If I was you, I would wait until I got to Beijing and then hit the large furniture malls (i.e. Yuexing 月星, Red Star Macalline 红星美凯龙). You will probably be repulsed by 90% of the stuff but eventually you will find furniture that better appeals to the western aesthetic. What you see are all displays, just order to your specifications and it'll be delivered to you somewhere between 1-3 weeks depending on the item and where the factory is located.

Everyone's different but I find a 'decent' table can be had for a couple thousand RMB, chairs for 600RMB or so. While not my cup of tea, I put this in one of my rentals. You can check out what tables might look like at a mid-range price point on Taobao.