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?

oooh, i just remembered, Wedgwood has a very good factory shop in stoke, draw droppingly good prices, I almost wished I had no crockery and was starting out again.

I read with interest since we have recently moved into a five bed house and we need to totally redecorate it but we are also replacing the kitchen, two bathrooms and the utility room.

I've ringfenced a lot for this, but even if I was just redecorating and buying new furniture, I don't think I could do it for 10k.

Not if buying new and not buying tat, and wanting some antiques/good quality stuff in there too.

I haven't read anybody else's posts yet so will go back and do so but would be interested to see your break down of costs.

How many reception rooms do you have? Do you need dining room furniture too?

I know I sound like the owner of IKEA, but really some ranges of IKEA last for much longer than 3 yrs. Like Expedit or Billy or Ektorp.
I would avoid the wardrobes, chairs, chest of drawers etc.
I'd try a good mix.

YWBU to waste your money on Argos stuff, as others have said it's cheap tat. I furnished my first house from Argos (in the days before I learned that just because a shop will give a poor student credit, doesn't mean you should shop there ). Most of the stuff had fallen apart before I'd finished paying for it a year later and virtually none of it survived a move a couple of months after that. I've still got the odd piece of bed linen, but I use them as decorating dust sheets as the fabric was always a bit cardboardy and cheap, no matter how many times they were washed and softened.

That's not to say just because something is cheap it's rubbish. Some of the Ikea stuff I replaced the Argos crap with is still going strong ten years later. The pieces I no longer have were replaced out of choice, not necessity, and most of them went on to second homes. To whoever said you can't get a decent set of flat pack drawers: my Ikea Malm chest of drawers has seen some serious punishment since I got it 5 or 6 years ago (I believe that if a drawer will still open when you pull with all your weight behind you then you can fit more in it) and it's still as good as new. I think it's fair to say I'm a bit of an Ikea fiend - just got my new kitchen from there, including all white goods and am really impressed with the quality and customer service. If you need to furnish on a budget look no further.

With that in mind a £10000 budget seems plenty.

Arthur Price has a very-worth-the-trip factory shop in Litchfield. Appliance City in Birmingham has fantastic deals, people come from all over the country to kit up here. And my friend has a house clearance business in Walsall. He has shedloads of stuff, lots of tat, but lots of gems. Look, just come to the midlands, everything is just 60% the price anywhere else. I'll show you all the bargains if you let me come shopping with you and I can live vicariously through the process.

Thanks all, especially re Argos!

Was planning to do a mix of old and new (so second hand chest of drawers etc)... I found made.com which has lovely sofas for much cheaper than sofa workshop etc, so will try that.

The budget is intended to include curtains and some carpets (downstairs is floor boards).... but not white goods as we bought them with the house, and not a TV as we don't have one or need one . It also include a good bed for us and matressses....

I have done a spreadsheet complete with hyperlinks to everything I am thinking of getting (or example costnigs if second hand - like for the dining table). Its just that £10K seems such a massive sum, but then when you break it down, we will need soooo much stuff... hence my AIBU question!

Thanks in particuar bochead. Where can I find hotel wholesalers - if they are wholesalers, would they sell to a retail customer? In our house, bedding has to be 100% cotton as DH is allergic to manmade fibres... so we have feather duvets etc etc as well. I was thinking of Argos becasue you can get 100% cotton plain white stuff pretty cheaply... I will think again....

I second Dunelm Mill - their ready masde curtains were brilliant value and genuinely look great my DH had said they were going in the bin if they looked as cheap as they were !

I think 10K is probably enough if, as others say, you focus on Ikea etc. We do have some really lovely things from Homebase (I know, I know but people are genuinely always very surprised that they came from there) It really does depend on identiofying a style that you like and then finding pieces that 'fit' what you are trying to achieve. Our house is also 5 bed and very unconventional in style, but very consistent, so we were able to focus on buying pieces that we thought would fit with the theme of the house. Some were reasonably expensive, others middle range (I miss The Pier, sniff) and others were Homebase / Ikea but I think you would be hard pressed to spot which was which in the end product.

We also 'inherited' sofas from a flat that my parents had been letting out. They were fantastic, look great and saved a packet. It is worth seeing if anyone you know has anything they are replacing any time soon, as it would buy you some saving time, even if it didn;t suit your overall taste?

Marks and Spencer do very good quality/sensibly priced 100% cotton bedding, I have been using mine for years and have been very impressed with it.

Agree with Debenhams for towels, also good for crockery, as is House of Fraser and John Lewis, worth waiting for the sales there too, makes it an even better deal.

It's also worth bearing in mind that it may work out cheaper to buy a good quality sofa in a colour that isn't perhaps to your taste (perhaps ebay/gumtree/auction etc) and then have it recovered. I have an M & S sofa that I've had for donkeys years, the frame and cushion pads are still good but the actual upholstery is starting to look tired, so I am going to have new removable, washable covers made for it at a fraction of the price of a new sofa of the same quality.

Second the recovering suggestion - lynplan do this and very good they are too.

Agree with TK Maxx for great quality branded linens and towels. Also fantastic for kitchen stuff (have bought loads of stuff there including Tefal and Le Creuset pans) and cheap pictures and decorative items.

We have an Ikea bed with their top of the range mattress, it is really comfy and was way cheaper than other brands.

The thing that will make it a. cost more and b. not be as nice is having to do it all at once.

Our loveliest bits of furniture, linen etc. are all secondhand/ ebay things.

I would spend well on the essentials and the stuff that you NEED and hold off on anything you can while you gradually accumulate bargains. It can be done! - obviously you need to kit out the lodger's room.

Agree that the most pricey IKEA mattresses are really surprisingly good.

yes if you do it on the cheap

In fact the first thing I'd do is do a secondhand/junk shop tour within a ten mile radius of your new place!

Thanks all - thankfully the few bits we are keeping from our flat and are being given are nice antique pieces... so I am hoping that I can acheive quite a fun "look" with a couple more second hand buys plus plain white stuff from IKEA in terms of furniture.

Its just everything does add up... so even just looking at duvets, pillows, bedding, mattresses etc for all 5 bedrooms (they really do all need to be up and running) is costly...

Then curtains, stair carpets... ouch!

Our biggest spend will, I think, neccessarily be our bed and dining table/chairs.

We furnished a two bedroom flat (double bedroom plus nursery) from Ikea for about £1500 recently. God how I love Ikea...

BTW, looking at interiors magazines, you'd think you need £100K to kit out a house... hence my panic!

I religiously buy interiors magazines. Then I look on eBay to get the look at a fraction of the price.

You can save money on beds by getting 2nd hand wooden bed frames plus good quality new mattresses.
Our bedroom furniture, which was meant as a temporary measure was dirt cheap Argos, knock it up yourself stuff, it's still going, 15 years after we moved in, as long as it's put together properly, it can last. I really don't want to change it because it goes with anything, pale wood with dull metal handles.
I wouldn't buy dear stuff for kids rooms (kids wreck stuff) or guest rooms (don't get the heavy use) .

I got two leather sofas last year, should have been £900 each but were end of line stock and I got them both for £500 - bargain of the century - if you look around online you can find amazing deals.
Good quality living room and hall stairs carpets then cheaper ones for bedrooms, cheap carpet with thick underlay feels better quality .
Dunelm for bedding and curtains, or Terrys fabric warehouse for curtains - the voiles I wanted from John Lewis were £100 each, I got an almost identical one for £40 (twice the width of the JL ones) from Terrys, they are online too.

Oh, and I googled Dunelm Mill... so its good quality, right? It looks fantastic for the price!

Supermarket towels and duvets can be cheap, DD's duvet for Uni was £7, that's a king size 14 tog one.
I bought 3 sets of bedding from Morissons for her at £7 each too, the fitted bottom sheets were from Sainsburys and were £3 each, £2 for a pair of pillow cases, in the sale.
My last lot of towels were also from Sainsburys, lovely Aubergine ones that are really thick and have washed well, the large bath sheet was £10, the normal bath towels were £5.
I'd break it down to a per room list/cost. If you are carpeting a whole house, I would do it all at the same place and ask for a discount or free underlay etc. You have to be cheeky, you don't ask, you don't get.

Is there a big Dunelm anywhere near you? The big ones seem far better than the normal ones for some reason, they have a great range, kitchen and bathroom stuff too.
I got a £75 pair of bedroom curtains for £15 in their sale a couple of years ago.
My motto is never pay full price for anything.

Not sure about the Argos bashing....I bought two sofa's from them 2 years ago when we moved into a 4 bed house and they're still going strong although with 2 very young kids I dont expect to keep sofa's for over 10 years

I did spend £600 on a piece of art though for the living room so maybe my priorities are just plain wrong but it does add a nice individual touch in my defence

baking addict... my priorities are the same. Art is by far and away the most expensive thing we own (including compared to our car!!!). Thankfully, we are taking all of that (and we can finally display our overspill to... stored at the mo at a friend's studio) with us as even a furnished flat doesn't come with the landlord's art

I agree about some flatpack furniture being good. I have had my flat pack antique pine furniture for 25 years now, I do occassionally have to superglue the drawers back together. I also have the same bed [a pine bed frame], I replaced the matress a couple of years ago, a lovely comfy orthopaedic one for £225. [from a discount warehouse]
Bedroom curtains come from Wilkinsons, £20 a pair.
I seriously can't believe some of the prices some people are coming out with.
I would expect to furnish a whole street for 10 grand!

Really fatlazymummy....? But I am talking carpets etc too, and crockery and electricals and sofas and everything! I thought it seemed loads too... until I started adding it up!