world.  In the United States you can find huge stores that carry lines by several producers, with several living room, dining room, and bedroom furniture shops all in one building.  Besides the really hug stores selling brand name mass produced furniture, you can probably also shop at a department store or Walmart type store that will carry more generic mass produced furniture.  Hopefully there will also be second hand furniture shops and furniture consignment shops for you to browse.  Lastly, for those on a strict budget, you can usually find used furniture at thrift shops like the Salvation Army.  It is also possible to use Craig's List as an online furniture shop, and sometimes the best deals on second hand furniture are to be found here.

If you are looking for a bedroom furniture shop, the bigger stores like Ashley Homestores will have a very good selection of beds and bedroom sets including dresser mirrors, chests, and nightstands. Discounts are often included depending on the number of pieces of a bedroom set you purchase, as you can pick and choose the ones you want. It is possible to buy furniture for your entire house in such stores, as they will also carry a large selection of dining and living room furniture, including dining tables and chairs, buffet chinas, bars, sofas and loveseats, sectionals, ottomans, and entertainment centers. The construction of such furniture usually does not use solid woods and the wood you see will tend to be a veneer. Almost all brand name furniture is made overseas in big factories in places like China, Vietnam, and Malaysia. Make sure that you are getting a quality product- you can check in the store to see how a table top connects to its base and how solid it feels, for instance. Stores that carry furniture made by a big company usually set their own prices within a certain range, so you may find the same item selling for more or less in another store.
But the biggest furniture store you are likely to see is Ikea, which is able to offer what is usually decent quality on well designed items that have a Scandanavian feel.  Ikea has several floors in one contained building selling not just furniture, but also appliances and utensils for the home.  Ikea uses a business model that allows them to offer quality products at a low price and are a good place to find new furniture.

If you choose to shop for furniture at a place like Kmart or Walmart, you will really have to use discretion as some items are of decent quality, and some can be expected to cause you grief very quickly.  Take the cheap metal folding futons, for example- we bought one from Walmart and it had a futon mattress that would always be sliding down.  It was also cheaply made and felt like it.  On the other hand, a dining table we purchases at Kmart (made in Malaysia) was solid feeling and worked fine.  It felt like it would hold up to many years of use, which is what one should expect when getting furniture.  Use your judgment if you buy from these places- it may be cheap, but you usually get what you pay for. 

For people who aren't shy about using something that previously had an owner, second hand furniture shops of all sorts offer the most eclectic collections and usually also feature the best value to boot.  Some people think that objects can hold energy, so this is something you might consider when purchasing used furniture.  Or, you could smudge used furniture with sage to clear out any negative vibes.  It's pretty much up to what you believe. 
Flea markets also have furniture, often junk furniture that has been fixed up to be resold.  As long as the repair is done well, this furniture can last as long and probably outlast a lot of the other furniture you can find in big stores.
Although you sometimes find furniture that is beautiful and isn't made anymore, it's really kind of up to chance what you can get.  If you're not in a rush and can afford a few weeks of visiting markets and thrift shops to see what new items they have in, you increase your chances of finding something you like.  The same goes for using a community website like Craiglist to locate furniture, though you may be able to see pictures and can do instant research on items being sold online, allowing you to make an informed decision on whether or not you want to go out to see the item.

An alternative to furniture shops is to have your furniture made by a woodworker.  It may not cost that much more, depending on what you want made, and if it's made by a real craftsman, it should be beautiful and outlast anything you can by that has come from a factory.  Check the internet to find woodworkers in your area.  As it is rather rare to find a dedicated furniture repair shop, a woodworker may also be your best bet when it comes to doing repairs on furniture.