Choosing Furniture

Choosing Furniture
Choosing furniture can be a stressful past time, but it doesn't’t have to be that way. All you need to do is plan your purchase properly to ensure that the furniture will fit the room, your budget and your needs.

Depending on our viewpoint, furniture can be a statement of who we are or just practical items for the house or even both.

The Furniture Centre, Kettering offers these ideas on how to plan buying furniture, whether it is one item or a house full.

How big is the Room or space you want to fill?
It is not unusual for people to go shopping for furniture, choose something and then get it home to find it doesn’t exactly fit. This leads to poorly laid out rooms or having to return the furniture to change it. First you need to work out the size of the rooms you are going furnish. You can either sketch the shape on a piece of paper and add the measurements, or buy some software to design the room and furniture layout. You can then decide the size of furniture you can buy,

How much can I afford?
Next you need to set your budget. Decide how much money you can afford and stick to it. If you are going to consider borrowing money to pay for the furniture, do some research to see what you can afford in monthly payments and what the likely cost of that amount of money is going to cost.

Is the furniture for a dining room or living room?
Once you have decided how much you can afford to spend you'll be able to decide on the type of furniture. Think about how you are going to use the furniture. Do you have children, are you going to entertain people a lot, does it need to be hard wearing or stylish (or both). If you’re buying with children in mind, you're going to want to look at furniture that's built to withstand heavy use. If the furniture is for your living room, and it's more for show then you might look at more stylish, less functional furniture.

Think about your lifestyle when you choose your furniture. If you have pets, are they likely to scratch or chew the furniture? If you have small children do you need softer furniture? If your home is air conditioned, this may affect the type of material you buy. Leather furniture looks great, but it can be uncomfortable in the hot, humid weather.

Make a List
When you know roughly what you are looking for make a list. Jot down the sizes that will fit your rooms. Note your colour preferences, this may need you to take photos to take with you or take samples of curtain material. It’s so easy to forget these details as you wander round the furniture store. Make the choices you ant, not what the salesman thinks you want.

Choose Furniture to Last
Too often people choose furniture that looks great in the showroom, but is not built to last. Don't make choices on looks alone or something that you’re likely to be tired of in six months. Furniture is a big investment, so choose furniture that will look and feel good for years to come. In addition, make sure that you choose furniture colours that are easy to work with and fit in with you existing decoration (unless you intend to redecorate).

Before you pay, test your the Furniture
Okay, so you’ve found the right piece of furniture, don’t go on looks alone. See how well made it is , watch for poor quality assembly. If you buying a sofa or settee or bed, sit on it. Shuffle about on it, see if it fits your body shape, does it feel comfortable. Have a feel to see if you can feel springs, if there are buttons are they attached well, are the seams are finished properly. If there are zips are they robust. Don't take any piece of furniture at face value, get underneath and check how well it is made.

So now I just pay for it and wait for delivery?
So you've made your choices, all that's left to do is pay and wait for delivery. A word of caution here. Most stores keep little or no stock and your furniture will need to be ordered from the factory – it may not have been made yet! Many will take 6 to 8 weeks to deliver, and then some more. Good furniture makers and suppliers will deliver in 3 to 4 weeks. Ask for a firm delivery time and agree a date that the order ceases to be valid because your order has taken too long to be delivered.

Have you got some old furniture in the room, if so, it's easier to get rid of this before the new furniture arrives. Ideally, your should prepare the room before the furniture is delivered so that they can put the furniture where it belongs.

This simple planning will help you choose the correct furniture in a stress free manner. furniture shopping can be accomplished with just a little bit of pre- planning. Then all you have to do is get on with your life and enjoy using you new furniture.