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How do you handle decorating and furnishing your new home without feeling overwhelmed?
Hopefully if everything goes through for us, we'll be closing on our home next month. I'm already starting to try to figure out my plan of attack on what order I will buy furniture or decorate the house.
I've known people who want to have their home furnished right away and those that take their time trying to find good deals on furniture.
So, how do you go about getting your battle plan ready?
We are moving into our new home on Friday. Its not our first home, but we will NEED all types of new stuff. Its so overwhelming already simply because we have to contend with the holidays too. I have decided just to take it slow.
It doesn't take long to get a house but it does take A LONG time to make it a HOME. As they say though, home is where the heart is. I realize it isn't just about "stuff" inside the home.
Just take it slow so you don't get overwhelmed. What we are doing is really shopping around for what we are looking for. When we find it...we will buy it. This time around, we are going for quality pieces of furniture.
The ONLY piece advice I can give is be careful where you buy furniture. MAKE sure that you are dealing with a reputable company that isn't going out of business anytime soon. We see tons of furniture places that have G.O.B signs on them and they are slashing prices. I would be cautious because they might take your money and not deliver the goods.
Take your time. Live in the house before you run out and buy things. What you might "think" will work, you may find out won't work once you are living there. We have been living in our houses for almost 3 years now and still have builder's paint in almost all of the rooms. We did projects slowly over that timeframe and will paint a room here and there as time goes on.
You may live in the house and choose to purchase certain things first that you "really" want and hold off on other things.
Whatever you do just make sure you don't go out and make substantial purchases that you charge before your closing in done. You don't need any 11th hour hiccups with your loan. Enjoy your new house!
Well what ever you do, don't run up your credit cards!
If you are frugal and adventurous, look at yards sales, thrift stores,estate sales, craiglist for furnishings....You would be surprised at the good quality(solid wood) furniture to be found.
Be patient and it will all work out. Rmemeber ROME wasn't built in a day, and you will always makes slight changes as time goes by..( like wall colors, carpeting)
If the place is "brand new" one of the first things you are going to want / need are sort of shades/blinds/curtains. This can be SHOCKINGLY expensive. I have found that "simpler is better" and inexpensive blinds/shades are surprisingly durable. I don't recommend getting bottom of the line plastic, as they do break/yellow extraordinarily quikcly, but simple metal work very well. You can always dress up things down the road, but you need to consider someway to make the place private enough that you don't get visited by every peeping Tom...
Decorating a home can be exhausting and if you don't have the skills and abilities in your back pocket you need some decorating help. Professional interior designers and decorators typically have decorating tips, tricks and ideas to get your end result faster and with less cost and frustration,My house was decorate by Nina Interior Decorating, Home Design, & Window Treatments in Bucks County, PA - NinaAtHome.com . A professional in this regard and in my low budget she did her job very well
If you can afford to pay for it, I urge you to get professional help, an interior designer who will work within your budget. Do not use someone supplied by a store as their real job is to sell you the store's product.
We are in your same boat - we just moved into our first house on Friday.
It is very tempting to go out and buy all new things. What we are doing is making a priority list of what is essential to buy now and what can wait. For instance, on our essential list was buying a new media center/TV stand. Our TV was sitting on a desk that was falling apart in our apartment. We thought the desk wouldn't even survive a move, so it was our first priority to buy a new media center. We did write a check for it so no worries about it negatively impacting our credit since we bought it before we actually closed on the house. And it helped me feel like we had something new for nesting purposes without going overboard.
So our next priority list is as follows:
1. Dining Room Table and Chairs
2. New Living Room furniture
3. New Bedroom furniture
4. A bed for the guest room
And of course, odds and ends that are nice to have, like new bedding and towels.
Having a list keeps everything in perspective for me. We can window shop and compare prices now, and save the money up as we go so we can pay in cash.
Ok..I am also new home buyer...but here are my plans..
I am going with my priority list. What I need and What I like....go with that list first...and as other person said, dont pull the trigger for anything until you signed for your home documents.
Before you go in to furniture list, make your new home basic things ready- like floor mats, bath mats, room freshner, all the regular usage items, everyday usage items...It will come atleast $500 - may be to $1000 depends up on your home size, mine is 4000 sq.ft
Basic needs for anyone:
1. Master Bed Bed, mattress, pillows, bed skirts, night stands - color choosing here is crazy, so you need to take time - think about your master bedroom future color , then buy all these items - bath towels - handwash towels, bath mats.. 2. Dining room
If you have breakfast room - just buy the breakfast table first, if you dont have , buy the dining table - Make sure - color you are choosing for the table should refelect your future accent paint planning for the dining room
3. Family or formal room
I have family room and living room , i am going to leave the living room right now, only for the family room - Furniture for Family room - coffee table, couch/sofa , tvstand - color (future accent paint)
4. Chairs or Couch --- Before you planned to buy chairs for your guest, think that you can afford couch,,, too many chairs are too messy...
5. Kitchen
I dont think you need anything over there, when you move in..
THINK ABOUT FUTURE ACCENT COLOR ON EVERY BIG ITEM PURCHASE....
Make the list for everyday items.....
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