Furnishing a new home can be very expensive, especially as many people have previously lived in rented or shared accommodation and do not have any furniture to bring with them, or they may have owned a completely different home before, and none of the furniture from there is suitable now (too large, too small or too outdated). However furnishing a home from scratch can be done on a budget, as long as you spend put in some time and effort on shopping around and DIY decorating. Here are a few low cost furnishing tips to get you started:
Carpets – re-carpeting a house can be one of the biggest furnishing expenses for new home owners, so it does make sense to keep as much of the original carpet as you can. Go through each room and rate the carpets in terms of cleanliness, wear and aesthetics. Dirty carpets that still have some good wear in them can be cleaned, and a professional carpet steam cleaner can be hired at reasonable rates. Only replace carpets that really cannot be saved, and if any carpets are still good, but you really want to change them for aesthetics sake, see if you can use them to replace any worn carpets in any of the other less well used rooms.
Second Hand Furniture – there is lots of second hand furniture around, so look out for adverts in your local paper or supermarket notice board, or visit used furniture shops, flea markets and house clearance sales in your area, where you can pick up some great bargains. Remember to measure the spaces available in your rooms carefully before you leave (to ensure furniture will fit), and look for well made solid frames, with clean rip free upholstery. It can be time consuming and sometimes costly repairing and reupholstering furniture so avoid anything that needs too much work, even if it does seem like a bargain at the time.
Be Creative – many people on a budget think they only have enough money for the essential furnishings, and this can make new homes feel a little bland. However with a little imagination there is a lot you can do to spice up your new home. For example f you cannot afford to buy pictures or prints to hang, then you could look around for some pretty wall paper samples, which are often free from DIY shops, and then paste these to pieces of light MDF or plywood an hang them around your home to create areas of interest.
Carpets – re-carpeting a house can be one of the biggest furnishing expenses for new home owners, so it does make sense to keep as much of the original carpet as you can. Go through each room and rate the carpets in terms of cleanliness, wear and aesthetics. Dirty carpets that still have some good wear in them can be cleaned, and a professional carpet steam cleaner can be hired at reasonable rates. Only replace carpets that really cannot be saved, and if any carpets are still good, but you really want to change them for aesthetics sake, see if you can use them to replace any worn carpets in any of the other less well used rooms.
Second Hand Furniture – there is lots of second hand furniture around, so look out for adverts in your local paper or supermarket notice board, or visit used furniture shops, flea markets and house clearance sales in your area, where you can pick up some great bargains. Remember to measure the spaces available in your rooms carefully before you leave (to ensure furniture will fit), and look for well made solid frames, with clean rip free upholstery. It can be time consuming and sometimes costly repairing and reupholstering furniture so avoid anything that needs too much work, even if it does seem like a bargain at the time.
Be Creative – many people on a budget think they only have enough money for the essential furnishings, and this can make new homes feel a little bland. However with a little imagination there is a lot you can do to spice up your new home. For example f you cannot afford to buy pictures or prints to hang, then you could look around for some pretty wall paper samples, which are often free from DIY shops, and then paste these to pieces of light MDF or plywood an hang them around your home to create areas of interest.
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