Fully Furnished

Sofas, beds, mattresses, dining tables, rugs and dressers carry real prices read at the shop that sells them, with the date on every row. Every other category is still sample data.

Should you buy apartment furniture in a store, online, used, or rent it?

Summary

The biggest difference between places to buy is what happens when the piece is wrong. IKEA refunds opened furniture for 180 days; Crate & Barrel and Article give you 30 days and make you pay to send it back. Used furniture has no return window at all, and a rental can go back to the company, but at CORT the rent you paid never counts toward buying it.

Stores you can walk into

Sitting on a sofa before you pay is the obvious reason to go in person, and at IKEA the return terms are unusually loose. New, unopened products can come back within 365 days and opened ones within 180, for a full refund with proof of purchase. You also need a government-issued photo ID. Mattresses can be exchanged once, for another mattress, within 90 days.

Crate & Barrel is stricter: 30 days from receipt, in new and resalable condition. Shipping fees are not refunded, and the customer pays return shipping and any pickup fees. Furniture and rugs go back through the store where you bought them.

A store purchase still has to get home. At IKEA the price depends on how far inside the delivery crew comes. These are the starting prices for non-members; IKEA Family members pay $10 less:

  • Standard Delivery, $29: outside your home or in the building lobby, for orders under 300 pounds
  • Scheduled Doorstep Delivery, $39: to your door
  • Scheduled In-Home Delivery, $69: into one room you choose

Every tier needs a $35 merchandise subtotal, and orders over 500 pounds can only go In-Home. On the fourth floor of a walk-up, the $29 option leaves the dresser in the lobby.

Stores that only exist on a screen (mostly)

Article sells online and runs showrooms too, where you can sit on popular models. Its return window is 30 days from delivery. Inside its standard service area a return costs a shipping fee, and the refund comes back minus the outbound and return shipping. The first exchange of an item ships free. Its delivery crews do not take the boxes away, and Article does not haul away old furniture.

Best Choice Products, the one store this site earns a commission from, ships free to the 48 contiguous states and says ground orders usually arrive in two to five business days. It takes returns for 60 days from delivery, but it may reject a return that comes back without the box, manuals and parts, or one received over 14 days past its return approval. Flatten the box and keep it until you are sure.

Used and rented

A couch from a neighbor or a thrift store comes with no return window. The one protection that still applies is federal: selling a recalled product is illegal, and CPSC says the rule covers people at yard sales and flea markets, not only resale shops. The used-furniture guide covers recall lookups, bedbugs and smells.

Renting from CORT starts at a one-month minimum. Pickups have to be requested at least 15 calendar days ahead. You can buy a rented piece once you are past half the lease or three months, whichever is longer, and the monthly payments do not reduce the purchase price. Feather, which rented furniture to consumers by the month, has stopped offering rentals. Rental and rent-to-own contracts get their own guide.

Sources

Run by Kaz, an individual. Published 28 September 2026.