“Furnishing Your First Home”

First Time Buyer – Furnishing Your First Home

My recent blog ‘Lock-up or Loft‘ tells you everything you need to know about working out what to take with you when you move into your first time buyer home.  However, as a First Time Buyer, the accommodation you are leaving may be a rental or even your parents’ house.  So, it could be that decluttering is the least of your worries!  Let’s now consider First Time Buyer furnishing, as you move into your first home. How exciting!

This is something that can be a great outlet for your own self-expression and personal taste. But what will you really need and where will you get it?

First Time Buyer Expenses

You’ve started your home buying journey by finding the best online mortgage calculator.  Now it’s the actual day of the move, one of the big expenses that you need to factor in will be for furnishings.

This can take in everything from the obvious functional pieces such as sofas, chairs, tables, beds and various storage units through to decorative items.  You might hanker after artwork for walls, imaginative lighting and a choice of window coverings.

That’s quite a lot of money gone already!  And that’s before you start on major essential kitchen appliances – cooker, fridge and probably a washing machine too. Is your new home ‘in need of updating’?  It might mean you have to include a new central heating system and hot water boiler too.

Plus, that 52″ 4k ultra high definition TV that ‘would look great on that wall’ might need to be added to the list as well…

Thinking outside the furnishing box

As an estate agent I know how difficult it can be for a first time buyer to juggle finances, especially if you have gone to the limit to get your dream starter home.

It can be difficult to compromise on getting everything indoors ‘just so’ if money is tight.  But the thing to remember is that you’ve got time to feather your own nest as you go along. That might mean you spend some time sitting on ‘hand me down’ chairs or struggling with putting together flat-pack wardrobes (as I did!), but there are plenty of stylish options that are quite affordable if you know where to look.

Although your furniture might be coming out of a flat box, you might have to wait a while for that big TV screen to come out of its own cutting edge packaging.  Sometimes, you just have to make do with an older model. Buying second hand items can save a small fortune! With the quick turnaround in tech these days it might mean you are simply ‘making do’ with last year’s model – you know, the one that last blew all of its predecessors away!

First Time Buyer – Empty canvas 

Ultimately, rather than seeing a property as an empty void to be filled right away, think of it as a blank canvas.  You can add layers to your canvas as you go along.  Create something unique as you do so.  Trends change, and so will your ideas on styling your home.

Your ‘new home’ will simply become ‘home’ as you furnish it over time. Your own tastes will change and new ideas will inspire you.  Don’t worry about ‘how’ to furnish it, when you move in, just get on with it!