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?

I'd agree with the spreadsheet approach - its amazing how quickly it all adds up, especially if there's some areas you want to spend more on (eg bedding and crockery). keep an eye out as others have said on gumtree etc and for sales - sites like hotukdeals are very good to help with napping the bargains

If you need new kettles etc then I would look fuse better ones in the sale. Our microwave, toaster and kettle all packed up within a fortnight last year. DP went out to replace them and got cheap shite and now about 9 months later they are all crap. The microwave isn't very powerful, the toaster has a dodgy latch to keep the bread down and the kettle..... Well, ok that us maybe our fault for being slatternly bastards and letting it get so furred up, but it takes forever to boil

My house has Laura Ashley and sofa workshop sofas and chairs, white company children's furniture all from eBay. I also love the John Lewis outlet shop and only buy bed linen in the sale (from Laura Ashley, John Lewis and white co). As a result our house is full of lovely things bought for ikea budget. If you shop cannily you can easily achieve a quality look for your budget.

Wooden chests of drawers, coffee tables, bookcases, wardrobes & the like are almost ALWAYS better quality 2nd hand than new! For items like this trawl ebay, gumtree, red cross charity shops,auction houses and the like to keep costs down. Modern wooden furniture falls apart fast if ikea/argos flatpack and the liike and quality just costs a fortune.

For bedrooms simple white painted furniture (look up scandinavian, shabby chic etc for inspiration) always looks nice and is suitable for everyone from babies to teen boys and pensioners. This way you can match a quality built dark wood wardrobe with a pine chest of drawers etc.

White metal bedframes go nicely too - (argos will do) then spend PROPER money on quality mattresses as these are what make the difference to comfort. Or antique metal bedframes can be picked up at auction quite cheaply. Use colourful textiles and gorgeous collectibles such as mirrors/ornaments over time to add personality and individual touches to the rooms.

For bedding look at wholesale hotel suppliers - I bought hotel white cotton sheets, that are sooo comfy, really thick cotton and such good quality that I fully expect my son to inherit them when I pass on! I've had them over 20 years and they still look & feel as good as they did when I bought them. They are honestly better than any of the "eygptian quality blah blah count" sheets I've seen in department stores since. They weren't "cheap" but golly they've turned out to be a frugal purchase considering their lifespan. My sis saw mine and did the same when she set up home.

For crockery choose a "theme" that can be added to over time to build a basic starter set into something special. Plain white, willow pattern, or Cornish blue by TG Green are all classics for which you can find special additions that match or complement depending on taste like nice serving plates etc over time from a variety of sources from catering suppliers to auctions. A table set with plain white china supplemented by a couple of genuine Clarice Ciff pieces is always gonna look classier than the latest Jamie Oliver offering.

Get an Argos value sewing machine and make your own curtains from nice fabrics sourced online - the cost of readymade curtains is to my mind, nothing short of extortion! Same for litte touches that make a home such as cushion covers.

Wickes do some suprisingly decent quality paints in a range of finishes & nice shades and screwfix direct is good for the basics like white gloss and primer. (Farrow and Ball isn't all that despite the hype.) Use wall paper on just one wall, with complementary shades of paint on the other 3 to keep costs down.

No matter what you do flooring always takes a huge chunk out of the budget & a 5 bed is a of space to cover.

Ime IKEA is the best place to get affordable stuff that will last for a while. Their mattresses are good too, and you can try them out. Of course they won't be as good as a V Spring (which I constantly dream of) and will need to be changed after a few yrs.

Don't waste money on carpets, they are evil, if you have good floor boards just sand them.

I think that some IKEA flatpack pieces of furniture are great, my Billy bookcases survived 3 moves.

Tk maxi (either the normal store or home sense) is good for bedding, I have a monsoon set from there that melts my heart with joy every time I go into my bedroom

I would never buy a flat pack chest of drawers, perhaps I over load but the drawers always break after a couple of years. Solid carcass chests of drawers with proper dovetail joint drawers will last forever.

Hang on! You said you don't want to scrimp on bedding cos its your thing, and then said you were going to Argos for it!

Yeah okay then.

Why dont you just google what you want and then add up the prices?

Ebay
Freecycle
Gumtree
Oxfam Furniture
British Heart Foundation furniture

put the money you spend to good causes rather than cutting down more trees for cheap furniture

Depends on the age of the house. I don't like antique furniture in a modern house (sold mine when moved in) but similarly wouldn't like IKEA in a period house.

10,000 seems way to little for a decent sized house so I'd suggest priorising the main rooms - your bedroom, children's bedrooms, sitting room, dining room and leave the guest bedrooms untill you have more funds and settled into the property.

Ikea Hemnes range is good for bedrooms. Ikea also for dcs rooms....really colourful and funky.

Asda are great for bed linen/towels/etc...better than the stuff I have from NEXT actually and a fraction of the price!

Asda/tesco good for electrical items like kettles/irons/toasters etc

If you are handy with a sewing machine you can make your own curtains/blinds/cushions etc

If I was starting from scratch I would:

decided on style - old antique or new.

Electrical goods (inc tv)- get them all from John Lewis, there will be no hassle if anything breaks. Their prices will be fine.

Linen - TK Maxx or ikea for 100% cotton plain coloured (lots of different ones) sheets and duvet covers.

Picture frames etc - Ikea and TK Maxx

Modern furniture - Dwell is good as is some Ikea (expedit storage is great)

Antique - go to your local auctions, ebay is great so much cheaper than antique shops (for example i've used this store and this one both scottish but they were off to London after my delivery!

Personally I couldn't think of anything worse of a house furnished top to bottom in things picked up from charity shops - unless you have a very good eye of course...

I think any house can look good with a mix of modern/antique/salvaged furniture. Old houses especially are lovely if you get the right mix.
I'd too look for old/second hand chests of drawers, coffee tables etc.

The Expedit range is great, I agree.

Zara Home bedding is also quite good, a bit more expensive than IKEA, but feels nicer and with nicer patterns, imo

I have renovated about 10 houses and staged them all with gumtree and charity finds and it has been very successful! But I agree you need to be careful with how you mix it.

Get your stuff from as much a mix of places as you can, or else you will just look like you are living in an IKEA add.

TK Max for bedding, towells, no one comes near them.
Ikea for kitting out kitchen utensils
Ebay ebay ebay for big pieces of furniture. Look at this rather nice side board I found in 10 seconds.
Ikea mattresses are not great.
Other furniture, my local House of Fraser has a mostly hidden section at the back of one of the floors of furniture- end of line, returns, tiny scratches indiscernible to naked eye. This includes many mattresses, a bit scuffed from the shop floor, but once sheets are on them who cares.
If you are in the midlands, Lee Longlands has legendary sales a couple of times a year.

You will still need top keep an eye on budget, I think £10,000 is do-able, but the challenge is will you have £10,000 of good stuff, or £10,000 of argos crap.

It's amazing how cheap furniture is at auction houses.

Or just blow your budget on this and let the family fend for themselves. Mmmm...

Depends on what you are trying to achieve. If the aim is just to fill the house with furniture on a defined budget then yes of course you could do it for that and less. Do you actually need to furnish the whole house in one go?
On a dining room alone you could easily spend £2k on good quality, long lasting decent furniture, if that is what you are after. Spending £10k on cheap furniture that you dont love could be a big waste of £10k. £10k furninshing 'some' of the house with things you love and cherish that you have picked carefully over time, taking into consideration room space and how it will be used is a much better bet.

as a note we moved last July and bought quite a few things in haste - regretting them now even if they were a bargain

I did a 3 bed for 5000 euros in October so Id say its do-able especially since prices are a lot cheaper in UK
I was willing to take things for free off gumtree and sat on a kitchen chair until the sofa sale started , my bed was the only full price item I bought everything else was on sale or free, patience will make it go farther you may have to visit several shops to get the most out of it

I disagree Midori, IKEA mattresses are quite good, ime! Obviously NOT comparable with V springs

I am actually quite that the OP will get to scout all those second hand shops!