One of the great inventions of the 20th century is furniture that you put together yourself.
Because you have to provide some of the labor the cost of this furniture is considerably cheaper than something you'd buy at a standard home furnishing store.
In the beginning these pieces were cheaply made and it showed.
But in the last several years the most popular manufacturers have started making very classy looking furniture that, once assembled, is almost impossible to distinguish from their standard counterparts.
In my house we have lots of "do it yourself" furniture, mostly from Sauder, some from O'Sullivan.
We have bookshelves, dressers, an entertainment center and desks.
None of them look cheap and all were a fraction of the cost of what we could have paid at a regular store.
In my office I have a nice medium oak computer desk that sits right in the middle of the room.
Everything is level, straight and the drawers roll evenly.
It's a nice piece of furniture.
In the living room we have our 40" flat screen TV sitting on a Sauder entertainment center.
We had to adapt it just a bit so the new TV would fit, but it looks nice.
It's a corner unit, cherry red, with bookshelves on the side.
It's nice enough I'd take it with me when we move.
These pieces are no longer considered throw away furniture that you give only to college kids.
They are becoming centerpieces in many nice homes today.
No longer do you have to feel guilty for owning one.
We used to have a store that had a huge variety of these pieces on display.
You could buy them prebuilt for you or take it home in the box.
Whatever they didn't have in stock you could order.
But you could see it all on display and know exactly what you are getting.
I miss that store.
They closed down last year and moved on to other ventures.
They are missed.