How to decorate/furnish a house on a tight budget?

[holidaybug]

So I'm buying a house after being in rented for a while. I will need quite a bit of furniture, soft furnishings etc. What are your favourite budget shops, budget ideas etc?

eBay! If you restrict your search to within a certain distance of your home then you can pick up some real bargains of good quality furniture whatever your style/taste.

Congratulations!
A bit predictable but Ikea is pretty good value for most things. You can also get bits and bobs Of decor in places like Home Bargains and TK maxx

TK Maxx or Home Sense

Ebay is your friend! As are Preloved and gum tree!

Also have a look on Freecycle.

I've bought loads of cheap crap like ugly kitchen dressers and things and painted them in soft, chalky colours and they can look great, at least until you can afford really good quality stuff.

tbh I'd suggest that you buy solid stuff and paint it rather than cheap furniture from Ikea which falls to bits. Ikea is good, though, for things like cotton bedding, towels etc. and for kitchen utensils, crockery etc.

ours is a mix - we were given stuff second hand by family which was a good start (some is very nice), soft furnishings we have from Wilkinson/Tesco/Asda/The Range/Dunelm Mill, paint we have been very happy with Homebase own and Wilkinson own.
gumtree provided us with a lovely 1930s bureau for a very small amount of money and we put 4 solid wood chairs on there for a couple of pounds.
don't buy anything other than essentials initially IMO as you can then wait for the next lot of sales.
it is also worth living in it for a little while as you will find you instinctively feel some furniture should be in certain places or not depending on how the use of the rooms works for you. No point buying a tall bookcase because you have a lot of books but then discover once you are in the place that you would actually prefer to have a couple of smaller ones under a window or in a hallway.

Best budget idea is white emulsion everywhere until a) you have more money and b) you collect enough stuff that you can decorate a room around. White emulsion is really cheap (don't go for the very cheapest though).

Then when you buy furnishings, choose a palette based on a few things you already have, and stick to it. Don't go for really bright colours which are hard to mix. Choose a couple of neutrals and one bright as an accent (if you need bright).

There are some really good blogs with property porn on them, especially Scandinavian style, which is really do-able on a budget and easy to convert later on.

Also remember that 90% of Ikea is shit, but 10% is really nice, it's just sorting the shit from the design classics IkeaHacker is a good blog btw.

And get a good sander, that way you can find tables and so on in junk shops and get rid of crappy varnish and stains, then wax them down or repaint.

Put it out there on FB that you are looking for stuff. People are both very generous and often chucking out stuff they don't need. We did this and were beseiged with offers of stuff. If anyone is clearing a house they will practically pay you to take stuff away.

Sign up to your local Freecycle for the daily digest - again you'll be amazed.

We have furnished a 2 bed flat with some really lovely vintage/antique/second hand pieces and aside from 2 Ikea cupboards, our only furniture purchases have been a second hand top of the range fridge and sofa, both EBay, £100 each.

Oh and start a Pinterest board. Lots of other people's ideas to steal, and building up a stock of ideas of what you likes helps you to recognise good 'pieces' with potential when you come across them. Saves you being lured into whatever bland ad expensive stuff John Lewis etc think you want in your house.

Agree with all the above suggestions! :)
Try lobay for local 'pick up only' bits on ebay.

And congratulations on your new house!

Some of the charities have shops specialising in furniture eg BHF and YMCA.

Argos is good for cheap furniture, but it doesn't last long. Contrary to most on the thread I think Ikea is great and it's our preferred option (rather than cheap alternative).

Wilkos and the supermarkets are good for other stuff. I've been looking in Dunelms again recently and have noticed that it's more expensive than the Range for the identical product.

Some great suggestions here! Thanks!

Wilkos, IKEA and charity shops. eBay and the rest of the internet hadn't been invented when I was doing up my house on a shoestring! Your local hospice shop probably has a furniture dep't.

Second hand markets. And car boot sales and auctions, if you have them nearby.

If you are at all Handy, get someone to buy you a sewing machine for Christmas/birthday, and soft furnishings will never be a problem again! New fabric isn't much cheaper than made-up curtains these days because of sweat shop labour but 2nd hand curtains and other fabric can be transformed very cheaply!

If all-white rooms don't appeal, paint one wall or even just a chimney breast with another colour to change the whole feel of the room very cheaply.

Carpet remnant/discount places for room-sized remnants, which are much cheaper than carpet off the roll.

Sales. Remember most places will have a Summer Sale any time now.

And - a boring but important tip! - budgeting is crucial. Work out how much you have to spend in total, then set yourself a budget to do up each room, plus a budget for 'special finds' if you want a bit of flexibility, and stick to it! (So for example, if you've got £100 to do up your living room, and you know you can't get carpet for less than £60, then you can't buy a £40 sofa AND paint the walls!)

Have fun! I really enjoyed those years (before kids) when doing up a house with no money was a creative challenge! :)

great thread! how about some links to some good blogs?

my only offering is don't go too fast. we need to decorate everything and buy a load of furniture so far we have a sofa from the YMCA in 4 weeks. I reckon doing it quickly will be expensive

eBay for furniture (can pick up solid interesting pieces for next to nothing especially if its a dark wood) them paint it white/off white. When you can afford other stuff you can sell this painted stuff on eBay again for more than you paid!! For soft furnishings etc then carboots are your friend!! Pick a posh area as the quality of stuff will be much better and weirdly prices seem to be cheaper

I love Ikea, but very rarely buy new furniture from them, always second hand from eBay or Gumtree. So when we put in new wardrobes, I got the corner section and two side carcasses from ebay, the doors from bargain corner in Ikea and only bought the interior fittings. Saved about £200 doing that way. But if you're not fussy about which bit you want, I picked up a massive double wardrobe from Ikea with drawers and everything for a fiver. Perfect condition. The people selling often just want someone to take stuff away for them.

Discounted/discontinued wallpaper is very cheap and lovely (often £2 a roll in B and Q) and can easily be changed if you decide you don't like it down the line. We use wallpaper a lot, as our walls are a bit shitty and lining paper + patterned wallpaper covers a multitude of plastering sins. We also painted our stairs and floorboards, as one tin of own brand satinwood will do an entire room twice and avoid the cost of sanding (although do scrub the floorboards first with a damp mop). Great if you can't afford carpets right now, and you can always cover them up later. Large cheap rugs (IKEA) will keep the draughts down.

I found that Ikea laminate was cheaper than carpet by a way, but it's still expensive. Laying your own carpet is quite easy, but time consuming and if you're like me, you will stab yourself in the knee with a carpet knife. On the other hand, I did my entire upstairs in my last house in my in laws old carpet and other than hiring a knee kicker, it was free.

Painting shitty furniture can produce surprisingly lovely results. I have a manky old larder cupboard in my garage which is earmarked for painting to become part of my new kitchen.