First Home Furnishing Help

TheR3ader

Hi everyone,
We are buying a house! Now that we've spent all our money on a house, we need to furnish it :eek:
Essentially we are putting ourselves on a budget of £550 per month to add furniture, we are planning on doing this second hand with almost anything we can. We are looking on FB Marketplace, Gumtree, Freecycle, Ebay - does anyone have any additional suggestions for where to look for cheaper furniture?

Also, I'm aware that there are something that we dont want to get 2nd hand (like matresses...) - is there anything else I need to be wary of when buying second hand?

From my first pass it seems like we need everything from white goods to something to sit on!

Any help would be very appreciated, needless to say we are very excited and open to all sugestions :rotfl:

Flugelhorn

In my first house I sat on folding chairs with a camping table until I went to dump some cardboard packing at the tip and the guy in front was chucking out four 1940's ish dining chairs from his car boot, he retrieved the first and diverted them all to my car and I still have them around the house 30 + years later. That was a bit of luck though - rest of the stuff came from secondhand shops. Gas cooker (eye level grill LOL) and fridge freezer came from JohnLewis who duly undercut all the others and delivered free.I think if IKEA had existed I would have gone there.
These days Freecycle / secondhand places / charity shops etc are options. Also auctions seem to have lots of "brown furniture" that goes for v little.

Sanne

When we moved into our first rental, we had nothing and bought a cheap bed from Argos, that was it. (I had just moved to the UK so couldn’t take any furniture with me). We then got a few bits - incl a TV - for free from work colleagues; I had posted on the virtual message board to see if anyone had anything to sell.
And then we added to it as and when, from charity shops, cheap bits from high street stores etc.

That was 10.5 years ago and we’ve now bought our first (and hopefully last!) house and will take everything we have and then gradually replace it with new furniture that fits the space - currently it’s more “what fits into nearly any space in case we have to move”.
We could splash out easily now but can’t see the point - we treated ourselves to a new cooker (cheap one, it’s a 50cm dual fuel so had the grand choice of... 1!); the washing machine/fridge freezer/dishwasher/dryer we bought off the vendors so we were lucky there.

I think you’re doing this really sensibly, always makes me laugh when youngsters get their first place and insist on furnishing the entire place with new furniture straight on moving in, some of them who could only afford to buy with HTB and family giving money towards the deposit.

So, yep - Freecycle/Freegle, gumtree, charity shops (Red Cross, Emmaus, Debra, local hospices are the ones that cone to mind which usually seem to have furniture stores), second hand places generally (we have an amazing store nearby which we’ll keep visiting now!) - also keep an eye out on sales coming up. Also always worth asking around at work.

Good luck

Slinky

I bought a second hand cooker and some conservatory furniture (which I used in my lounge) off work colleagues. Try sticking a note up where you work and ask if anybody wants to get rid of anything. I also bought table and chairs and a dresser from an auction. Other bits I borrowed from my parental home until I could afford to buy for myself. I did buy a brand new bed.

googler

TheR3ader wrote: »

We are looking on FB Marketplace, Gumtree, Freecycle, Ebay - does anyone have any additional suggestions for where to look for cheaper furniture?

You could go old-school and walk up and down your high street(s) - charity shops, auction houses, house clearance companies, that sorta thing.

bopsybunny

See if there is a British Heart Foundation Furniture and Electrics store near you. We got a few bits from there. They have all sorts in there, good prices and they can deliver.

When buying second hand, I'd say be wary of Ikea stuff if you are going to need to dismantle and rebuild it to get it home, for example wardrobes. Our Ikea wardrobe has lived with us in 3 different houses and each time we move it doesn't quite go back together as well, and certain bits like handles start falling off... We will be chucking it out when we move again (we're currently in the process of buying our first house but have lived in unfurnished rentals for several years).

Also look for nearby Next or Marks and Spencer outlet stores. They often have furniture that is ex-display or returns that they sell at massive markdowns. We got a £1000 sofa, brand new, from M&S outlet in Salford Quays for about £250. It has a small (1 inch) tear in the fabric on one of the arms, we covered it with a blanket and rarely have thought about it since. A lot of the stuff in there is in perfect condition though.

Other than that - maybe just get the word out to friend and family that you're looking for furniture. We got a leather armchair for free through word of mouth, and some side tables for free from family who were having a clear-out.

Murphybear

Where do you live?

I ask because there will be lots of local charity/other shops that sell cheap but good furniture that MSErs will know about.

For example we have an amazing charity shop that is housed in an old Art Deco cinema. They only have furniture/household at very low prices.

You could also try local council recycling centres. A lot of it is tat but there are some bargains to be had. We got a beautiful coffee table and a leather pouffe which matched our furniture, for £5 each

trailingspouse

You don't have to do it all at one go. That's the thing to bear in mind. Our philosophy was always that (as far as practicable) we would manage without until we could afford what we really wanted.

Priority is a bed (and even if you're getting a second-hand bed, personally I would want a new mattress), and a cooker. There's an awful lot of stuff that you don't actually need.

Relatives are good sources of odds and ends. People like to help, so let them. You don't need to tell them that their choice of towels/curtains/duvet covers/crockery is abysmal.

Charity shops, pound shops, freecycle, auctions.

But just because you're buying cheap doesn't mean you can't buy smart - if you know that one day you want a dove grey kitchen with pops of lime green, then buy the grey washing up bowl rather than the pink one, or the lime green T towels rather than the brown ones. If you can't afford a table and chairs, maybe you could afford a patio set - then, when you can afford the real thing, the patio set gets moved onto the patio.

We still have the table we bought for our kitchen for next to nothing then carried home (half a mile) to save petrol - it's now in the boot room...
You'll get there.

hazyjo

I'd be looking for quality and cheap, not just 'cheap and about to fall apart as made of something resembling thick cardboard' lol.


Search for things like 'mahogany' or 'oak' (and careful it's not an imitation or 'effect' type thing). If you don't like the colour or think something looks dated, or even if you buy loads of mis-matched stuff and want it to look uniform, you could always paint it. (Slightly criminal I know, but I do think painted stuff can look good too.)


Search 'Frenchic paint' and various furniture items on google images to take a look. Can use that paint to paint straight on, no need to sand, prime, etc. Some of their own images as examples here: https://frenchicpaint.co.uk/blogs/upcycling-makeovers


There are other makes that do it too.


Highly recommend the basic white cheap dinner service in Wilko and their hi-ball glasses. So durable! Great kitchen stuff. I prefer it to Ikea.

MP2609

TheR3ader wrote: »

Hi everyone,
We are buying a house! Now that we've spent all our money on a house, we need to furnish it :eek:
Essentially we are putting ourselves on a budget of £550 per month to add furniture, we are planning on doing this second hand with almost anything we can. We are looking on FB Marketplace, Gumtree, Freecycle, Ebay - does anyone have any additional suggestions for where to look for cheaper furniture?

Also, I'm aware that there are something that we dont want to get 2nd hand (like matresses...) - is there anything else I need to be wary of when buying second hand?

From my first pass it seems like we need everything from white goods to something to sit on!

Any help would be very appreciated, needless to say we are very excited and open to all sugestions :rotfl:

I am myself currently looking for my first house and after some good discussions on this forum, I managed to create a list of everything I need as well as an estimate of the cost for each item. More than happy to drop you a message with a template of it if you would like? :j

camptownraces

Many charity shops sell wooden furniture, which shouldn't present a problem.

To be safe, second hand upholstered furniture should have a label saying that it complies with the 1988 fire safety regulations. Furniture that doesn't have this label can release fatal toxic fumes in the event of a fire.

Electrical appliances may not be sold secondhand unless they have been tested by a qualified electrician and found to be functioning and safe. Electrical goods that people give away (for example via Freecycle etc) have no guarantee of safety.

British Heart Foundation shops sell second hand electrical goods which have been tested and passed by their electricians as functioning and safe. There may be other charity shops that can do this, I don't know.

Best of luck with your search.