to budget £10,000 to fully furnish a new house, top to bottom?

[legallyblond]

We are moving into a new 5 bed house. As we are keeping our (2 bed) flat and renting it out furnished, we will have virtually no furniture for the new house (a couple of bits are coming with us and we have a couple of hand-me-downs coming, but hardly anything).

The house needs decorating (but I hope we can do the bulk of it - just painting) and the garden needs completely replanting, but it does not need a new kitchen or bathrooms. No structural work is needed.

I have, I think, carefully planned and sourced literally everything we will need - bear in mind we need all 5 bedrooms to be functional as we are planning to rent a room out and also need rooms for guests.

Its looking like we will need to spend £10,000 on totally fitting out the house and garden (I think I have thought of everything, even down to extra towels etc!).

What do you think?

It seems a lot to me but then when I look at what some people seem to spend on single pieces of furniture etc (e.g. from looking in interiors magazines), it doesn't seem enough!

I am aiming to do things on the cheap (quite a bit of Argos and Ikea), but equally, I have some nice things in mind, like good antiques... it seems to me that getting the absolute cheapest of everything is a false economy if you don't like the stuff! And I just can't scrimp on bedding and crockery (they are my "things"!)

AIBU? Too much or too little?

Everything I have ever got from Argos furniture wise has been crap. Ikea is great for DCs , lodgers and guest rooms, and in
My room I have found their Hemnes range to be good quality for the price. Budget as much as you can for sofas, cheap ones are crap after a year or 2. I am very of you by the way!

It's totally up to you....not sure why you've asked us.

You could do it for a lot less...or a lot more. Depends entirely where you shop.

Does that include curtains and carpets? I'd say even without you will be pushing it at £10000. We moved from a 3 bed to a 5 bed last year, and we Had quite a but of furniture, but we have easily spent £10k on furnishing and painting, and I still haven't got the new sofa I was planning on. We bought quite a bit second hand too....

It depends on what you can afford and what you like! This really is a "how long is a piece of string?" question.

But how could I do it for a lot less? Even with IKEA it all adds up... I just wondered how it compares to what other people would budget for a similar exercise as it is hard to know if I am being unrealistic. This includes all curtains etc etc... so there's a lot to buy. I am a bit "gulp" at anticipating spending that much, but then also veer towards thinking I won't be able to actually get decent quality stuff for that amount.

It seems like very little to me. You are furnishing a 5 bedroomed house including decorating and doing the garden. I do have one piece of advice though, steer clear of Argos, it will only end up costing more in the long run. I know I used to work for them, they are awful quality. Depending on what it was you where planing on buying from Argos,, you would be better going to Dunelm Mill, the range or as you say Ikea!

What S&M said.

Have you budgeted for a good bed? I have a Vi-spring - cost me £2k 10 years ago and it's still the best bed ever.

You spend a third of your life in bed, you really need it to be good. My back in utterly fucked and I sleep like a baby.

Don't forget freecycle - I got 6 Lloyd Loom chairs for the garden on it - saved me a grand!

I agree with deciding what's really important to you and buying the best you can afford - for me it's the bed/sofa/bed linen/nice rug but I don't give a monkeys about posh kettles/toasters/tv's/gadgets.

Sounds ok to me. If you split it into rooms, so 5 bedrooms, 2 living rooms maybe, a dining room, bathroom... and have a budget each room, then it sounds reasonable enough.

I would avoid argos to be honest, its cheap badly made shite, that is a false economy.

It depends on your personal taste obviously, but I would look at auction houses or on ebay for decent quality furniture which would probably be less than the price of the tat at argos. (and would not need glueing and nailing together once you got it)

Also, check eBay and gum tree I have always found brilliant furniture bargains on them. Our massive Ikea table (seats 10 with the insets in) was £40 and came with 4 horrible matching chairs that I will change at some point. Because it is cheap I an relaxed about DCs using it for painting as we can get a really nice one later on. From Gumtree I got DS a used £800 loft bed with a brand new mattress for about £150 . It is in good condition but again, I am a bit more relaxed about it having stickers on it than I would be if I had paid £800 for it

Was thinking of Argos for bed linen and electrical goods mainly.... (kettle etc).

I would say look in Sainsburys for bed linen, or even Debenhams. When Debenhams have their 70% off sale in the bedding department you can get some brilliant bargains. I got a candy stripe 100% cotton superking duvet set for £25, which had originally been nearer £100.

If I were you I'd do a quick spreadsheet; list everything you need (essentials, not ornaments) and use websites to get an idea of prices. Antiques and nice decorative things can always come later (and their prices will be very variable).

To me it seems too much to do it at a bare minimum and too little to do it with the quality and taste that i guess deep down you want (comments like scrimp on bedding..my things give you away a little op ). It is also really nice when a house evolves slowly, and you fill it up slowly with things you pick up on the way. Do you have to buy everything straight away?

Presumably you would be taking your own bedding with you when you move, and towels etc.. so you only need to purchase for the guest room in that respect.

If you budget carefully you can get good quality stuff at bargain prices.The most expensive items IMO would be beds and sofas. I just wouldnt buy cheap ones.

I have had expensive bedding and cheap bedding, and the best I have found for towels and duvet sets are Primark. My bedding takes a lot of battering as I have dogs that sneak into rooms when no one is looking and jump on beds . Primark stuff seems to cut it.And Sainsburys.They do bedsinabag for about £20-£25.
Yes it can be done. I wouldnt touch Argos with a bargepole but Ikea and supermarkets for some stuff seems to be okay and good value.

I think you can do it for that budget. I would say that get the bare minimum you need to start with, so you can select the pieces you love over time. It is awful to see, say, a dining table you absolutely love, but cannot justify buying because you already got a perfectly functional one in place that you bought with your head, not heart.

it seems to me that getting the absolute cheapest of everything is a false economy if you don't like the stuff! And I just can't scrimp on bedding and crockery (they are my "things"!)

Then spend a bit more.

The total will be dependant on the shops you deem of an acceptable quality, and the shops you can literally get to or are happy to order online from.

You can do it for plenty less (many people do), or plenty more (many people do).

Do what your finances and tolerance for quality will dictate.

Surely?

i fully furnished my house (including carpets) for about £2000

admittedly mine's only a 3 bed!

but i reckon it can easily be done.

am though!

Sounds very cheap for a 5 bed house - especially if you include curtains in that cost.

Give us a breakdown of what you've budgeted for one or two main rooms (maybe lounge and master bed room), and we can tell you more about whether or not it is realistic.

Better to buy top quality second hand than cheap from argos.

legally Asda is better for both bedding and electrical's, cheaper and even their budget range is great quality. By cheap I am talking £6-7 for a cordless kettle!

I would use auction house, second hand page and ebay.

Beds, - second hand, you thousand hand beds in hotels
sofas - second hand till you know how you feel in the new house and then colours will become apparent.
tables and chairs etc - ebay auctions
dinning tables - again auctions you can pick up table and 6 chairs for under 50 quid
wardrobes - same as above

total - less than 2k

It depends what you want to accomplish. When we moved into our house we furnished it mainly from very cheap 2nd hand items, hand me downs, or made do without. (and you can get surprising things on freecycle). We spent our money on the few quality items that were important to us (e.g. I refused to scrimp on a decent bed as have back problems). Gradually over the years we've bought the things we didn't have and replaced the worst of the 2nd hand items.

So yes, you could do it for less, or you could spend a fortune.

10k doesn't seem very much. Curtains and carpets are likely to cost you at least 3k. A decent bed & mattress 1.5k at least (for one and you need 5!) and the same for sofa.

Does your 10k include white goods & tv etc? if not thats got to be another 3k.

I'd get the basic stuff you need to live before you start fantasising about towels and egyptian cotton.