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Budget home decorating – furnish your entire house for under £250!

Kamal Khurana 8th Jul 2024 15 Comments

Reading Time: 5 minutes

Updated 9th July 2024

Need to furnish a whole house for cheap?

Desperate to furnish your new apartment on a low budget?

Read on to discover how you can furnish an entire home for less than £250 — or even for free!

Whether you are renting a property or buying a new home, prices for even basic furniture can feel out of reach. So, anything you can save on home furnishings is always welcome, and the good news is it IS possible to furnish on a budget!

In this article, we give you tips that could save you thousands of pounds. We’ve got an imaginary house to furnish with every household essential that you would need to live comfortably, right down to your bathroom bin and table lamp.

If you are bargain-savvy and not picky, you can probably furnish the majority of your house for free. Although, there are some items that everybody will want new.

 

Grab the Freebies

Budget home decorating - furnish your entire house for under £150!

People often give away furniture for free as it saves them the job of getting rid of it. It could benefit you to spend on hiring a self-drive van for a day if you can, lining up several collections in the same day to pick up lots of free furniture at once.

You can find all kinds of furniture online, from big items to small furnishings, for free every day. Or, if you are happy to spend, you routinely find giveaway prices on items. Here are some of the best places to look.

Gumtree

It’s a fantastic place to start when looking for free stuff. You can snatch up dining room tables, beds, futons, sofas — basically anything and everything can be found on this site. All for just the inconvenience of having to pick up the items yourself, which if you don’t have a car may be a bit tricky, but still well worth the effort.

Facebook Marketplace

With the added bonus of being able to verify sellers on Facebook, this digital marketplace is a fantastic way to find free stuff in your area. Easy to use and navigate, it is very similar to Gumtree and is a brilliant place to find bargains. 

Freecycle

Join your local Freecycle group. This is a grassroots global organisation that joins together people who have free things to give away, with those wanting free stuff. The idea being if we swap and share then we aren’t filling landfills up with unwanted items.

Freeloved

This listings website has an entire section dedicated to free, preloved stuff. There are plenty of bargains to be found here too. 

Swapz

Swapz is the UK’s biggest, most established and original marketplace where you can swap, trade, sell and deal with like-minded people both locally and nationwide. 

NextDoor

A newer app on the market, it’s free to join and is a great way to connect with your local community. Check out the For Sale and Free section to grab some bargains.

 

CHEAP PLACES ON THE HIGH STREET

Budget home decorating - furnish your entire house for under £150!

Argos

With some great deal on home bargains, Argos should not be overlooked if you are looking to furnish your home on a budget. 

Ikea

You might have to assemble the furniture yourself, but the Swedish retailer always guarantees good quality and affordable prices.

Wilko

This jack-of-all-trades store is a great place to pick up bargains for your home, especially items like plates, pots, pans, and utensils.

B&M

This is a store that is easy to spend hours in without realising. Affordable homewares, storage, and (in the bigger stores) garden furniture, B&M has loads of great deals.

The Range

Much like B&M, the Range has, well, a large range of items! Try to shop at the end of seasons to grab the best bargains.

JYSK

This Swedish furniture store is a bit like Ikea, without the frustrating warehouse layout and often with much lower prices. They deliver, too.

Check out your local supermarket, too. Tesco, Morrisons, Asda and Sainsbury’s all have home ranges that include things like duvet covers, kitchen essentials, lighting – everything you need to kit out your home. The very big stores (or online) also have furniture!

WASTE NOT, WANT NOT

Visit your council website or give them a call asking about furniture recycling schemes. There are loads all over the UK, like Four Square in Edinburgh, which may offer free furniture removal as part of a recycling scheme.

Contact Furniture Re-use Network to have your used furniture donated to poor families who could not otherwise furnish their homes. The donation centres are spread out across all of the UK.  If you’re in Northern Ireland go to Homeless Northern Ireland for details on how you can help.

Your local charities like the British Heart Foundation, Sue Ryder Homes, or St Leonard’s Hospice might also have a furniture warehouse nearby. These are fantastic for finding furniture bargains, and you can also arrange delivery for a small fee.

Similarly, look for house clearance companies online and find out where they get rid of their items. Some will have their own warehouse while others will regularly deliver to secondhand furniture warehouses. If you’re looking for something specific, it’s worth getting to know the owners of secondhand places to let them know what you’re on the lookout for, too.

OTHER WAYS TO SAVE

  • Host a swap party with your friends and neighbours
  • Stop and shop at yard sales and car boot sales
  • Shop online for used goods at eBay
  • Traditional classified ads offer great deals
  • Explore affordable mattresses online

What’s important is that you don’t buy into some ridiculous idea that you have to spend a fortune for your place to look great. Shop smartly and your digs will look classic and you’ll have extra cash.  Spend everything on your house and it better look great, because you can’t afford to go anywhere else. This way you can enjoy yourself and rest in your home sweet home.

You don’t always have to get your decorations from other people, and sometimes it’s worth giving things a go yourself. You can make decorations out of your own pictures, and it wouldn’t be too expensive to get some picture frames to help hang them up around the home! It saves you from having to invest in something else, and it brings your home a more personal touch.

 

The MoneyMagpie Home

Budget home decorating - furnish your entire house for under £150!

BEDROOM ITEMS  Cost Where to find it
Double bed with mattress Free Gumtree
Bedside table x 2 £15 IKEA
Curtains £15 IKEA
Wardrobe (beech) Free Gumtree
Table lamp x 2 £13.98 Wilko
Chest of drawers & sofa bed Free Gumtree
Duet cover & pillowcases £5 B&M

 

 

LIVING ROOM ITEMS    
     
3-seater sofa Free Gumtree
Mirror 7ft x 4ft Free FreeCycle
Art prints From £3.49 The Range
Functional Dinner Set  £17.99 Wilko
Lounge curtains £15 B&M
Coffee table Free Facebook Marketplace

 

BATHROOM ITEMS    
     
Bath mat £1.25 IKEA
Shower curtain £2.50 Tesco
Towels £1.25 JYSK

 

KITCHEN ITEMS    
     
IKEA kitchen cabinet doors Free Gumtree
Saucepan set £10 Wilko
16-piece cutlery set £3.00 B&M
Roll top plastic bin  £4.49 Wilko
3-piece kitchen utensil set £1.25 IKEA
Cordless kettle £11.00 Argos
2-slice toaster £9.99 Wilko

 

TOTAL: £130.11  

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Adil Khan
Adil Khan
4 years ago

Hi,

I would like to shop on Facebook or Gumtree and I don’t have a car, how can I pick up furniture etc? Any Idea?

Jasmine Birtles
Admin
4 years ago
Reply to  Adil Khan

Good point. When I do it I hire a ‘man with a van’. It does add to the cost but it’s a good way to do it as they do the heavy lifting as well as the transportation

DEB
DEB
4 years ago

Iv’e never heard of swapz before. I’m so going to check this out

Nadia
Nadia
5 years ago

How do you carpet your home for £150, let alone the other things mentioned?

Jasmine Birtles
Admin
5 years ago
Reply to  Nadia

Freecycle.org or Gumtree Free Stuff. People do give carpet away.

When I moved into short-term accommodation a while ago there were no carpets, but the floors were painted (badly). We got large rugs second hand which did the job.

Frex
Frex
5 years ago

Few years ago i made a huge makeover of my kitchen spending only 100. I was proud of myself because little effort saved me a lot of money.

Miss
Miss
5 years ago

One very small downside. To get most of these things you need a vehicle or a hire vehicle and that means having a driving licence or someone to help you. I do not have a driving licence and the only people who can help me do not drive either, but we do our best

Joanne
5 years ago

Some useful sites listed here.

Aljada
Aljada
5 years ago

Hey! It’s such a clever way to get an idea of how a room will look before you buy anything.

dave
dave
14 years ago

can u decorate my home,call me at 07771360889

cheval mirrors
cheval mirrors
14 years ago

I’m always excited to have a look at this blog in the evenings.Please keep on churning out the content. It’s really entertaining.

alexis
alexis
15 years ago

great article.In process of doing my house up at the moment and funds are very low so this has helped alot. I know I wont be able to have a show home but with your help will have practile and have all the bits i need. Shame there wasn’t a picture of how it all went together.

Jasmine Birtles

Your money-making expert. Financial journalist, TV and radio personality.

Jasmine Birtles

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