Related content<\/p>
Why You Should Use a Furniture Bank<\/a><\/p><\/section>\n\n\n\n So the question remains: how much should you budget for home furniture? Typically, after buying your first home, you try to furnish it to the best of your ability, considering what you just spent on a down payment and closing costs. Once you finish that, you feel temptation to continually update, decorate and redecorate the home to suit seasonal styles and ideas of what looks and feels like home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n However, not everyone wants to spend an entire paycheque on a couch or an entire mortgage payment on a coffee table. \u201cA comfortable and functional home does not need to consist of expensive furniture,\u201d says Vancouver-based Form Collective<\/a> partners Josephina Serra and Lauren Webb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When it comes to the reasoning behind why furniture is so expensive, it seems that materials and construction are the main culprits. According to HGTV<\/a>, couches are priced based on the type of materials such as fibreboard, which could be made from recycled wood fibres, plywood or hardwood. They also noted that couch cushions, area rugs and curtains are priced based on the fabrics used to make those pieces. Similar to clothes, you get what you pay for when it comes to quality-made products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere are actually more options for inexpensive furniture now than ever, but the pieces we are all falling in love with just so happen to be the more premium-priced pieces,\u201d said Serra. IKEA, Wayfair and Structube seem to be top choices for affordable home furnishings and tend to win out due to the convenience of online shopping and door-to-door delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, shipping large products is never a cheap process. Not only does the material cost play a part in overall cost, but anything that is designed and built overseas will also increase the price. \u201cThere is a huge range in furniture from really inexpensive to super high end,\u201d said Webb. But she and her partner continually encourage people to invest in larger pieces that will be used frequently. \u201cIf your daily routine consists of coming home from work and sitting on the sofa watching TV, then we recommend selecting a sofa that is comfortable and decent quality.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rather than go all out and buy everything you need and want at once, it\u2019s always a good idea to consider tackling the most important purchases first. Therefore, designers often recommend that buyers take their time when purchasing furniture. Kim van der Enden of AK Design and Development<\/a> in Calgary, Alberta, says that most first-time homebuyers tend to want it all now and to complete the interior as fast as they can. As exciting as it can be to make your new home perfect, it\u2019s best to move in and live in the home first. \u201cYou\u2019ll have a better feeling for the space and see things with a different eye,\u201d says van der Enden. \u201cYou make better choices after living there for a few weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Statistics Canada<\/a> found that Canadians spend an average of $1,124 on furniture each year. If you live in your home for 10 years, that\u2019s $11,240 over time. In reality, it\u2019s unlikely that every single year, you\u2019re spending over $1,000 furnishing your home. However, what this does prove is that we spend quite a lot of years in comparison to others \u2014 especially when you buy your first home or move into a new place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After speaking with Form Collective and AK Design and Development, it seemed the same few rules and tips were in place to keep a furniture budget in check. These six ways to save topped my list of key ways to save money on furnishing your first, current or future home:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another option for anyone who is looking to affordably furnish their home is to seek the advice of a professional. Consider using an online interior design company like Decorist<\/a> to explain where you can find the perfect furniture<\/a> without breaking the bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The more that I fall in love with interior design, the more I find myself browsing online sites and window shopping at furniture stores. It\u2019s as if the realization that I may soon become a homeowner has made me realize that I truly do want to splurge on some decorative pieces that others would scoff at. However, it\u2019s come to my attention that it\u2019s best to only splurge on the items that you will get the most use out of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As van der Enden explained, \u201cthe interior furnishings and design have to match the bones of the home\u201d to make your magazine pictures come to fruition and maximize your budget for home furniture. \u201cYou will never accomplish a look that you see online from an influencer or in a magazine if your home isn\u2019t in the same style or era.\u201d And if that isn\u2019t advice directed right towards my Instagram, Pinterest and design blog-loving heart, I\u2019m not sure what is. You don\u2019t need to spend it all to have it all when it comes to home design and furniture. Sometimes it pays to be practical and to stick to that handwritten budget, says the girl with the personal finance blog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From couches to decor, what is a good budget for furniture?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":22995,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[14745,14744,14743],"guide":[],"class_list":["post-6526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-budget-for-furnishing-a-new-home","tag-how-much-to-spend-on-bedroom-furniture","tag-how-much-to-spend-on-furniture"],"acf":[],"zolo_excerpt":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zolo.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zolo.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zolo.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zolo.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zolo.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6526"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.zolo.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22996,"href":"https:\/\/www.zolo.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6526\/revisions\/22996"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zolo.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zolo.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zolo.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zolo.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6526"},{"taxonomy":"guide","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zolo.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/guide?post=6526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What Makes Furniture So Expensive?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Furniture](\"https:\/\/www.zolo.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Furniture-swatch-showroom.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nHow Much Should You Actually Budget for Furniture for Your First Home?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Yellow](\"https:\/\/www.zolo.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Furniture-for-sale-Ikea-showroom.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nHow Can You Save Money to Better Afford the Things You Love?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Woman](\"https:\/\/www.zolo.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Woman-fixing-broken-chair-restoring-furniture.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWhy Have I Suddenly Fallen Victim to the Interior Design Obsession<\/h2>\n\n\n\n