Absolutely Hopeless :P

Lots of things to consider. Do you want it to be modern, funky, maintenance free? Write down the things that are important to you. If you don't want to be decorating each year, avoid patterns or bold colours that you will tire of and look dated. Start with the basics of the house- walls, doors, floors. Then choose the colours you would like in the house. I would go with only a few if you dont plan on decorating too often.

Then browse online stores for furniture and take snippets of ideas and pieces that you do like that are within your price range. If you whittle it down to colours and styles it will be a lot easier when you go in store. If you can show them pictures of what you like, they will be able to point you in the right direction.

My advice would be if you are not great at decorating, stick to plain colours and textures on the walls and floors and you can be a little more adventurous on the furniture and accessories if you want. They can be changed a lot easier and cheaper.

budhabob wrote: »

Go to Ikea.

Not to buy anything, but they have room layouts down with colour schemes, layouts etc and it can be great for ideas.

Yes for ideas but for buying - no - nothing worse than a house of flatpack and wonky diy or surgery on furniture to put you off your home or shopping! Buy it ready made simewhere else (the big stuff) - who diy's couches Misery!


Congrats on your new home OP!!!

Pininterest is FABULOUS for ideas and it lets you create folders and store the pictures you like so you can a great sense of what styles you like or gravitate towards and you can bring it with you when you go shopping so you don't get lured away by impulse buys or whacky discount furniture that wont look right or fit!!

I'd say think about how you would like to live on your new place. Have you been eating on the go and sharing a desk with a PC for dinners and would now like to have a more luxurious or dedicated place to eat? Would a smaller round 2 or 3 seater glass dining table suit for 3 or 400 - or do you immediately need an 8 or 10 seater juggernaut of a table costing up to e3 or 4 thousand that might damage or go out of fashion quickly?

Do you have a dog/pet?If not and do you fancy one - or do you fancy a pale light coloured couch - makes a room look instantly bigger but if you work in construction and come home covered in rubble daily this might not be a great plan! Will your furniture fit in with your lifestyle!
Leather can crack and scratch quickly - material couches can be scotch gaurded to protect them and changed in style by having plain or herringbone lightly descreet pattern couch and using different throws and coushins depending on your mood and need. Plain can show up dirt quickly but a duscreet pattern can hide a multitude! Those wraparound couches and ones with the lounger part look good in huge warehouse showroom but make rooms look small and are very inflexible.

Where in your new home does the sunlight hit when you are home from work. Will you like to look out at a view and so have 1 or 2 armchairs or are you going to be traditional and block every radiator and window with multiple couches you don't need! Maybe you fancy a fancy man-chair or a Fraizer chair - or one of those beanbags to game from?

Smart tv's and netflix have changed how we use our rooms - you can mount a smart tv on a wall and so dont need a blocky corner tv unit and can spare that up for a dogbasket or shelves! . I've lamps in corners and have retired my dvd's and cd'd to hidden storage in (lazyboy?) long footstools - nice and handy and no visible clutter! My stereo speakers are in a line behind my couch and I have a docker for my ipod - no need to run cables under floors or along skirting boards - it's all wifi. Just a little planning!

The best advice I got was to block out your room with newspaper in 6 or 9 foot z 4 or 5 foot blo ks so you can see the size the furniture will be when you get it and how it will affect the usability and flow of the room and doors. Especially for couches and coffee tables (don't just randomly buy coffeetables!).

My old appartment had 2 traditional bedside lockers that were just taking up space and were barely used and a huge bed that left almost no space for wardrobe doors to open (next one had sliding doors). Now I don't have 2 but have room for an armchair in the bedroon as well as a corner for musical instrument and speakers instead - much more valuable to me!!

Light furniture and curtains leave a room looking larger and you don't have to buy everythi g at the same time or be matchy matchy about it. Lots of places if you ask them will give you a loan of furniture cloth samples /swatch books of you leave a deposit and go in at the end of the day - same with carpets and floors. You'd be amazed how absolutely different things look in your house or in different rooms when you get them home - well well worth doing as it can be an expensive thing to replace a couch or furniture or floors because the shade looks different in the evening light when you are at home.

Etc.

Try the industrial estate furniture warehouse places - you can quickly see a lot if different styles and colours in a few hours and take photos and try them for comfort so you will know what looks good but is hard as a board or too deep or no armrest for mugs of tea etc!Plus when you get furnitire fatigue you can just go away and zoom through them later and maybe spot something you missed or overlooked earlier!

Have lodes of patience when shoppung - lots of places are 12 weeks to wait so why make a rash decision and regret it!Also buying floor stick or damaged furniture is false economy - if it is damaged and shabby in the shop it is an indication of how badly it might wear and why sace e100 for alcracked glass or broken bodyparts? It will lookk that bad forever - yiu deserve better!

If you're not totally sick of house shopping maybe take your time and check out a few showhouses to see who kitted them out and how they are done - often the designer or where the items were bought are marked or the estate agent will know or email you - and they have poid designers to choose the stuff!.

Upstairs in Arnotts still has all kinds of stuff in a lode of different styles and Mike Murphys has a lot of interesting and different stuff -as well as the usual suspects. Always ask for everyones best price or when their sale is - money far better in your pocket than theirs! Have fun!!!! V envious!