Furnishing your home can be a lot of fun, giving you an opportunity to create your own style and make a space that’s unique to you. However, with so many options to choose from it can also be highly daunting and a lot of people get stressed out with the amount of work it takes. Most people have a pretty good idea of how they’d like their home to look, but it can be difficult to actually translate that idea into the real thing.
Choosing furniture doesn’t have to be difficult, though, as long as you take the right steps and follow them carefully. In this article, we’ll be sharing this guide to choosing furniture so you can create the home you’ve always dreamed of.
Table of Contents
Consider Functionality
While style and aesthetics are no doubt important when choosing furniture, each piece should have a primary purpose. Unless you have loads of space and even more money, there’s no point in buying furniture that you’re not actually going to use. Therefore, it’s important to consider functionality above all else.
Before you decide to buy anything, think about your needs. What exactly do you need your furniture to do? Most people need a bed, some kind of wardrobe and at least some shelves. It will also depend on which room you’re using and the kind of space you have available. For example, smaller rooms could benefit from bespoke sliding door wardrobes, as they’re easier to open.
Above all else, it’s important to remember that your house and the design should adapt to you and your needs, not the other way around. Analyse the activities you do in each room and how many hours you spend in each place.
Create Your Budget
Your budget will affect your furniture choices, as it will impact how much you can spend in total. Before you create your budget, think about how much you can afford to spend and whether or not you would prefer to spend less now but more in future. Buying cheap may save costs, but it often costs more in the long term if it’s not high-quality.
When creating your budget, don’t forget to factor in store credit, credit cards and other financial services that may help you. In a lot of cases, you can purchase furniture and pay over a long period of time, reducing the size of the initial payment and helping to spread the cost. However, if you do take credit, always be aware of the interest costs and be sure to look at the true value compared to what you’d actually pay.
Define Your Style
Now you’ve thought about most of the practical considerations, it’s time to define your style. You can find lots of inspiration online, with plenty of pictures of people’s homes posted on sites like Pinterest and other social media platforms. Try to choose a coherent style that matches your personality while also fitting the current style of your home, though don’t be afraid to make changes if needed.
Before you commit to a style, try to think about the long term. You don’t want to make a rash decision that you’ll regret later on. Just because something looks good now, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll always love it. Save images of things you like, and consult these pictures over time to build up an idea of what you want.
Take Measurements
One thing you definitely shouldn’t overlook is the measurements of the space you have available. Any furniture you buy absolutely needs to be able to fit within the room you intend for it. Be sure to carefully measure all walls and doorways, and check that the proportions will make sense. If you’re having trouble arranging it all together in your mind, you can try creating a scale drawing to confirm that it fits well.
