I’ve found that furnishing a home comes in three different categories and they each add up to a huge undertaking. Either you don’t have enough furniture, you have too much or, what you do have, doesn’t work! With some creativity though making what you do have work in a DIY fashion is completely doable, affordable and can be really fun. If you don’t have enough furniture you can still apply that same DIY creativity to inexpensive thrift store and salvage yard furniture and get a huge bang for your buck that is PERFECT for you and what you want in your home.
(This is a contributed post, for more information about my compensation please read my disclosure policy)
Whether you’ve recently moved into a new home or have decided to renovate and clear out one of your existing rooms, furnishing can be a really tough job for a variety of reasons. You might not realize what you need to buy, you might be unsure about the dimensions and the space you have available, and you might be completely oblivious to what colors you should be picking for furniture.
All of these factors can make it extremely daunting to buy furniture for a blank room, especially if you’re thinking of furnishing a large bedroom with a lot of floor space. So in this post, we’re going to take a look at a practical approach to furnishing your rooms.
Focus on what you’ll be doing in the room
If you consider what you’ll be actually using your rooms for, then you’ll find that it can be surprisingly easy to furnish them in a quick and efficient manner. Think about what each room will be used for and the essential furniture that will make them functional and useful.
For instance, a bedroom is going to need a chest of drawers and dressers to store your clothes. A study will need a desk for a computer that you work from. These sound like very simple and obvious ideas, but it’s a great starting point to an otherwise daunting task. By starting with these large and bulky pieces of furniture first, it makes it easier to finish up a room.
Start with some color ideas
Before you start buying furniture, it might help to think about some color or tone ideas to help you stick with a general theme. You may want to do a bit of research here on room themes to get a general idea of what colors and patterns you want to go for.
A great example of this is the ever-popular “natural” theme that focuses on lots of different wood grains and tones while also mixing in green plants and neutral colors. This is a very relaxing color scheme and is easy to achieve since most furniture is made from wood and plants are easy to place around the room.
To DIY or not?
While DIY furniture projects might sound great in theory, you should remember that there are hidden costs associated with these projects. For starters, you might end up damaging something like your walls if you’re not careful. This can ultimately lead to expensive repairs if you’re not careful. You might also be spending a lot of time making a DIY furniture solution which is a lot more concerning than just spending a bit of extra money on something pre-built.
In short, DIY solutions can be great. You can build something that is exactly to your specification and it’s a fantastic way to make the most of every inch of space in your rooms. However, sometimes it’s easier just to go with something that’s pre-built and ready to go. Just remember to measure everything first!
(This is a contributed post, for more information about my compensation please read my disclosure policy)