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a completely different home before, and none of the furniture from there is suitable now (too large, too small or too outdated).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.

Related Tags

essentials for furnishing a new home , furnishing a home from scratch , furnishing a house from scratch , how much it cost to furnish a home

Most houses have at least one of two small rooms, and it can be difficult to make the most of them, especially if they are key room such as kitchens or dining rooms. Here are a few simple tips to help you maximise the space in small rooms and make them much more functional.

Colours
Make sure the walls are smooth and well finished (fill in any cracks or holes), and then paint them in light, bright colours, avoiding any colours that are too intense and overwhelming. Also refresh ceilings, window timbers and skirting boards with a few coats of paints (white is best for this), and all of this will help to reflect as much of the natural light as possible coming into the room, and give it a clean, airy feel. Smaller rooms benefit from basic neutral colour schemes through the walls, carpets and soft furnishings, as large areas of bold colours can appear to much in the foreground, imposing on the illusion of space you are trying to create, but you could spice things up with one or two more colourful pieces of furniture or accessories.

Mirrors
Large mirrors reflect and magnify light across the room, adding to that airy feel you are trying to create and can also give a sense of space by breaking up solid wall areas with a reflection of the rest of the room. This can be very helpful in small bedrooms for disguising imposing wardrobes, as long mirrors can be fixed to the wardrobe doors. Glass cabinets can also reflect light, and will also provide space to put away small items you are not using from the room (television handsets, magazines) to prevent too much clutter.

Angles
For some small rooms the longest line will be on the diagonal, and to help create a sense of space in these awkward areas you could try putting the furniture at a slight angle. This need not be so acute that it invades into the plan of the room, but just simply pulling the sofa out a little and realigning the coffee table can help to lead the eye along the longest lines.

Clutter
Keep small rooms tidy, and utilise as much space as possible for storage. A large cabinet that you can put things away in will ultimately be much more space saving then leaving everything piled up in corners or by the television, as untidy clutter will draw the eye and reduce the effect of light, airiness you are trying to achieve.

Related Tags

redecorating small break areas