Decorating and furnising your first proper home

[Antilogic]

You'll acquire decorations (and tastes in decoration) as time goes on. I'd focus on the bare essentials (a place to eat, a place to sleep) and fill in the rest later on. You'll be staring at your computer screen anyway, so why bother with paintings?

Question: does the OP intend for this to be your first house where you expect to spend a decade or more of your life, or your first proper home out of your parents' house?

 

[stormerne]

Imagine yourself moving into your first basic home. How will you decorate it? Thinking if you are on a limited budget- what things will you prioritise? What will you spend big on, and on what will you deal with economy class. Rubbish toaster, expencive kettle? Or is having a supreme bed most important?

It's already decorated because it's a furnished rental. So, bit by bit, you only add small things that you can take with you when you upgrade to unfurnished or a bought home.

That leaves you with only the big stuff when you move again. But you're still economizing. And maybe the kitchen appliances are built in. So first thing: you buy a good mattress but you put it on the floor without a bed frame. And a solid (not Ikea) dining table.

 

[Antilogic]

... you put it on the floor without a bed frame.

My one buddy did this, with a bare-minimal desk with his computer and everything else strewn out on the floor. It looked like an al-Qaeda operating base.

 

[Narz]

Take your time & get stuff you like. I would never pay more than $50 a couch, usually more like zero.

A good mattress is the single most important choice. Wall hangings, tables, etc. you can pick up at your leisure. Second most important choice is a good computer chair (for any reading this).

 

[downtown]

For my first bachelory apartment, I got almost everything second hand. It sucks to get nice (or big) furniture for your first place, since you likely won't live there more than a year, and moving sucks!

When I moved to Chicago, I invested in a fairly nice Ikea bed, and a few slightly nicer kitchen appliances...but still mostly second hand things. Luckily, my fiancee has really nice kitchen stuff, and her parents have donated some great chairs, so it looks like the majority of my bachelor things can be passed along to the next wayward twentysomething to occupy my apartment.

You gotta have a good place to sleep, and a good shelf for your stuff. Everything else is secondary.

 

[mangxema]

For my first bachelory apartment, I got almost everything second hand. It sucks to get nice (or big) furniture for your first place, since you likely won't live there more than a year, and moving sucks!

Yeah, I find myself really not wanting to move now that I actually have some stuff. Fortunately, I've got a good setup. I have everything that I need. I could step up to a nice condo, but I'm comfortable living where I am and using the money I save on travel (which is something that I've always wanted to do more of).

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Find out where your nearest Freecycle group is based. Household items are always being offered, especially during the time of year when people are still trying to keep New Year's resolutions about "decluttering" or trying to find room for the new Christmas stuff by getting rid of the old. The great thing about Freecycle is that it's actually against the rules to have an exchange of money, and even trades are forbidden. So whatever you get won't cost a penny, unless you have to pay for transportation to get there and back.

Furniture-wise, try to have stuff that can serve more than one purpose. For instance, I have a hope chest. It can store a lot of stuff, it's on wheels so it can be moved around easily, it's sturdy enough to sit on, and large enough to serve as a coffee table. At one time I even used it as a typing desk.

 

[azzaman333]

I have no idea how I'll go about decorating or furnishing my first home. Hopefully I have someone to live with who can has a better idea about that stuff, otherwise I'll just go in blindly and hope for the best.

 

[Boundless]

Find out where your nearest Freecycle group is based. Household items are always being offered, especially during the time of year when people are still trying to keep New Year's resolutions about "decluttering" or trying to find room for the new Christmas stuff by getting rid of the old. The great thing about Freecycle is that it's actually against the rules to have an exchange of money, and even trades are forbidden. So whatever you get won't cost a penny, unless you have to pay for transportation to get there and back.

Furniture-wise, try to have stuff that can serve more than one purpose. For instance, I have a hope chest. It can store a lot of stuff, it's on wheels so it can be moved around easily, it's sturdy enough to sit on, and large enough to serve as a coffee table. At one time I even used it as a typing desk.

I have joined the local Freecycle, I am not in a highly populated area.. only towns not cities. Hopefully stuff will turn up.

This could be a very permanent residence, not something to hop out of within a few years.

 

[Gangor]

You can often find good stuff on Craigslist or Gumtree (depending on where you live)

 

[Boundless]

Can't decide on buying a bed..

Cheap n' 2nd Hand ~£150
Cheapest New ~£300
Just Go for it Ultimate Bed 4 Lyfe ~£800

I probably have about £5,000 I won't be at a loss if I spent.. but it wouldn't leave me with much savings.. thus i'd rather not.

 

[Zelig]

Can't decide on buying a bed..

Cheap n' 2nd Hand ~£150
Cheapest New ~£300
Just Go for it Ultimate Bed 4 Lyfe ~£800

I probably have about £5,000 I won't be at a loss if I spent.. but it wouldn't leave me with much savings.. thus i'd rather not.

Get the most comfortable mattress you can find, regardless of price.

Then worry about a bed for the mattress afterwards.

Also, be very careful about bedbugs in any used stuff, you don't want the mess of fumigating your first home as soon as you get it furnished.

 

[emzie]

Can't decide on buying a bed..

Cheap n' 2nd Hand ~£150
Cheapest New ~£300
Just Go for it Ultimate Bed 4 Lyfe ~£800

I probably have about £5,000 I won't be at a loss if I spent.. but it wouldn't leave me with much savings.. thus i'd rather not.

Seriously, get the most comfortable mattress you can find. You're going to spend between a quarter and a third of your life in bed. And not to mention that being able to sleep comfortably has a huge impact on the rest of your time.

 

[Supr49er]

I started out with free furniture from family and roadside pickups.
Eventually I replaced stuff as I could afford it. I also built tables and shelves myself.

 

[stormerne]

So the advice is clear from several of us: get a really good mattress.

Oh... and if you're intending to spend "energetic times" in/on it, make it on the firm side.

 

[mayor]

Can't decide on buying a bed..

Cheap n' 2nd Hand ~£150
Cheapest New ~£300
Just Go for it Ultimate Bed 4 Lyfe ~£800

I probably have about £5,000 I won't be at a loss if I spent.. but it wouldn't leave me with much savings.. thus i'd rather not.

I would buy the best bed you can afford. never underestimate the importance of a good night rest.

@OP: well I wouldn't buy a bed since I already bought an excellent bed the last time I refurbishing my room.
I would buy a kitchen in which I could be as snobistic about coocking as I want, I would buy a very nice tv for films and I would spend as little as possible on everything else.

 

[Leifmk]

What I actually did prioritize when I got my first self-owned bachelor pad and had to furnish it mostly on my own:

1: Good mattress (of a type that's meant to sit directly on the floor, no bedframe required).

2: Decent sofa.

3: Dining table with reasonably sturdy chairs.

4: Book shelves to line most of the walls.

5: Some paint and brushes so I could get rid of the ugly deep red colour in the hallway.

6: A vacuum cleaner.

Already had a desk and an office-type chair, plus my own computer (the computer was actually provided by my then-employer since I had to be able to work from home on occasion). Also I got a hand-me-down reclining chair from my parents (old and worn and ugly as hell, but comfy). A big TV and a proper stereo system were considerably later acquisitions; for the first couple of years (when cash flow was especially tight due to the way my mortgage worked) I made do with the tiny old TV I'd had in my student accommodations, plus a discman with headphones.

The fridge and the kitchen oven, plus the washing machine, were inherited from the previous owner (they were all cheap old crap and not worth the bother of moving them out). The washing machine broke after a couple of years and I bought a new one, the fridge and the oven were still there when I sold the apartment. If those things hadn't come with the place, they'd have been around #2 on the list as you can't really live a civilized life without them (well, there was a laundry place a block away at the time so I might have been able to do without the washing machine, but whatever).

Instead of a proper nightstand, I used the big sturdy cardboard box that my PC's monitor came in (this was still in the era of bulky CRT monitors). For the entire five and a half years I lived there.

...and I guess that's about the sum total of what I did with that place.

 

[Zelig]

6: A vacuum cleaner.

Oh yeah, I'd also get a good vacuum cleaner. I'm partial to Miel.

 

[Narz]

So the advice is clear from several of us: get a really good mattress.

Oh... and if you're intending to spend "energetic times" in/on it, make it on the firm side.

Firm mattresses are better for your back too. Personally I prefer to sleep on just a mattress pad (though for the sake of my S.O. I sleep on her firm mattress with her).