New to the UK. New house, new furniture. Where to start my search?

[HGerritssen]

Hi,

My husband and I recently moved to the UK with our kids and bought a new house. We are now looking for new furniture. As I don’t know the UK furniture retailers very well I don’t know where to start my discovery. Can you please help me by telling me where you started looking for new furniture.

Of the top of my head dfs is the big giant sofa command with a perm at sale on.
Next home and john Lewis are also very popular for general home furnishings.
Homesense good for random bits.
Those are some of the big giants but obviously would be good to use local knowledge in your areas for better deals. For instance there is an amazing outlet furniture store local to me can get amazing, bargain pieces in so best sale around locally.

Ask around

What sort of thing do you like and what’s your budget? The obvious one is IKEA’s, they deliver. Around the cheaper end you could look at places like Argos and Homebase. A bit more expensive, places like John Lewis, Fenwicks, Cotswold Company. There will also be local stores, try asking on a local Facebook group for recommendations for those.

Oh and don’t forget the ubiquitous ikea.

Ikea. Next. Argos. Wayfair. Just google what you’re looking for.

What is your style?
What is your budget?
Do you have a colour scheme?
Carpets as well?

The list could go on and on.....

John Lewis is great. Although not cheap. M & S isn't cheap either but sometimes has reduced pieces. Definitely next and Ikea.

Depending on your budget and tastes, there will also probably be small local furniture businesses, which may even do something bespoke to fit a space -- we got a gorgeous reclaimed pine floorboard kitchen table on hairpin legs, and a low workbench to use as a coffee table, from a local workshop that specialised in reclaimed pine and oak.

The other thing we did a lot was to browse in local auction rooms. We got some lovely chairs, a dresser and an old dispensary cupboard for very little cash.

Look at
Made.com
Dwell
Habitat

Decide on your budget, do you want to spend on a few ‘quality’ pieces, e.g your bed, sofa, dining table, and look to get other items from IKEA?

A trip round IKEA would give you a very good starting point.

If you're on a budget then look in Emmaus or the British Heart Foundation charity stores - you can get nice pieces very cheaply. I also buy a lot of antique stuff at auction - often cheaper than new and the quality is much better. Take a look on thesaleroom.com for auction houses near you, you can usually bid online & arrange delivery.

Argos
Dunelm
Next Home
M&S

Thank you for these great suggestions. Will keep that in mind

My budget is around 10k for a livingroom, dining room and bedroom (excl. wardrobe). I'm into scandi style and I did google however I find it hard to find a place that would allow me to see different companies and compare them in one go and I was wondering if there is a website like that in the UK. I also used pinterest to get some further ideas but difficult to filter and get actual retailers that sell the furniture.

A couple of years ago we were in same situation.
Here’s what we did:
Oak Furniture Land for sofas & dining table with chairs. They also do coffee tables & wardrobes.
Ikea for wardrobes. If you’d like them to look like they’re fitted, take a look at Unflatpack Ltd.
We’ve bought decent beds from Furniture123.
Have bought from Wayfair, but sent all back. Might just be what we chose but we weren’t happy with quality.
Bedding - Dunelm and John Lewis.
Kitchen items - Dunelm, Lakeland, John Lewis
Curtains - Next, Dunelm

If you join House Talk on Facebook, you can search any item you’re looking for in the group and see where/what people have bought it.

This place sells outlet furniture and has three warehouses in Oxfordshire (I've been to that one), Coventry and Cheshire.
trade-secret.co.uk

IKEA! You'll get nearly everything you need, if money is tight i'm pretty sure they have financing options too. Where have you moved from? Welcome to the U.K.

Unfortunately I don't think we have a comparison type website like that (that I know of anyways) but pinterest is a good place to start, for inspiration if anything, lots of it tends to be American IMO.

John Lewis
Sofa.com
Made
Dwell

Heals.

There used to be a brilliant skandi shop in Marylebone, now sadly (Skandium- not sure if online still?). But the Conran shop is a good place to look

If you identify pieces you like, eBay and other online auction places can be good if you want vintage/ new.

But basically, start at Heals.

Wayfair.co.uk has a lot of options, different brands you can compare

I think West Elm is quite Scandi.

Wayfair has enormous stock levels at different price points and styles.

Agree with pp who suggested look I at second hard and auction houses - you will get some lovely things with more character and probably better made.

Ikea great for basics and functional design.

Heals for lovely things and all the places other people have suggested for everything else.