Young Finnish and German consumers’ furniture acquisition – wooden, inherited or just low price?

Abstract

AbstractHome decorating is an arena to build up identity and reflect individual taste. Home also represents people's lifestyles and culturally defined aesthetic values and norms. In our study, we focus on the procurement of furniture amongst young Finnish and German consumers who are in the life phase of building up their homes. We study more specifically which aspects of furniture are meaningful for them, and what kind of furniture they consider most valuable for them. Our study shows that for consumers in both countries, visual appearance, price and quality are the most important aspects in furniture acquisition, followed by functionality and ecological aspects. They picture wooden furniture as aesthetic, ecological, durable and expensive. To express their stance towards environmental and ethical values, and because of budgetary reasons, young consumers favour second‐hand, inherited and recycled furniture instead of eco‐labelled furniture. Consumers also stress the productivity in the process of creating something new. It seems that recycled or inherited furniture appears as a safe ground for young adults struggling to meet their contradictory economic and environmentally sound ideals. A global retailer Ikea represents for young people convenience, availability, low price and youthful design as well as globally shared metaphor for discussing furniture choices and values in live.