You’ve chosen the floor plan, interior, and exterior finishes down to the drawer pulls in the kitchen and the exact shade of siding. You may think that’s all there is when it comes to designing your new custom home. But there’s still one more step: the furniture.
You may think you’ll just move in all your current pieces and leave it at that, but do those pieces make sense for your new space? If you’re moving from a 1500 square foot space to a sprawling 3,000+ foot space, the amount and type of furniture you currently own likely won’t make the grade.
Before you go furniture shopping, take a moment to consider the needs of yourself, your family, and the space you’re shopping for. Choosing the perfect furnishings is more than just aesthetics and fitting into a space. You want to choose pieces that reflect your family’s personality, with quality craftsmanship that provides lasting comfort.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
The Size of Your Space
When it comes to home furnishings, there is such a thing as too big or too small. Before you even set foot in a furniture showroom, know the dimensions of each room, including sometimes forgotten measurements like ceiling height and doorframe width and height. You want everything to fit perfectly, and that includes moving it in and out of rooms. You don’t want to fall in love with a piece that can’t fit through the doorway upon delivery.
Traffic Flow
Imagine how you want to decorate your space. Then imagine how you will move around that space. If traffic flow seems tight, you may want to rethink. Personally, I’m a bit accident prone – my husband will tell you I’ll find a way to bump into something.
If you imagine “traffic jams” or bumping into things; if there’s not enough room between the furniture and the wall, you need to rethink your choices or your design.
Focal Points
Each room in your home will have a unique focal point. In the living room, it may be the towering natural stone fireplace. In a home theater, of course, the screen is the focal point. In a bedroom it may be large windows looking out to the mountains, your beautiful garden, or other outdoor feature.
No matter what the focal point may be, use your furniture choices to highlight the feature, and vice versa. A beautiful and cozy wraparound couch facing that towering fireplace creates a cozier space than facing the couch toward just another wall in the room.
Explore Design Styles
You don’t have to be a design professional to use design concepts to furnish your home. Internet searches, visits to furniture stores, and even observing what your friends and family have in their own homes, are all ways to get familiar with the various design styles – and find your own. You may find that Mid-century Modern calls to you, or you may fall in love with the Industrial look.
You can also consult with your home designer or an interior designer. They’ll listen to you and help guide you to the pieces that may fit best.
A Tasteful Mix
Don’t feel trapped into a single style. Your personal style may reflect various aspects of a number of styles. You may go for a minimalist design in the living room, but a contemporary style in the primary bedroom.
Choose a Color Scheme
Once you have your style down, choose a color palette that aligns with it. No matter what it might be, a safe color palette is neutrals with pops of color in things like textiles and other décor. I’ve said before my favorite color is purple, but I know purple doesn’t fit everywhere. The purple I have currently comes from my dishes, and accents in my bedroom.
Another favorite is blue, and you’ll find that in area rugs and bed sheets. Major furnishings are in neutrals like white, black, and gray, making the color pops a bold statement.
How You Use a Space
Each room has a purpose, and some do double duty. The living room may be the family gathering space, but is it also where you have family movie night? Do you have a separate game or media room? How frequently will the guest bedroom bed be used? Considering these questions and choose pieces that will offer the extra durability as well as style and comfort.
Multi-Functional Furniture
When I was growing up, we went to a campground every summer that was mostly made up of trailers (not your typical year-round trailer park/mobile home community). It was a two-bedroom – a primary bedroom that fit the bed, built-in side tables, and a closet. The second bedroom was a bunk room with two bunks, storage drawers under the bottom bunk, and a wardrobe with drawers for storage. There was a screen porch with a couch where someone could sleep, but in the living area of the trailer there was a sleeper sofa. During the day it was a couch, but at bedtime it was a place to sleep, often for my parents. There are also futons, which offer the same functions.
There are still other pieces, like ottomans with storage inside, coffee tables that slide open to reveal hidden storage, and others. If you’re looking to furnish a smaller space, consider these options.
The Comfort Test
You may have a checklist when it comes to your perfect piece of furniture. Seat depth, back height and support, and even making sure your feet touch the floor, are all aspects for comfort to consider when furniture shopping.
Keep in mind, floor models have been sat in multiple times, and may have sunken cushions that don’t accurately reflect how the new piece will feel in your home. I know of someone who thought she found the ‘perfect’ couch and love seat combination for her living room. She loved the color, the size fit in the room, and when she sat on it in the show room, her feet touched the floor (important since she’s a shorter person). Whens the new piece was delivered to her house, she sat down – and there was a good inch of clearance between her feet and the floor when she sat all the way back. It got better as the pieces were broken in, but that initial frustration nearly had her returning the furniture.
Lesson: make sure to ask what the dimensions of the brand new piece will be. Brand new cushions will always be a bit more plump than the ones in the store, and knowing an accurate top of cushion to floor measurement can help avoid the embarrassment.
Material Types
Upholstery fabrics, wood types, and finishes are all important aspects of furniture choice for your lifestyle. Leather is stylish and durable, but isn’t always the best fabric for homes with pets or young children. There’s also microfiber, cotton, linen, velvet, and more.
Durability & Maintenance of Material
A leather couch may not align with your lifestyle – kids, pets, various “dirty jobs,” and many other aspects of life will determine your final choice. The amount of use a piece will get matters as well – the chair in the living room where Dad sits to read a book or do a crossword puzzle multiple times a day should be made of a more durable material than the bed in the guest room that gets used once every few months when your mother-in-law visits.
Make sure to ask about how to care for the fabric you choose.
Solid Construction
When you move into your first apartment or house, you may be sitting on milk crates and sleeping on a mattress with no foundation or frame. You may find a few favorite pieces from IKEA (nothing wrong with IKEA, I have several pieces in my own home – come try to find them!), or other furnishing that may not have a reputation for solid, durable construction.
When you’re investing in furniture long-term, check for solid wood frames, reinforced joints, and other signs like attention to detail and high-end finishes and coatings.
Budgeting
Budgeting for furniture is like budgeting for anything else. Your grocery budget is based on your family’s needs for nutrition, and your fuel budget is based on how frequently and how far you drive, how many vehicles you have, and the fuel capacity of the gas tank of each.
These budget basics apply to your furniture budget, too. We advise prioritizing spending based on your family’s needs. Everyone needs a place to sleep, and family gathering spaces like the kitchen, living room, and rec areas, deserve focus based on how frequently each is used. Investing in quality, durable, comfortable mattresses and bed frames, comfortable couches, and functional coffee tables and end tables take priority over the guest bedroom where you can likely get away with basics.
Search for Sales, Discounts, and Finance Options
The couch I sit on to write this post was bought with a great finance deal. Many of our electronics like TVs, computers, our son’s video game systems, and more were bought during sales or with discount codes. We do our best to not pay retail. We research for weeks, sometimes months, and wait for lower prices before making a purchase. We make things last and have carried furnishings from one home to another – the piece is in good shape, so why get rid of it?
Hidden Features & Tech-Enhanced Furnishings
The new end tables we bought last year have a table top, a space/shelf, and two large drawers (8.5”x11” notebooks and binders fit inside), and the shelf features two USB ports and two electrical outlets. That means I can keep my phone, tablet, or laptop charged while relaxing in the living room. Our couch includes storage cubbies and cup holders in the arms, and a middle back piece that flips down to reveal a built-in tray with two more cup holders, a pop up power bank with two outlets and two USB ports, and a head with a light featuring adjustable brightness and direction. It’s the perfect couch for our needs.
Final Thoughts
The staff at Acipe Design wants to help you make your home as comfortable as possible, from floor plan to finishes and furnishings. If you’re still a little lost after considering these points, don’t hesitate to ask us for help. We’ll meet you at a show room, store, over the phone, or in person at another location to discuss your design needs and preferences.
Contact us today!