Jasmine Birtles
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Budget home decorating – furnish your entire house for under £250!
Kamal Khurana
8th Jul 2024
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!
- Grab the freebies
- Cheap places on the high street
- Waste not, want not
- Other ways to save
- The MoneyMagpie home
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
This listings website has an entire section dedicated to free, preloved stuff. There are plenty of bargains to be found here too.
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.
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
With some great deal on home bargains, Argos should not be overlooked if you are looking to furnish your home on a budget.
You might have to assemble the furniture yourself, but the Swedish retailer always guarantees good quality and affordable prices.
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.
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.
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.
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
| 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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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?
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
Iv’e never heard of swapz before. I’m so going to check this out
How do you carpet your home for £150, let alone the other things mentioned?
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.
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.
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
Some useful sites listed here.
Hey! It’s such a clever way to get an idea of how a room will look before you buy anything.
can u decorate my home,call me at 07771360889
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.
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.