Frugal Furniture?

[locolorenzo24]

Hey, anyone have any good frugal home decor/furnature shopping tips for a 25yo renter? I'm trying to lose the whole bachlor pad idea, but my walls are white, I have ugly white miniblinds over all windows, bad furniture...read, not comfy...., and sleep on an airbed...
I've come into a little cash, and figure it like this....

1. Bed(Queen size or so along with a nice matress to sleep on....
2. Bedside table/lamp.
3. Couch
4. Chair
5. Dining room table
6. Entertainment center to hold my massive CD/DVD collection and my 4 consoles plus 17" TV....
7. Wall art
8. old travel postcards to decorate a wall...

Any tips/suggestions??

[shengmei]

Check the dumpsters beside colleges when students move.

You won't believe the kinds of stuff they throw away!!!

People throw away old TV stands all the time. If you get enough TV stands you can virtually make any furniture out of them.

If you want nice furniture, however....IKEA has a clearance section of 75% off furniture. They are usually slightly dented and scratched. However, IKEA sells their own furniture finishes in little tiny containers. 10 minutes of polishing saves you hundreds of bucks.

[Broken Arrow]

I second IKEA, although I'd eventually like to try my hands at building my own. I know, furniture building is a labor of love, not an exercise in frugality. Still, my needs and goals are simple. Just simple power tools and MDFs. Also, I'm not planning to do it anytime soon yet. Just something that's sitting in the back burner for the moment.

[shengmei]

You know IKEA actually has cheaper MDF boards than everyone else? Sometimes their packages burst and they end up with all those boards that they don't know where they belong to. So they just have a huge pile of boards in the clearance section for $2 apiece.

I love IKEA. We went there for honeymoon

[Broken Arrow]

Originally Posted by shengmei

I love IKEA. We went there for honeymoon

ROFL!

Now that's funny. Cute too.

I hope I meet a woman as quirky as you someday.

[tgavin71]

My advice is to get furniture that serves more than one purpose. If you get a good quality sofa bed you can use that until you have the money to buy a bed. Plus when friends or family visit they have somewhere to stay. As for a bed get an ensemble. I find them a lot more comfortable than the bed plus mattress set up. Also you can change the look of the room just by changing the colour of the bedding. You can get some wall art if you want to put at the head of the bed if you don't like the bare wall look.
Huge old style wardrobes with a bit of modifications make excellent entertainment centres. Best thing is that if they have locks you can close the doors and lock it for extra security.
Buy a decent dining table. Get the biggest one that you can fit. Extension tables are great space savers. If the seats match the sofa it means you don't need to buy a chair.

[shengmei]

Originally Posted by Broken Arrow

ROFL!

Now that's funny. Cute too.

I hope I meet a woman as quirky as you someday.

Guys always say that.

Women always want to hurt me because they are jealous (This is not meant to be a serious post)

ROFL!!!

[locolorenzo24]

Wow, keep em coming...great to see all these tips, especially since I posted only an hour ago! I was thinking IKEAish, due to going with my brother while on vacation and seeing the selection of many different items, a lot of them seem great.
What do you think about the philosophy of buying at more than one store, as in "If I buy all IKEA, I might as well live there"?

[shengmei]

I don't know.

I personally like the Euro look. It all depends on what you like. Most of my furnitures are from the trash so I just call my style "ecletic"

[kealina]

we don't have IKEA
we would probably look at yard sales, (military people are always moving and some of them have nice furniture which they are willing sell affordably)... check out craigslist, furniture store clearance areas, etc...
don't forget swap meets/thrift stores/vintage stores for the smaller items like rugs, curtains, art... we actually haven't had to buy furniture yet although we did get a recliner (2 yrs old) at a yard sale... guy was selling it because his wife hated it ... $30 and he went down to $20... yay...
we've also bought curtain panels for anywhere from $1-$5 each....

[jodi]

I'm surprised no one mentioned freecycle.org yet. Free is better than cheap

People post things that they are giving away for free - but you can also post for items you are looking for.

[lrjohnson]

For couches, Slip covers are a possibility (pieces of cloth that go over a couch and are form fitting). They are reasonably priced, and can make a unacceptable plaid monster match any room, if the frame is good and the it feels good to sit on. Surefit. com is one place to look, even just to get an idea of what they look like. I'd peek before I went shopping, because it might make you look at "ugly" couches differently. They are washable, too. And to "redecorate" you can get a new cover instead of a new couch.

Being patient helps. You may see a couch you love at the right place through IKEA/Freecycle/Thrift stores, etc., but you may see nothing that you like at all for a coffee table. Get the cheapest acceptable item, and then be on the casual lookout for that love of your life coffee table. Give yourself time.

(I've experienced having cash burning a hole in my pocket and not seeing anything "out there" but then two months later-there it is. This has happened with a lot more than furniture.)

Anything framed instead of unframed just classes a whole wall up, even if it's a KISS poster. Get cheap frames at thrift stores, other sources.

[poundwise]

Freecycle is clearly a good idea.

Also, shop rummage and second-hand shops. When I first moved to this area I purchased a La-Z-Boy recliner for my grandfather that cost $399. About 6 months later I found the exact same chair in a different color at a used furniture and appliances place. It was in very good condition and I ended up paying about $50 for it.

[sakigt]

Ebay : Use the advanced search feature to search for furniture in a 50 mile radius. This helps you find the "local pickup only" stuff. I managed to snag a tan leather sectional with pullout bed and recliners for $400!

Craigslist : Keep searching, keep emailing. I ended up in touch with a guy who was moving. I took half of his living room away for $200!

[cschin4]

Think AUCTION! Look around for local estate auctions. You can get great furniture at bargin basement prices. But, you need to bring a truck with you or know someone that could go back later that day and pick it up because they want the stuff out by the end of the auction. Alot of the stuff goes cheap because people don't have the means to move it. So, be prepared. But, my advice is to go to a few auctions and don't buy anything or just bid on something small until you get the feel for it. It is great fun, an entertaining way to spend the day also. If you are planning to buy, then get to the auction early, examine the stuff you are interested. Some of it may be scratched, dinged, even broken so be careful because everything is sold "as is". Then, if you find something you want to bid on, have a set maximum price in your mind BEFORE you start bidding. It is easy to get caught up in a bidding war and the "must have" thing in your brain overrides any commonsense! I know, cuz been there, done that!
At auction, you can get a whole matching bedroom set. Sometimes they will sell the set in it's entirety. Or, they may sell each piece separately. They also usually include the mattress. An old mattress sounds gross, but sometimes the mattresses included are newer, new or rarely used so you may get a good mattress as well. Try it and have fun.

[boefixepa]

Scratch and dent things are generally slashed at any furniture store. I found a futon at a fraction of it's original price, side tables and coffe table, and bed side tables all at great deals at the scratch and dent area of a retail store. I went in not thinking I'd find anything, but then I found this section...it was great. So just go into any funiture store and ask if they have a scratch and dent area.

As far as mattresses go....well if your ready to say you are in it for the long haul personally I'd hunt around and invest...did you hear that....invest....in the mattress you sleep best on. I had no idea how tortured I was until I slept on a Tempur-pedic memory foam mattress. Now I'm not saying that is best for you, but knowing the difference now I don't want my nice pillow top that I thought was so great. Granted it was better than the college twin, which was better than the old hand me down from home. See where I am going here. I slept five years on the pillow top I picked up for a GREAT deal at a discount store. But now.....well not knowing what your missing is exactly that, but not waking up and have to roll over because my hip hurts, or my shoulder hurts, or my leg feel asleep....I sleep through the entire night!!!! Didn't know I could do that!! So if you are going to brake down and buy a bed.....think about investing in a good bed that will last twenty plus years and give you a great nights sleep. That sleep is something you can't put a dollar value on.

[PrincessPerky]

I hate memory foam! but having said that, yes invest in a mattress, sleep on it or at least lie on it before you buy it, and research to make sure you don't need a new one next year.

[nanamom]

I second the free cycle, ebay, yard sale, auction thing but add wait to get what you want. I have waited for years to own a coffee table I love and finally found one at an auction two years ago. It is on my list of 5 things that go with us if ... I will never have a showcase home, but I will have what I like and can afford. I bought an old book that tells how to make wood out of paper (switch isn't it) that I want to try.

[locolorenzo24]

great ideas...Thank you all. I'm going to an estate sale tomorrow and IKEA next week. Also, I'm with the whole investing in a bed idea, as I plan to have for at least the next 2.5 years until I graduate from school and determine where I want to live/work. My top choices have been narrowed to bed, entertainment center, and a dining room table/chairs, also a few wall art pieces. found a great old painting at the thrift store that is very travelish...which goes with my style. Thanks again!

[flash]

You'd be surprised what you can find at goodwill or salvation army stores. Many people buy new frequently, and give the almost new away.

Also, if you are in an area where people are frequently moving in and out (college, military), you can usually find things very cheap because they don't want or can't afford to move them.

Just balance cost versus how long you want to keep it. If you love it and plan on using it for years, like wood tables, etc., you might pay more. If it's short term, just to get by, cheaper is better.