Furnishing new home
 

We are in the process of building a new home, take possession early 2025. We are looking for recommendations for furniture stores since we have to furnish the entire house. Any feedback would be appreciated We started working with City Furniture ad the designer is awesome, but wondering about selection/options. Thanks in advance.

Welcome to the forum. I am not sure what you mean by selection/options? Another store would be Babette’s. Might also do a search on this forum as I am sure you’re not the first to ask.
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Look at the reviews for City, nothing but problems. When we bought our new home we furnished it completely via Babettes in Leesburg. No problems in finding what we wanted and no problems with the furnishings. They will include a professional decorated at no cost to help if you need it.

Babetts, not just Brownwood.......visit Leesburg, they have two much larger stores in Leesburg.


Pass on City.

If you will be in the area, you should do yourself a favor and start reviewing local estate sales. You can find a lot of good items.

Try going to estate sales, estate sales.com, for your tables and such. You can also buy bedroom suites, lanai furniture etc. . .

We did well with Hudson's in Ocala. Two Mattresses, one sofa. Excellent quality, great prices...

We struggled to find the right furniture at a reasonable price.
The prices are way cheaper on the same or better products in Ocala.
We bought most of the furniture from Blockers.
It’s convenient as Kanes is just across the parking lot which gives you all the selection you need.
We were under a time crunch when we were there and Blockers delivery was going to be after our flight left so they discounted the order enough to cover the guy they found and set up to deliver it all the next day.
Service at Blockers was amazing!

Furnishing a new house
 

We bought a "two bedroom" package from Babette's and furnished the 3rd bedroom from City Furniture and Wayfair.

City Furniture's delivery guys dropped the packaged large dresser in my living room and left - I had to unpack and move the dresser by myself.

Babette's furniture was almost perfect, with the problem items immediately taken care of. The guys on the delivery truck told us, as they were placing furniture in our house, if we didn't like the positioning, they'd move it around for us - their job was "to make us happy with Babette's furniture and service before they left".

And on the seemingly low end; check-out Rooms 2 Go. I have a friend that picked out an entire house full'a stuff in an hour. He (and wife) as still happy with it.
I'll have to admit; 'not bad,' but I did a facepalm at the time.

Let your fingers do the walking. Go online and check out inventory at several stores for style and pricing. That will narrow down your choices. Babbetts is on the high end.
As far as estate sales, usually you can see on web site. However, old furniture in a new house doesn't look so good. JMO

I would generally not trust guys from the bar to deliver or move my furniture. For what it is worth.

I furnished my house at a thrift store at a minimal cost. Some of the items were top quality, slightly used items. If you want to buy new, you will pay ten times more. Even the "discount furniture" stores seemed overpriced to me.

We had good luck at Kent Furniture in Belleview.

If you’re looking for good quality and customer service then run away from $hitty (City) furniture as fast as possible. We got some very nice lightly used furniture, at very reasonable prices, from Almost Perfect Furniture, but their selection is hit or miss. Good luck.

We got a very nice piece recently from Almost Perfect Furniture also. It turns out this was a solid Cherry piece, and outside of a few very minor scratches the piece is very nice. They have 3 showrooms, I only went through 1 and was amazed at the selection.

There are a lot of Estate Sales here (Duh). You can find some really nice stuff pretty cheap

Be very careful when buying from City, and even Babette’s. If you want a couch and loveseats, and one in stock the other can be delivered in 10 Don’t Do It.

Babette’s had sofa, but not 2 loveseats. Our friends chose to take the sofa delivery. 3 months later the loveseats came, not the 10 days as promised. Color was so far off it was hideous. Of course they refused to take sofa back, even though the house was empty the entire 3 months.

After back and forth for two more months they gave up, and sold the sofa, and at our recommendation went to Kent. Not only better deal for the same furniture but in stock and not one problem

Whole House furnishing
 

I am doing the exact same thing and also working with Nate at The Villages wholesale furniture:
+1-352-497-0177. Good prices.

Daughter recently furnished a brand new home here in 2 1/2 hours at Kent Furniture in Belleview. Nan worked with us and she was fabulous. Helpful but not in our faces. They had a terrific selection and we felt the prices were reasonable. Love that their furniture is made in the USA. Delivered to the new home a few days ago and it all looks so nice. Highly recommend.

Beware of refund policy at city furniture
 

Multiple people have found that city furniture has a no refund policy, only store credit. A neighbor ordered a couch that came in damaged after the 6 weeks of waiting. A second one came in stained. After the second attempt, city furniture said they could not get the couch and she had to come and pick something else. It is in the written contract you sign when ordering or purchasing.
My wife and I have bought furniture from Babette’s multiple times going back to 2005. Great service and quality products.

We had really good luck at Room to Go in Ocala. Great delivery and have had zero problems with anything in the 4 years we have had it.

Ethan Allen
643 Kristine Way
The Villages, FL 32163

Whichever store you chose you may want to check their customer reviews and:or ask Seniors vs Crime if they have had any issues with them

We had a horrible experience with City Furniture. While the furniture looks nice, the quality stinks. The service, delivery, and "customer service" experience we had at the store and with corporate was even worse. I would never use them again, but if you decide to, make sure you read the very fine print on their warranty and extended warranties before you purchase. Also, search this forum for CF reviews. Good luck!

Babette's runs an outlet sale the first weekend of every month at their outlet location in Leesburg. Selections will obviously be limited, but what they do put in these sales will be deeply discounted.

Furniture
 

Recommend Babettes in Leesburg; Family Furniture just down the road from Babettes; Rooms 2 Go in Ocala and Whites Furniture, Summerfield. I have purchased many items from the above stores and never had a problem. You might want to consider Havertys in the Southern Trace Shopping Center in TV; The Lazy Boy store in Ocala which is very pricey. I have not purchased anything from these stores so can’t comment. Good luck and have fun!

Very happy with Ethan Allen on Kristine way. Designer was very helpful and as a bigger guy I am not as concerned about the furniture surviving me

Another vote for Kent Furniture...All the furniture in my house is from Kent...Always had a great experience with them!

Another vote for Blockers in Ocala. Family owned, great selection, great service and good prices.

Also consider White’s in Bellview, Ashley’s in Ocala and Baers in Winter Garden.

Don’t discount (pardon the pun) Facebook marketplace. People often get rid of nice things just to redecorate. We purchased a few things from Villagers that turned out to be quite nice.

Believe it or not Costco has a great selection of good quality pieces. You shop online. Read the reviews before purchasing so no surprises. They unpack and set up everything. Costco stands behind what they sell.

We have purchased furniture at Babette’s, Babette’s Lifestyle, Family Furniture in Leesburg and Hudson’s in Ocala. We had very good experiences at all stores.

[QUOTE=eyounkin;2384628]We are in the process of building a new home, take possession early 2025. We are looking for recommendations for furniture stores since we have to furnish the entire house. Any feedback would be appreciated We started working with City Furniture ad the designer is awesome, but wondering about selection/options. Thanks in advance.[/QUOTE

Find Estate Sales - they list the estate sales in the villages and surrounding area. Furniture, decor, tools, kitchenware and much more.. There ares estate sales on a very regular basis.
Welcome And much happiness in your new home.

Babette’s in Leesburg. Great service, selection, prices and customer service. We won’t buy furniture from anyone else.

Sounds Crazy, but look at American Furniture Warehouse in Colorado.
 

This sounds crazy, but read on. We just moved here from Colorado. There is a great furniture store there with great prices. The coolest thing is they will deliver in FL. There was something about $800, I don't remember if that is the minimum purchase or the delivery cost. I really think it was the minium purchase. They send a truck here a couple times a week as I understand it. They are located in at least Colorado Springs, Pueblo, and all around the Denver area.

Family Furniture in Leesburg has good quality furnishings, on par with Babette’s. Grandma used to say, “Cheap ain’t good, and good ain’t cheap”.

I myself would be very clearly nervous about buying home furnishings like you are soliciting. The quality may be sub par at the very least. Finding quality items is hard when going store to store in person. The advise of salespersons is shakey at best.All brands have a reputation, good and bad, and with that in mind wishing you the best of luck.

Advice from a longtime resident. If you plan to be full time and have good quality furniture, bring your furniture with you. You can always add pieces that you feel make your home more like Florida. We moved the majority of our furniture here and are glad we did. We’re about to take delivery on our third living room set because of the poor quality pieces we bought after moving. We should have kept our higher quality sofa, chairs and tables and saved the money.