Furnishing your home is an exciting process that can add color, comfort, and style to your space. Sofas, chairs, and even coffee tables for example have the ability to fill a room in a way that expresses your creativity and personality. Although choosing your new furniture is the more fun side of the process, there are a variety of steps that must take place to complete a re-furnishing project flawlessly.
One major detail that many individuals tend to forget about is the financial piece of the puzzle. To help you ahead of your next move or furniture update, we have a few tips for you to ensure flawless navigation around furnishing your home.
Consolidate Your Assets
Outfitting a home with brand new furniture can come at a pretty large upfront cost. Before setting foot in a furniture store or buying anything online, take time to consolidate your assets. Look into your current financial standing, including your budget, and determine what you’re able to allocate towards this project.
To help put your finances into perspective, factor in monthly recurring payments you have, such as your rent or mortgage payments, groceries, streaming services, memberships, etc. If you don’t already track this, use an Excel spreadsheet to organize or categorize these payments. You’ll also want to evaluate the money you have flowing in along with your current savings and credit card limits.
Once you have an idea of where your finances stand, take inventory of the furniture you may already have and see if it’s due for a replacement or update. From there, develop a list of the furniture you need and want. Move into measuring all of your rooms and take notes in a planner to ensure you aren’t buying furniture that is too big or too small for your space. Avoid designing mistakes by getting some inspiration before jumping into the purchasing aspect of it all.
Discover Your Financial Avenues
It’s a good idea to have financing options outlined before purchasing furniture for your home. Whether you are trying to furnish every room in your home, or you’ve settled into your space and just want to update what you already own, you may want to utilize financial services as a way to help pay off the furniture costs. Look across all of your options like using cash upfront, taking out a personal loan, using a credit card or a personal line of credit, or looking into installment or financial options offered directly from the retailer. Weigh out the options and benefits of each financial option to ensure you are confident about your choice.
Create a Furniture Plan & Budget
Once you have your assets and financial options organized, identify a furniture plan and the costs associated with each piece. Keep in mind, that the cost of furnishing your home can add up quickly, which is why research is so important. If you are moving into a new apartment or house and are looking to start from scratch, walk through your new home with a notepad and go room by room to figure out what specific furniture pieces you will need. From there, figure out the style you are looking to have in each living space and what types of brands and fabrics you want to use.
Keep in mind that certain fabrics, textures, and patterns may directly affect the amount you spend on your furniture. Once you have an idea of what you are looking for, you should focus on research next.
Organize all the price points in a budgeting app or a spreadsheet to help keep yourself on track. Doing this also allows you to see what your potential spending could be. While mapping out price ranges, you should also take into account what rooms are your main priority. Consider furnishing those rooms before any other one.
Focus on High-Quality Items Over Quantity
When you’re decorating on a budget, it can be tempting to start loading up on cheap wall décor, accessories, and trinkets from a local home goods store to fill your space. But before you start to fill your cart with furniture, consider focusing on high-quality items over quantity. Rather than blowing your budget on poorly made, short-lived, items, spend a little extra time shopping for quality, gently used items at an outlet store. At CORT Furniture Outlet, you can find beautiful, made-to-last décor and furniture that will make your home look expensive while also fitting into your budget.
Our ever-changing new and gently used inventory is marked at up to 70% off new prices so that you can have more style while spending less. And, best of all, you can pick up your items today when you shop online or in-store at your nearest CORT Furniture Outlet location.
