First home things to sit on required

Frevski

Hi all,

First post here, so I thought I might as well make it worth the effort and give you something to sink your teeth into.

Myself and my girlfriend are shortly going to move into our first place together, however we have next to no furniture. This stems from me being a soldier and her just leaving home.

So to that end I thought I would ask for your help.

We will require pretty much everthing you can think of, stuff to sit on, stuff I shouldnt put my feet on (but no doubt will), kitchen bits and bobs. I'm sure you all get the idea by now. So any help would and will be amazingly helpful for us. So if you know of any decent furniture stores on the net, or who makes decent quality at a good price please let me know.

Having had a think as well, we are going to try and buy right the first time on things such as sofa's etc, where we will be spending most of our time. And I will try and keep down my urge to by shiney things for as long as humanly possible

Ken68

Stuff from Argos and such are the same price as quality old and antique furniture from an auction, and the latter will appreciate in value.
Watch out for woodworm etc and you will need to get it home.

Sailor_Sam

There was a programme on TV showing a young girl who set up her complete home for nothing.
She used freecycle, never looked at it myself, but she got some good stuff.

beer_tins

If you don't mind second hand (but free), freecycle is the way to go. www dot freecycle dot org. Don't put too many "wanted" adds on, as they'll get annoyed, but keep an eye out for anything free you need. May be a good way to go until you can afford the stuff you really want

penrhyn

Try Ikea, but go directly to bargain corner, they often have good deals there, but be prepared to do a bit of dissassembly.

PS At the Nottingham Ikea they will often knock a bit more off if you haggle.

Charity shops like the British heart Foundation, have good quality stuff if you don't mind second hand.

bigdic

As a few have said, charity shops and freecycle are great places to start. Also take a look in your local paper, some people change their sofa like normal folk change their socks so some real gems in their.

When it comes to sofas I'd advise you to get a second hand one for a few months so you can settle into the flat and then decide on colour/style/price etc. Also you can decorate around it without worrying and you'll have something to sit on while your dream sofa gets delivered.

Bongedone

If you go the 2nd hand route. Make sure the previous owners do not have cats. A long time back somebody gave me a sofa and it was full of fleas.

vivatifosi

Hi Frevski,

First tip, get an Argos catalogue or similar and make a list of EVERYTHING you need. You don't need to buy stuff there, but it does give you a good benchmark for prices and budget.

I set up my first house for about £50, though that was some time ago. I think I could probably still do it for about £2-300.

Household goods: contact all of your friends and family and find out if they are replacing anything in the coming months. I got my cooker, fridge and sofa bed this way, my Mum let me take my bed from home. Also useful as many people have spare kettles, toasters, knife sets etc... Many people will help people set up their first home, just so long as you aren't too discerning and don't try and blag stuff every time you move. I didn't get my cooker straight off, had to wait, but you'd be amazed what you can do with a kettle and a microwave.

Get anything you don't get free from auctions, charity shops and so on. My best buy was a Heals table, which I got for £2 from my local auction. They'd missed the little tag on it saying where it was from, it was in a state and it needed stripping. Now worth substantially more and I still have it many years on.

Keep your eye out to the bargain bins in local DIY stores such as B&Q. When I redid my downstairs cloakroom in my new house I did the whole thing for £150: new toilet, big mirror (Dunelm), single hole basin, tiles, tap and waste, flooring, toilet roll and towel holders, blind, paint and accessories. Hopefully you won't need to replace expensive stuff like kitchens and bathrooms, but if you do, that's a cheap way to do it. They also sell of paint cheap from time to time. Dunelm Mill generally has a "bargain corner" where you can pick up cheap linens, accessories, and shiny bits. You can also pick up cheap bits to tart up your kitchen (amazing what new handles will do) from Ikea.

Pick great fashion shots from magazines, frame them in cheap frames from Woolworths or similar and use as decoration. I got some lovely black and white photos from an old magazine and they were as good as the ones you pay for!

Carpets: unless you are from a very wealthy family and have a big sprawling pile as your home, its likely that the rooms in your first house will be remnant sized. Check for local carpet warehouses, I have one near me that does great carpets really cheap, much lower prices than Carpetright etc.

bookduck

You sound young. you sound like you might be on the move for some time before you settle in your own place?

I'd suggest as little as possible as it makes moving easier, also things like futons and other foldable furniture is very handy especially when manipulating stairs, hallways and where small cars are involved. Van moves keep on adding to cost and humping masses of furniture around is not my favorite past time.

I've personally bought one ex-Ikea second hand table for 80p from ebay (new price is £65), but the best was a solid pine kitchen table with 3 chairs for £1.20.

I bought a leather 2 seater from a colleague at work for £20, firstly it would not fit into my estate car and secondly it would not fit through the hall/lounge door. Ended up carrying the thing around a terrace block and over the garden wall and finally squeezed it through the back door that leads into the lounge.

Andy_Hamilton

I moved into my first place last year. I went to SCS and signed up for a wounderful electric recliner sofa set (3 years at £60 per month). After it went wrong from day one I had massive problems and they collected it on a given day for full refund.
Because I still needed to sit on something to sit on I went to Ikea and bought 2 Ikea Klippan sofa for £120-130 each. They come flat pack about the size of a single mattress and I am 100% happy with them. When people visit they think they are much more expensive than they are. If they get food split on them, the covers are £30 new but also can be washed at least 5 times.
Ebay and freecycle is cheaper bu I like the fact a sofa is new.

Pennylane

Have you considered garden-type furniture? Some of it is FAB and really stylish.

A couple of years ago we brought in a set of plastic table and chairs from the garden while we were DIYing and with a cloth on you don't know what's underneath!;) They were really comfy too and we used them for months!!

We have lovely garden stuff now - looky-likey wicker and glass stuff and we bring that in if we have a party.

I was in a big DIY place today and they had super little bistro sets - couple of chairs and round aluminium-type table as cheap as chips AND when you can afford something better, they can always go outside again!

Look in your local papers or newsagents boards for sofas etc. I sold 2 leather sofas about a year ago (about 3 years old and the smaller one was mint condition). I paid about £1500 for them and DH spilt something on the larger one and tried to clean it himself:mad: . He rubbed a small hole in the leather and felt so bad he promised to decorate the lounge, get new carpet, curtains the lot AND 2 new RECLINING leather sofas!!:j I came out of that pretty well really - because a new throw would have sufficed!!;) Which is precisely what the woman who bought them planned to do - I got £25 and she got a real bargain!