to ask for your recommendations on basically everything?

[y0rkier0se]

We're moving out of rented into our first home. We've always had cheap house stuff from B&M/asda etc as didn't see the point on spending lots whilst we were renting and trying to save up so we've made do. Now we're in a position where we are starting fresh so we need to buy everything (other than white goods). I feel lost. We've spent hours wandering around DFS/Sofology/SCS/Ikea/Homebase/Next/Debenhams/John Lewis/Asda/Sainsburys and I feel so daunted about committing a lot of money on furniture and everything. We don't have a massive budget - hence looking in Ikea etc but want to buy the best we can afford with a mid range budget. Don't mind spending more on something that is going to last and be reliable. All we've bought so far are towels! We need a kettle, a microwave, a toaster, a bed, a mattress, crockery, cutlery, bedding.. etc. We even need a new hoover! So AIBU to ask for your recommendations please? What have you bought that has been worth it and that you'd recommend? What can't you live without? Any brands that you'd swear by?

We moved 2 years ago.

I got our sofa and dining room table and chairs from Harveys. Only went in as DP bought something from there years ago. I have been really impressed. 2 x 3 seater sofas with recliners in a fake suede that is really warm and cosy, looks fab and is very hardwearing and easily cleaned. Plus an oak dining room table that seats 4 normally but flips out and will seat 8, with 4 chairs. Came to £1200 and we had 2 years interest free credit.

For curtains I would probably look on abay. Saw loads the other day, bnip for half the price from the shop. Lots of next ones which I have found to be decent quality.

Small kitchen stuff like kettles/toasters check B and M and Wilkos. Also for stuff like glasses, mugs, dinner service.

Bedding I would always buy the best I can afford. Sheridan in beautiful. Lasts forever and can often be found in H of F sales. 2 sets should last a good few years.

TVs I would just buy a basic set from Tesco or Asda. You can usually get a good sized one for about £100.

I found a small, local bed shop was cheaper than argos or bensons or similar and could get a better mattress for less money.

I have never been to Ikea so can't comment.

I would just buy the absolute basics and see what else you want once you have lived in it a while. I want fitted wardrobes in all the bedrooms eventually but we either took existing ones or bought cheap ones to put us on.

Definitely look on eBay tho.

henry vacuum, definitely.
Buy the best mattress you can afford. I love my dreams memory foam over sprung base mattress it is gorgeous. It currently sits on an antique frame from ebay.
Do you want to buy new, or start collecting vintage/ second hand/ antique furniture pieces that you will always love?
Are you about to be given any family pieces you want to build a room around?
Go out and get lots of home magazines and build a moodboard for each room, think how you will use it, what colours and style you want etc, then buy furniture to suit. Lots of ikea stuff is great, but some of their super-cheap stuff is exactly that.
With appliances, think what you want it to do, and what space it will occupy. Wilkinsons is great value for all kinds of housewares.

Check out good housekeeping and which recommendations, too.
Have fun shopping!

All these tips are brilliant, thanks so much!
Missy - we're unlikely to have any family pieces any time soon. I would love to have a few special pieces that have some history but it's finding them and finding something that will fit the house too - it's a 3 bed ex pit house which has been modernised with new kitchen/bathroom/conservatory so would look bizarre with french oak beds in . It's pretty much magnolia throughout so I do want to put a stamp on it and having a few nice pieces would be lovely but I don't know where to start.

I'm not sure that I agree that IKEA stuff doesn't last. Our table is from IKEA and is 15 years old (it only cost about £10 when I bought it in Ikea). We'll be replacing it because it's too small for our new kitchen but it would last for years to come (I'll be freecycling it).

We also have loads of great pots and pans and knives and cutlery etc from Ikea that's many years old. In fact, you can't tell which pans are 15 years old and which are only 4 years old - they all look exactly the same.

Obviously some things last longer than others from Ikea but it's silly to dismiss it out of hand. And, actually, when you are starting out you need furniture that is cheap and works for you; you don't need stuff you'll pass down to your children and grandchildren.

I'd look at John Lewis for a lot of it, they have their price match promise as well which is really good. We have our sofa from AHF and I would really recommend them although our sofa is the comfiest thing in the world! Theither customer service is shocking!
Next do some really nice decorative bits but they can be a bit more £££ we also got our coffee table and side board from next which are absolutely gorgeous I love them but again a bit on the pricey side in my opinion!
Have a look at the outlet stores as well, the John Lewis outlet is brilliant I always see absolute bargains on white goods, sofas, coffee tables, TVs etc in there!
Have fun shopping!!

High thread count bedding is a good investment. We have some 400 thread count Hotel Collection bedding that has been on the bed every other week for 6 years and still looks practically new.

The first thing I'd buy is a decent bed and sofas. You can always get cheap/second hand furniture for now and upgrade in time.

We've just got a shark lift away hoover and its brilliant. Really light and easy to use on the stairs and has an attachment for wood floors with a dusting pad. It's really easy to manoeuvre round furniture and has got really good suction on both the hoover and the hose part.

Ikea plates/pans/cutlery/glasses are good. Some of their furniture is really good quality, we bought three big cupboards for the living room 8 years ago and they still look new after plenty of use storing books/dvds/toys etc. They were about £600 all in but are well worth it. The cheap £15 coffee table didn't fare so we'll but we expected that.

Ikea rugs are also surprisingly good quality, we paid £35 for a huge shaggy rug which we had for a few years until dd spilt cereal all over it.

Dining table and chairs from ikea. I would recommend. They don't look 'ikea' IYSWIM. Also if you're going to put a table cloth over then no one sees it anyway.

Dunelm Mill / the range / home sense for lamps / throws / table cloths cut to size. Dunelm also do nice storage furniture. M&S cutlery has lasted us 5 years and still looks great.

We got our 8 seater dining table from ikea too, it was £90 I think, and lasted through 8 years of use with our dcs and was almost as new when we sold it.

Prioritise what matters most and invest in that. Buy a really decent bed / mattress. Be aware IKEA mattress not same size as other uk beds, some IKEA things really good i.e. Billy bookcases and pax wardrobe {we have had ours for 15 years and still look good) but other things cheap rubbish. I always find sofas hard - never find any that are comfortable for everyone. Sigh. Beanbag next time for me

Rocket, i've never heard of AHF before but their New York sofa is very similar to the Keswick sofa we've been looking at in DFS but almost half the price! Are the sofas heavy and decent quality?

With IKEA, I think it depends on what you buy. We have a very solid table and chairs from there which is still going strong after nine years. They also do these great boxes which can be used as both storage and coffee tables and are only about £35 each - I think they're called Hol.

We actually have a wardrobe from Argos which is solid pine and has fared fine (all our furniture is nine years old ). But I have friends who bought the cheaper stuff from Argos in MDF and were disappointed.

For beds, we got ours from Taurus Beds, who were about half the price of John Lewis but do brilliant wooden beds and matching furniture. The latter is not the cheapest but very reasonable for the quality and it all still looks great. The beds are very competitively priced and we'll be returning there once we have a bigger house to furnish .

We ended up getting our sofa from Marks and Spencer in a sale and it's done pretty well, though is feeling its age a little now - cushions not as comfy to sit on, etc.

You can do well with cheap stuff if you pick carefully - most of my flat is a mixture of IKEA, Argos and supermarkets, and most has lasted very well.

Warren Evans for your bed.
Miele cat and dog vacuum.
eBay/second hand shops for solid wooden furniture.
IKEA kallax is very handy for storage pretty much any room of the house.
Our bedding is just asda (IKEA for kids) - i prefer to pay a bit less and buy new when i fancy a change.

Yes the Laura Ashley sofas will be good quality and worth a look.

Firstly decide what are priorities, I'd say

A good bed
A good settee

Furniture can be either cheap and functional or expensive and long lasting

Prioritise which rooms you want to furnish and what you can and can't live without

Rather than buy new furniture buy old stuff and paint it, you'll save an absolute fortune

Don't rush into buying things you can initially live without.

Laura Ashley - everything is really good quality, normal price is expensive, but they have a 30% off everything sale at least 4 times a year and if you have their credit card another 10% off. Got dining table and chairs, occasional tables, curtains, wallpaper all 40% off, well worth it.

Bought the most beautiful soft hand towels from Asda- £4 each- last ones were from dunelm that were never as soft and £8. Main towels from John Lewis and £100 for 4- still amazing 6 years later. Got a sofa from DFS last year- lots of problems with it that they are constantly coming to fix- friends bought theirs from next and the first problem they had with it Next took it away and gave them a new one. Have had IKEA furniture before and it is not very good (the pieces I had-bed,sofa etc) very hard and doesn't last long- cheap material. They are good for crockery etc. I would also never want to buy a sofa or bed from a place where I couldn't test it beforehand. A Henry Hoover is also meant to be the best ever- they use them in most (big) hotels and airports as they last forever and hardly ever need parts replacing- my mother in law has had hers for nearly 30 years!

Hmm that's interesting about DFS jelly thanks. My friend's DH delivers for Next and says he wouldn't touch their furniture with a barge pole so I'd been put off but I do like their kitchen accessories - I've bought some mugs from there so actually I have mugs and towels

I love Ikea beds!

John Lewis is top quality but you will pay for it. Just be careful that you will want to keep any big items from there for a long time.

We have M&S sofas that are 11 years old and look like new.

Ikea is great as long as you are selective. Kallax is cheap but easy to put together and brilliant for book/toy storage.

Ikea kitchen stuff is cheap and absolutely fine although may not last forever.
Bedlinen from Ikea or supermarkets is absolutely fine.
You can get bargains in TK maxx if you want good quality linen and kitchen ware but it is hit and miss. My pans and knives are from there and are good quality at a decent price. For crockery and glassware you can probably get much cheaper at supermarket or Ikea

Almost everything

Boots Kitchen Appliances is basically ao.com with ad card points. Everything comes from ao.

We have an amazing sofa from nabru.co.uk. It's all modular, you can build exactly what you want whether a regular sofa and chair, corner sofa, with or without a sofa bed but in it, massive choice of fabrics, really comfortable and sturdy. It basically comes on a pallet in bits and you have to build it yourself but it was pretty straightforward. Took me a couple of hours on my own. As it's so customisable, they say they can give you a sofa that will fit your required dimensions to within 10cm. We now have a massive corner sofa that fits an awkward sized room that is so comfy I regularly fall asleep on it. The best thing is all the covers are removable and machine washable. If anything gets ruined beyond repair you can just ring up and order that specific replacement part. If we ever move house and have space for a different size/shape sofa, we can ring them, tell them what we've got, tell them what we want and they will work out what extra bits we need to buy to change our sofa. I love it so much can you tell?

I really like this furniture from Dunelm, ive bought several bits of the silver range, cheap and well made and looks more expensive. Ive also got some in tge hall for candles and storage

www.dunelm.com/search/toulouse

Cheap bedding id go to primark, washes well and good fit.
Asda bedding is great too
The range for cushions and candle holders and lamps

Matalan do nice plates and glasses etc
Some primark stores do nice curtains, poles from argos or homebase

I really like John Lewis, some of it is not that expensive. I got silk cushions (including pads) for £7.50 each. Check online, some of their own branded stuff is very competitively priced.
I like Dunelm, never bought furniture there though.
If you have a local furniture shop, check that out. We have a pine workshop near us, they do other woods too, that sell well priced dining tables, bedroom furniture, etc.
Primark is good for bedding, not the best quality but not the worst either.
Morrison's also do a nice range of everyday crockery ( I like the patterns on the mugs). Supermarkets can be good for electrical goods, you can pick up reliable brands fairly cheaply.

I really really love our ikea wardrobes we have a run of them that look like fitted ones but really sleek and modern and also have the matching chests of drawers and bedside cabinets in all 3 bedrooms. Furnishing all bedrooms (barring beds and the baby's room) was under £600! 5 years on they still look really modern and nice and new. I also have DFS sofas 2 three seaters black leather ones,really nice quality and look very stylish. I really rate Vax hoovers we are on our second now only had to buy a second one as we relegated the first to living in the garage to hoover out our cars as we used to have a dog so the hoover smells doggy and we've just had all new carpets after losing our dog and our DS now crawling.

Oh and second Argos bedding,our nicest set for the master bedroom is from there! it's absolutely gorgeous pale shimmery gold damask! Has lasted and washed really nicely so far and it's 8 months old