Just because we're living in an uncertain economy right now is no reason to stop spending money - at least not on essentials like furnishings for your home.
However, it's time to start being more careful with our money, which is why it makes sense to purchase one's furniture from an Unfinished Furniture store, and then do the finishing at home.
Another benefit to purchasing unfinished furniture and then finishing it yourself is that you can stain the wood any color you desire, so it can more easily match the rest of the décor in your home.
Before you purchase a piece of unfinished furniture and start wielding the paint brush, put in some practice first.
Sure, you can always sand off the stain if you make a mistake - a blotch or a too dark patch - but it's much better to not make any mistakes in the first place.
So practice your painting techniques.
Remember you always paint with the grain, not against it.
Experiment with various stains to see which ones produce the exact shade you desire, on the type of wood from which the furniture was made.
As you acquire more skill in finishing your own chairs, you can even market your skills to other individuals, who also desire the monetary savings of purchasing unfinished furniture, but do not feel they have the time of skill to complete the work themselves.
Price your services reasonably, and you can acquire a bit of business! There's more to working with unfinished furniture than just saving money, of course.
Working with your hands is a lost art for a great many people these days.
That's a pity, because one gets tremendous satisfaction from starting out with a unfinished work, and with one's own hands creating a masterpiece.
It's a lot easier to be proud of furniture you've produced yourself, than impersonal furniture that you've merely acquired from a store.