Browse Forums General Discussion Re: How much did you spend on furnishing your home? 21Feb 11, 2010 10:33 pm I have no idea what I have spent over the years, as I first became a home owner in 1993. Our current contents are insured for $150k but I believe that includes carpets, fixtures and fittings and window coverings etc? Blog: http://bluemistkids.blogspot.com "Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark, and professionals built the Titanic." Re: How much did you spend on furnishing your home? 23Feb 12, 2010 6:38 pm Ari A few of the stores you have listed are just pricey rubbish. Look around a bit more and you will find much better quality. I have to agree with Ari. I have owned leather lounges from Natuzzi and they were just not quite right. The leather had a funny smell in summer and its was just gross. Domayne is nothing to sing and dance about, they have the same furniture as most other furniture stores they just have more on show. I have also been to King for this house and the quality does not match the price tag. We got 2 amazing Italian designed lounge suites (1 leather, 1 fabric) for 1/3 less then what King would charge. What I am not understanding about this thread is the fact that you are set on the stores, you know what furniture you need, you know how much each item costs and yet you need to ask everyone else if you have budgeted enough. Seems like just a name dropping opportunity to me. Re: How much did you spend on furnishing your home? 25Feb 12, 2010 7:23 pm EKT What I am not understanding about this thread is the fact that you are set on the stores, you know what furniture you need, you know how much each item costs and yet you need to ask everyone else if you have budgeted enough. Seems like just a name dropping opportunity to me. That thought had passed my mind too 'A bottle of wine contains more philosophy than all the books in the world.' Louis Pasteur Vegie garden: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=27637&start=0 My Backyard Adventure Re: How much did you spend on furnishing your home? 26Feb 14, 2010 4:03 am Hi Mandy I tnink the only advise I can give you is to wait until your home is completely finish then think about what furniture you need. You will be amazed at how your taste will change over the next 2 years and I know from my own experience, I look back at what I have bought and think..."what possessed me to buy that " Most of my furniture so far is 2nd hand, I bought it off my best friend who changes her mind quite often and I love her taste I still havent furnished the house even though I have been in almost a year....I really think it takes times to make a home look really nice. I know its fun scheming and dreaming about your beautiful new home but I would just buy what you have to, lend a few 'pieces' from relatives then have fun sourcing the furniture you really love over the next few years as your taste will change. very exciting times ahead for you mandy, I cant wait to see how your development progresses Mrs B Re: How much did you spend on furnishing your home? 27Feb 14, 2010 9:55 am Most of my furniture is 2nd hand from our old house! It's been accumulating over 13 years. Most of it is in pretty good nick and thankfully mostly suits the house. There are a couple of bookshelves and a bedside table I will paint white first, then sell if I'm still not happy about them, but the rest is pretty good. This is roughly what I've spent on the new house so far: 2X 3 seater couches $2500 on sale 1 hall table $400 on sale (was $1600) 1 console/sofa table $450 on sale 1 mirror $250 on sale 1 Laura Ashley lamp base and shade $300 on sale 3X IKEA Expidit shelves approx $400 on sale 3X IKEA Ingolf bar stools approx $280 1 coffee table $650 on sale 1 side table $360 on sale Artwork: make my own or frame sheets of $10 wrapping paper in IKEA Ribba frames. 1 fridge $2200 on sale. Decorator items (bowls, apothecary jars, cushions, throws etc) probably about $700, most on sale. My tastes have slightly changed in the time I first looked at quotes to the time I moved in, but I haven't regretted buying anything, and alot of it was 'found' during the build, but I waited until it was on sale! For the fridge and the couches I got the shops to warehouse them until I wanted them delivered as long as it wasn't going to cost me extra money. IKEA and hall table were flat pack, so that fitted in the garage of our temp accom, most of the other stuff was bought once we moved in or stored in the place we were staying. I agree with Mrs B. Don't be in such a hurry to have everything before you move in. Even though I had a display home to 'work' from and think about furniture placement, I still haven't finished, and I am still getting ideas on how to finish it! I want my home to reflect my personality and not a display home, so it takes time to find the right 'piece'! We still have a completely disorganised study (need built in desk and shelves), the dining has no table or chairs, and that will cost be about $5K for what I really want. I still need a rug in the family room plus possibly 2 french style book cases (but I'll try the painted option of old furniture first!) and a small desk. The lounge still needs a coffee table/buttoned ottoman and a couple of other side table, plus pictures on the walls. The kids bedrooms and play area still need work too! It's evolving, but it is fun! Henley - Wilshire Mk 3 ... I love my house!! Site start: 4th Feb 09 Handover: 10th Sep 09 Blog: http://stormygirlscastle.blogspot.com/ Build Thread: viewtopic.php?t=7166 Re: How much did you spend on furnishing your home? 28Feb 14, 2010 12:30 pm Mrs B Hi Mandy I still havent furnished the house even though I have been in almost a year....I really think it takes times to make a home look really nice. Good comment Mr B and nice to hear. It makes me feel a lot better about the "bare areas" in our house where we haven't yet found the "right" furniture. Cheers zeke Re: How much did you spend on furnishing your home? 29Feb 14, 2010 3:42 pm That seems like a huge budget to me. Are you planning on having kids? If you are, I wouldn't be spending that kind of money. My husband and I still have all the furniture we bought when we first moved out 10 years ago. One of the proviso's I had for building a house was that I wanted all new furniture (apart from a few bits and pieces I am keeping). We have bought most of our furniture now and have not spent anywhere near what you are intending to. I had decided that I was not going to buy cheap furniture for the new house as our kids are getting a little older and not quite so messy anymore, but I ended up getting everything quite cheap as we shopped around. We looked at the shops you mentioned, but honestly I just couldn't justify the expense for something I didn't love. Sure our stuff may not be top quality, but it looks nice and if we need to replace some of it in another 5 - 10 years, that's ok with us. Our couch we have now was cheap 10 years ago and is still in pretty good condition, considering we have 2 kids! So anyway, we have spent so far: King Bed, mattress and 2 side tables $2500 Lounge including ottoman $2100 Theatre suite $1300 (both lounge and theatre suite are lovely and we can't believe they were so cheap, maybe not as great as king obviously, but our original couch cost us $1700 and we haven't once fell through it like the bowling ball demonstration ) TV unit $800 Dining table & 6 chair $400!! (bargain!) Desk and matching chair $400 Outdoor lounges and table $1000 I am also planning on getting a few more pieces from Ikea for the kids toys etc for about $1200 max Plus other bits and pieces like rugs, artwork, etc and stuff I would expect another $3000 max That adds up to around $12000 (I think), I'm not sure what we would spend another $26,000 on??? Just a question everyone who buys expensive furniture, what if you don't like it in a few years time, will you feel like you need to keep it, or do you have enough money to go and buy something new, so it doesn't matter? (Not having a go at anyone, just geniunely interested. I know if I spent $37K on furniture my husband would make me keep it until I died ) Re: How much did you spend on furnishing your home? 30Feb 14, 2010 4:15 pm same here C&D we bought a looong time ago...Quality though, but not flash. Mostly Jarrah and curly jarrah coffee table$800, 8 seat dinning table and chairs$1500, leather lounges n stuff.. ...though we have replaced all our beds (kids first ) Music & tele were replaced a few years ago (tele we don't watch no time) Robs were Snhd cept our Queen anne stuff Kids wreck stuff faster than you can pay for it So if kids are coming along then go minimalistic( as they grow you end up playing chess with stuff anyway) I think we have 1 piece of crockery from our first house move (mind you it was 28 years ago ) Where you are coming from is where you are going to... Re: How much did you spend on furnishing your home? 31Feb 14, 2010 4:15 pm C&D I know if I spent $37K on furniture my husband would make me keep it until I died Same here C&D At the moment we're living with a house full of 2nd hand furniture and I am not taking anything except our bed and bedside tables with us - and they'll be used for guests. I've been looking at furniture for ages and I've found nearly everything we need which is: 2 x lounges 1 x modular lounge with chaise and sofa bed 1 x dining table 6 x dining chairs 2 or 3 x kitchen stools 2 x lowline units 1 x coffee table 1 x ottoman 1 x Queen bedroom package In all seriousness, we can get all of this for under $10k and I don't think it will look cheap and nasty. Re: How much did you spend on furnishing your home? 32Feb 14, 2010 5:15 pm Three words for you: BUDGET. BUDGET, BUDGET! EDIT: seems that you don't need to budget because you're getting so many gifts. Want to swap families? lol That word might get confused with "save money", however it's not even close. It just means, put a budget in place. We thought that we wouldn't need anymore than 20-30k to finish our house off. We then put together a budget, and we've blown out to around 50k. Our house is around 5-6 months off completion and we're still adding things that we need to the budget on a weekly basis. We're buying bargains as we go along but the majority of our purchases will happen once we're in the house. We're collecting model numbers of electrical items we're going to buy, reading reviews, looking for the best prices etc. Our house thread: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=18335 Re: How much did you spend on furnishing your home? 33Feb 14, 2010 5:24 pm we've never been willing to spend $ on the most exxy furniture. Having been living together for most of the past 28 years we have a big mix of furniture. We started with all 2nd hand furniture and I remember the first new thing we bought was after about 6 months and we bought a new washing machine. It's still going but late last year we replaced it with a new one. Then came a new bed... woohoo our first house/mortgage, a drier, a new fridge( replaced eventually in 2001 and I hate it), our first video recorder ('85-a huge monster that cost us $1200 duty free) and a big 68cm tv ( 1986-yes it's still going but has been relegated to the kids playroom as of our move here), . Obviously somethings have been replaced a number of times since then. i.e. beds . I guess our most expensive furniture item is our leather lounge suite. we bought as single recliner and a 3 seater. We will be eventually adding the other recliner as in this house we have the room to finally fit it. We spent just under 3k on it in '06 and to add the additional recliner to take it back up to a standard suite again will cost us another $1,600k We have decided we want to upgrade to a new dining table and chairs at some stage and will be moving away from the cedar look colonial style 6 seater we currently have to a more modern 8 seater. Now that the boys are older we'll consider chairs that aren't just wooden, easy to scrub ones. $1,500- $2000 Dh and I both have quite definite ideas on what we don't like and usually it's things the other does like so buying furniture and decorative items for us has always been about compromise. It's the only way I managed to get my older style buffet with the lead light upper glass cabinet doors. phew. ( still unsure how I got him to agree to this 11 years ago. Maybe it was new fatherhood as it was bought with my tax return while I was on on maternity leave for the 2nd time.) I have a "wider range of likes" than DH but usually like what he likes as well. When we do find something we both like it's great. ( we've seen a dining table and chairs we both like.. yippee) Good luck with your purchases. I'm sure you'll have fun but as others have said I'd be waiting until your home is pretty much built or after handover to buy most things. Blog http://wherethehearthis.blogspot.com/ Build https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=6634: Yard https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=27687&p=378401#p378401 Re: How much did you spend on furnishing your home? 34Feb 14, 2010 5:59 pm I still have the bed head, bedside cupboards and dressing table that I bought when we moved into first home of our own 24 years ago - was so happy to have a bedroom large enough to fit bedside cupboards, our rental house had such small rooms it wouldnt of fit. 24 years on, I guess its not the up to the minute modern but still fine by us. Re: How much did you spend on furnishing your home? 35Feb 14, 2010 6:23 pm Helyn, I'm constantly amazed by the long list of "must-haves" that young people today have when they move into their first home. Yes, I know that shows my age.... Just for the fun of it, here's what I began with when I moved out of home at age 20: One second-hand lounge suite that I bought from somebody's sister for $20. (It was hideous, orange and green and threadbare and I recovered it with my own hands.) One multi-component JVC stereo that I saved to buy - cost me $800 (BIG money at the time) and it was state of the art, Baby! One double bed mattress and base that I paid off on layby. One bar fridge, bought on 3 months interest free terms from Myer. That was it. I later added a second hand laminex table and nasty beige vinyl and chrome chairs (free) and a portable colour TV, also bought interest free from Myer. I managed with that stuff for a few years, adding as I could afford it. My kids love my tales of the old days...... NOT. Anyway, back to the point..... we're taking a slow approach to furnishing and decorating this house, making do with mostly what we already have until we can afford to replace things. I refuse to go into debt to buy furniture. So far, we've only picked up: A small lounge suite for our retreat from Harvey Norman - about $800 I think. Coffee tables for the retreat from IKEA....cheap ones for about $100. Some office furniture, also from IKEA for my work space, around $400. A hall table for $350. Some more IKEA stuff for the study, about $500(?) I've bought some linen, cushions and decorative bits and pieces, and luckily we have a few pieces that suit our new decor too. And I called on my creative side and renovated a few things as well: outdoor furniture and bedside tables. Once we have the landscaping done, we'll start to furnish and decorate seriously, room by room. kexkez Dh and I both have quite definite ideas on what we don't like and usually it's things the other does like so buying furniture and decorative items for us has always been about compromise Pfft. If I waited till we agreed on something, we'd never get anything new. I buy first, confess later.... Re: How much did you spend on furnishing your home? 36Feb 14, 2010 6:40 pm Ok I wish kek. but as he's in the house far many more hours than me... we've bought new since moving in- 3 seater lounge for family room , cheap office works bookshelves x6 2 x 3 drawer filing cabinets, 2 trestle tables ( black) $49 each, a new tv plasma ( medium size) and a new 51 cm flat screen old style tv ( ~$120), cheapish dvd player for lounge, new washing machine, 2 new beds for the boys ( king singles) and a new toaster. Because we moved from a large house into a much smaller rental 250 kms away from or old house we had to seriously downsize. we had got rid of a futon couch, BBQ, 4 bookshelves, old falling apart kids desks, additional 2nd hand office chairs, filing cabinet, bedside drawers, and a multitude of other bits and pieces. What we have now will do fine until we get through the more important priority of paving, fencing, garden, patio ... Re: How much did you spend on furnishing your home? 37Feb 14, 2010 7:23 pm Not to say I am anti-furniture and interior decorating - but after deciding to sell up and build again I quickly found out that I needed all new furniture to 'suit' the new house (due to sizing and style, etc) - and as it turns out, furniture isn't that good an investment - once you have purchased that couch brand new from Domayne for $4000, you would be lucky to get $2000 for it a week later... so at $37k, you would likely get back $15-20k in 3-months... Just my experiences...I'm sure if you are a wheeler and dealer you could hold out for the sucker that would pay $3,000 for a second hand couch, but even then it is comparable to the losses on a car! Again, not saying that people should not buy nice furniture (I spent near on $30k furnishing my first house, and will be buying a few nice pieces for the new house) but do bare in mind that unless you are going to stay in that one home for 10-years plus, you are not really going to see a lot of value. Funny how I got through all that without stating that women (often the custodians of interior design) seem to change their furniture-fashion-sense every 12-18months! whoops...there it is! P.S. Absolutely no point thinking about furniture until your house is nearing completion - styles and models will change by then - as for the budget, it really depends where you want to shop and what your furniture style is (modern, classic, etc) - that will dictate what furniture costs (IE. Leather is more pricey then fabric, solid wood furniture is more pricey than wood-laminate). Good Luck! P1T Read about my building experience: http://secondhomebuild.blogspot.com Dale Alcock Homes - 'The Nautilus' in Bletchley Park, Southern River - WA Read about my Clipsal C-BUS Home Automation Project: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=20854 Re: How much did you spend on furnishing your home? 38Feb 14, 2010 7:30 pm kek Anyway, back to the point..... we're taking a slow approach to furnishing and decorating this house, making do with mostly what we already have until we can afford to replace things. I refuse to go into debt to buy furniture. Who said anything about going into debt to pay for new furniture? Our house thread: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=18335 Re: How much did you spend on furnishing your home? 39Feb 14, 2010 7:41 pm To answer your original question... how much have we spent? Far too much The first few years of living together we got by on borrowed pieces of furniture from different family members until the time that we'd saved up enough ourselves to buy bits and pieces. We have survived 8 years of living in a small two bedroom house, which we furnished over the years. Now we're building a 4 bedroom/multiple living area house... we've got 4 different laybys from 4 different stores to furnish the bigger area... Even after we move it'll be a few more years before we have everything we need (and want ) Re: How much did you spend on furnishing your home? 40Feb 14, 2010 7:51 pm GSK kek Anyway, back to the point..... we're taking a slow approach to furnishing and decorating this house, making do with mostly what we already have until we can afford to replace things. I refuse to go into debt to buy furniture. Who said anything about going into debt to pay for new furniture? Erm ....nobody that I'm aware of. Just a point I was making about my own situation, since we don't have bucketloads of cash to splurge, and we'd rather put the money we do have left after building the house into assets than into rapidly depreciating consumer goods. kexkez Ok I wish kek. but as he's in the house far many more hours than me... It's not about the time you spend, it's about the power you wield.... Thanks mate. Yeah good points! Leaning towards Option 3 to get a bit extra space in the cabinets but not going too crazy high (and expensive). Would require a mini… 13 30573 No the fireplace doesn’t work. It’s been enclosed. I’m not sure what was removed, as it was done quite some time ago - well before what I can see with photos online… 2 9119 |