So you’ve just bought yourself a new house. Congratulations! Now comes the fun part: buying the right furniture for your space to turn it into your dream home. Although an exciting part of moving into a new home, buying furniture for a completely empty space can turn into a nightmare very fast if you don’t take the right measures.
You might have several questions in mind when looking for furniture, such as “How much space do I have?”, “How should I place my furniture to have the right amount of space to move around it?” “What dining chairs will look best in the space I’m working with?” and so on and so forth. Buying furniture is a considerable investment, and so you don’t want to be making the following mistakes when shopping for new furniture:
Mistake 1: Not Factoring in the Space
The biggest mistake we see people making when shopping for furniture is not measuring the space they have to put the furniture in. Empty rooms look larger than they are and you may mistakenly assume you have more space than you actually do if you just eyeball it. It is important to take accurate measurements of every room in the house and using painter’s tape, mark out on the floor where you want each piece of furniture to go.
Don’t forget to also measure any doors or hallways the furniture needs to travel through before making it to its final location! You don’t want to return furniture only because it didn’t fit through your doorway!
Finally, also keep in mind that you will need space to move around the piece of furniture. On the other hand, furniture that is too small for the space can also end up looking dwarved and putting too many small pieces in a room can make it look too cluttered.
Mistake 2: Not Considering Your Lifestyle
Leather dining chairs in a house with cats may not be the smartest choice! Similarly, a glass coffee or dining table in a house with a newly walking toddler can be a recipe for disaster. Or maybe you loved the look of the low-rise bed in that home and lifestyle magazine, but your knees and back will hate you if you make the purchase!
Before buying any piece of furniture, consider how you are likely to be using it. Who will be using the furniture? What are their ages and what will best suit them? Family members of more advanced age might find it difficult to sit down and get up from an ultra-cushy and squishy lounge, whereas a velvet futon might not be appropriate for a spot that gets a lot of direct sunlight. Finally, consider whether the style is likely to remain current or become outdated even five years down the line. A brightly coloured or unusually shaped table might be all the rage right now, but will you still think the same once a little time has passed and the trends have changed?
Mistake 3: Prioritising form over function
Sure, that rattan armchair looks incredible in the showroom or the metal backed dining chairs you saw on Pinterest immediately stole your heart. But what is the comfort level of these pieces? Chairs, lounges armchairs and beds are all pieces of furniture that you are likely to spend hours on each day, and as such should be supporting your back and bottom for maximum comfort. Many people make the mistake of buying furniture only because it would look terrific in their space without considering if it is actually functional. Take a moment to test out any furniture you’re buying in the store before you go ahead with the purchase. Is the back of the chair too low to allow you to rest your back? Is the cushion of the sofa too hard to let you relax after a long day’s work?
Mistake 4: Going overboard with matching sets
Once upon a time, buying furniture as an entire suite was the only way to buy it. It was considered simpler, quicker and guaranteed to look good. After all, since all the different pieces were designed to fit together seamlessly in one place, tehre’s no doubt that they’ll fit in your space, right? Not quite.
While there’s nothing wrong about buying matching sets, going overboard with it can leave your room lacking personality, warmth and make it look flat and one-dimensional. You want your pieces to work together and complement each other, but you also want to play around with materials, textures and colorus to truly add some character to your place. Take your time to search for the right pieces for each room instead of buying it all together in a rush. Future you will thank you for putting in the extra effort!
When buying dining chairs for your table, consider mixing and matching styles while keeping one core element the same to add a unique, eye-catching look to your room while keeping it cohesive. Similarly, play around with accent colours while keeping the base style the same for the rest of yoru furniture to add vibrance to your house.
