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[shoptilyadropagain]

I'm somewhere in the middle.  I don't care for matchy matchy nor do I care for a thrown together eclectic mix of styles, patterns, colors, etc.  I want it all to mesh!

[jlkz]

The only room with matched furniture is the dining room.  I fell in love with the Asian / Chinese feel and it seemed to go well with the two Spanish stucco walls of the addition:

[Drythe]

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@NickNack wrote:

I've never bought matching pieces.  I buy furniture one piece at a time, and it lasts forever.  I still have the same bedroom furniture that I bought when I was in my 20's (bed, dresser, bedside table.)  It's Henredon and was not from the same collection.  I intend to always have it.  I have other pieces of furniture in my bedroom, too.

I buy furniture with the intention of keeping it forever.  I usually reupholster my furniture instead of buying new, too.

My mother never liked matching sets of furniture, and I have followed her example.

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@NickNack 

I always enjoy the peeks into your home, our thoughts on ‘decorating’ are in sync. 

@wilma   Thanks, enjoyed seeing everyone’s answers, this was very thought provoking.

Much of our furnishings were inherited, not from our ‘stately family mansions’ but rescued from the attics of frugal families who never tossed things.  We took them down to the bones, preserving the finishes, reupholstered, repaired, and love them.  The ‘new’ pieces I’ve purchased were generally from ‘tag’ sales, or auctions, or soft furnishings such as rugs or sofas. Every piece is used daily, nothing is from a set, we don’t toss and re-decorate, but we do recover, and reposition.

The only sense in which things ‘match’ is in that we genuinely like each piece.  Could be all in our heads!

[Regal Bee]

No, I don't care for matching sets. 

[Spurt]

It's a mix I'm mostly eclectic, except for my couch and chair in the living room which are made out of the same material, also the dresser and night stand in the bedroom are part of a set....

Everything else is different----coffee table, end table, 2 bookcases, and armoire in the living room are all different, as is the dinning room furniture. The armoire in the bedroom is different.....

Some of the furniture is the same woodtone, but other furniture pieces are painted...... 

[faeriemoon]

When I put a room together I will choose a couple of (or a few) pieces from a collection and put them together with other pieces that I have found and liked.  It keeps the cohesive feel, but allows me to mix interesting pieces into the mix.

[coco14]

I think the main purpose of a home is for the occupants to love it - so if that means buying matched sets makes one happy, that's what's important - 

If buying unmatched makes one happy, go for it - if mixing various styles makes one happy, go for it.

Ultimately, our homes are just that - our homes and we should furnish them as we please.

Yes, I may visit someone whose home's interior looks dated to me, but it doesn't to them - to be honest,  if a home is clean, the furnishings don't matter.

[SunSprite]

@wilma   This is a really interesting topic, thanks for posting it. 

Matching furniture sets were something I dreamed about, for years. It was aspirational to have matching furniture, and not the early-American-garage-sale style I seemed to always have. 

Fast forward to now and I still have a hodge podge of pieces. I guess for me it's a combination of things. I like a combination of styles (I'll blame that on being a Gemini), I have a fondness for old pieces (not always as classy as antiques lol, just old), and I've been the dedicated recepient of pieces my parents wanted to move out of their house.....OR.....pieces my Dad has come across through his network of clients or neighbors that he snaps up and just knows that I will love .  

I have slowly been replacing a lot of those acquired-against-my-will pieces with things I enjoy, but they will never match. 

We have an antique/thrift/junk store close to my home that gets the most unusual things and the price is usually right. I purchased some funky looking end tables from them. I also purchased a cheap AND deep-drawer dresser and chest of drawers (so hard to find deep drawers!!!) and painted them an opalescent white with metallic silver accents. That serves as furniture in my guest bedroom. 

The next thing I want to toss is this retro looking couch that I inherited from my parents' next door neighbor (my Dad told her I would love it). I've used it for a few years and now it will just quietly disappear 

[ScrapHappy]

Almost 20 years ago living in a 1500 square foot home, we purchased a dining room set (table, chairs and hutch), bedroom set, and two living room end tables and sofa table all from the same set.  It's Thomasville furniture and cost  a pretty penny.  It got discontinued very shortly afterwards.  Even though my dining sit was too big for my little dining area and we had to put the large dresser with mirror in another room because our master couldn't fit all the pieces, I knew that my small ranch room wasn't going to be my forever home.  We now live in a 7500 square foot home and the furniture looks lovely.  You walk into the front door, on the left is the formal living room with my tables and on the right my dining room.  It all flows since it's from the same set and I like that.  I like the matching.  My master bedroom finally has all the pieces in one room.  I can finally use my own dresser, my daughter had it for many years.  

[dimin]

The hard part for me is getting rid of what I don't want. Donation places are picky and then what, throw it in the trash? That applies to a lot of other boxes I have of donations that don't get picked up in these times. That's a separate topic though. Right now I'm looking for a tv media stand for a big TV.