There is no getting around the fact that furniture is expensive. However, it is possible to save money when you furnish your home. Here’s how to do just that:
1. Focus on Buying Pieces That Serve More Than One Function
When you’re on a tight budget for buying furniture, one of the easiest ways to stretch your money is to buy multi-purpose furnishings.
For example, if you’re furnishing your first new home, you probably need both a sofa and a bed. You could buy both pieces, or you could spend less and buy one sofa bed that serves both purposes.
2. Check Out Secondary Market Sources for What You Need
Brand new furniture is nice to have, but it can be dreadfully expensive. Secondhand furniture tends to be more affordable, and there are many options for places to buy furniture secondhand.
There are antique stores, estate sales, garage sales, auctions, Facebook groups and many other options available that can help you with locating and purchasing someone else’s unwanted second-hand furnishings.
In many cases, you can save a substantial amount of money and also acquire higher-quality pieces by buying your furnishings on the secondary market.
3. Repurpose or Refurbish Old Furnishings Whenever Possible
Perhaps your uncle Sam has an ugly old couch hanging out in his attic, and he has offered it to you. It might be old and it might be ugly, but if it is free, you could save a substantial amount of money by taking it and using it.
To hide the ugliness, you could buy a set of slipcovers in a pretty, up-to-date fabric. Slipcovers tend to be far less expensive than a new sofa would be, so you could potentially save quite a sum by taking this approach.
As an alternative, it might also be possible to reupholster the ugly old couch to make it look fresh and new.
4. Prioritise Your Purchases Carefully
If you’re on a limited budget for home décor items, it’s important to distinguish between necessities and non-necessities. Then you can begin by purchasing the most important essentials first. Some furniture pieces – for example, a bed and a comfortable mattress – are essential.
Others, such as accent tables for the foyer, could realistically wait a while before you make an investment in them; nothing horrible will happen if your foyer remains unfurnished for a few months while you save up to buy the furnishings you want for it.
For most people, that will mean buying a bed first and then a kitchen or dining room table. If you work from home, a desk might also be an essential purchase to consider prioritising.
When you make a list of all the furniture pieces you want to buy for your home, put the list in order starting with the highest priority furniture pieces at the top of the list.
Then you can work your way down the list as you save up for the pieces you hope to buy.
5. If You Have the Skills, Try DIY
There are many purchases you can make where the labour forms a sizable portion of the cost. This is typically true with home renovations such as painting and flooring installation. I
If you can figure out how to paint your own home instead of hiring painters to do it for you, you will likely save a bundle of money. That is, you can save money assuming you actually have the skills to do the job well the first time. If you don’t have the skills, DIY will cost you money instead of saving money.
There are many furnishings you can make yourself. For example, instead of paying a fortune to buy ready-made artwork, you could buy an artist’s canvas, a few paints and some paintbrushes, and then paint your own wall art to hang and admire.
These are just a few of the ways you could potentially save money on your home furnishings. We hope this list is helpful to you as you consider which purchases to make.
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