Scouting for home furniture is one of the exciting parts of beautifying a home. Whether you’re moving in or renovating your place, a single piece of furniture can effortlessly turn your home into something else. Luckily, furniture shopping has now become accessible and affordable.
Even though you’re not a homeowner, it is now easier to design your place into your dream home. You can simply use a few accent pieces to make your home look exactly like a catalogue from a home design magazine. However, choosing the right furniture can be tricky at times.
Not being careful when buying home furniture is a waste of home space and money. It will also be likely hard to resell furniture for the same value that you paid for it—even though you haven’t used them yet. If you’re looking into buying new home furniture, this post is for you.
To help you with your furniture hunt, here are five tips to remember when buying home furniture.
1. Never prioritise style over quality.
Today, you can find many dupe pieces of expensive furniture designs. Home accent pieces that used to be only exclusive to the wealthy are now within reach for many people. But unfortunately, the dupes don’t have the same quality and standard as the original ones have.
It can be tempting to purchase stylish and affordable pieces. But, before swiping your card on them, I suggest checking their quality first. Home furniture exists to not only beautify your house but also to provide you with functionality.
If you find a sleek and stylish wishbone chair that you think would match your wooden table, it’s best to inquire about its materials first. If the wood-like material of the wishbone chair turns out to be particleboard, I wouldn’t suggest you buy the chair out of impulse.
Always think that your furniture should last for a long time. That means your furniture should be of quality materials that can endure multiple uses. Never prioritise style over quality.
2. Ask yourself, ‘do I need the furniture, or do I just like it?’
When we see unique furniture pieces, we can immediately visualise what they would look like in our houses. Suddenly, we see a vision of how ‘perfect’ our homes would be after we purchase that piece. Unfortunately, that’s not the truth most of the time. What we’re seeing is just the marketing effect of beautiful furniture.
If you experience this, I suggest asking yourself first. Do you need the item, or do you just like how it looks? If you can’t answer the question, I suggest you take it as a ‘no’. It would be best to spend at least a week or two thinking about it. If your answer does not change after some time, then still take it as no.
If you need something, you’re less likely to hesitate about it. When you’re unsure about something, your gut feeling is likely telling you that it is just a ‘want’. I suggest you follow it so it won’t just become a piece of dusty furniture sitting in the corner of your living room.
3. Always measure and never rely on your rough estimations.
Many people find it a waste of time to measure the spaces where they’ll be putting new furniture. Instead, they firmly believe that their minds are accurate enough to tell if a piece of furniture would fit in their homes or not. The ending? Often, they’re wrong.
Measuring your home space will likely only take a few minutes of your time. Before buying new furniture, make sure that it will fit in your home. In the end, people feel guilty about how they were so sure that they were right. That realisation happens too late after finding it difficult to fit the furniture in their homes.
Don’t just rely on your estimations, even if you’re one of the smartest in the world. Always allocate time to measure.
4. Is it the best deal among all of the others you’ve seen?
Today, many furniture shops are offering the same pieces at different prices. Often, the same shops are getting their items from one supplier only. They only vary their prices because they base it on their business’ reputation.
Before you buy a piece of furniture, make sure to check the deals of other shops, too. You’ll likely find the same item for a better price. If you think the quality is not worth it for its price, I suggest scouting other shops first.
It’s helpful to be smart when buying home furniture pieces. Don’t be easily deceived by deals that don’t seem to justify the product’s quality. Make sure that what you’re buying is the best deal.
5. Know when to splurge and when to scrimp.
Lastly, I hope you’ll know when to splurge and scrimp on a piece of furniture. Here’s a simple question to ask yourself when you’re in doubt. Will you be using the item daily, or is it just for decoration? If your answer is the latter, then this is the time when scrimping is better.
When you’re buying furniture that you’ll be using daily, such as a bed frame, I suggest choosing the best piece that suits your budget. Sometimes, we scrimp on items we need for those we like. However, that’s not a smart move to make when buying furniture. When we scrimp on necessary items, it results in paying for poor quality that we’ll be dealing with for a long time.
To make it easier, I suggest having a list of the items you need and the items you want as decoration. The items under your ‘needs’ are likely the ones you should be spending freely on. If it is something you’ll use daily and religiously, it is worth the paycheck.
Be a mindful and practical consumer when it comes to furniture shopping.
Hopefully, my tips will help you shop and choose wisely. But of course, I hope you don’t stop yourself from buying accent pieces you like. If there’s an accent piece that you’ve been eyeing for a long time now, buy it for yourself.
You’re free to make your home feel as beautiful and comfortable as possible. After all, it’s your space to enjoy. Still, I leave you with this: be a mindful and practical consumer when shopping for furniture.
About the author:
Bianca Banda is a writer for Where Saints Go U.K., an eclectic online furniture company that provides unique, beautiful, and quality pieces of furniture at affordable prices.