Furniture influences both your overall comfort and physical efficiency. This means new quality furniture can change your life. With this realization, buying furniture can be intimidating. Luckily, it doesn’t have to be intimidating.
We will walk you through how to buy furniture that supports your lifestyle and enhance the way you live within your space.
1. Consider the Size of Your Home or Space
The first step when choosing new furniture is to consider the size of your space and the layout of your room. How do you want things to flow with your new sofa, new sectional, new recliner, new bedroom set, and new dining set?
Getting measurements and carefully marking them down can make it easier to determine your furniture choices because it gives you the dimensions you need to fill. Determining the size and arrangement of your new furniture is much easier when you know the dimensions available to you.
Before buying anything, you will want to consider space and function. During this step, you will also want to consider your needs and how your home functions for you. Knowing this information will help you in the following steps.
2. What’s Your Style and Budget?
If you’re looking to invest in new furniture, it is worth investigating your style and how it will play into your ultimate furniture choice. Knowing what you like can help simplify the choosing process and help keep your style cohesive.
Don’t know where to start or how to determine your style? An easy way to pick your style is by taking a style quiz.
This quick quiz will take 15 minutes and help you immensely. Having a general idea of your specific style also gives you greater flexibility. You can choose disparate pieces that tie together with an accent and make the space your own.
Budget is another thing to think about when picking new furniture. You may want to look at what you want to buy and the average costs for those items. You may have a number in mind on how much you want to spend. Let that guide you to what scale of furniture you purchase.
3. How Will You Use Your Furniture?
Is this furniture for your living room? Will it be heavily used? Do you plan to use it moderately and only for entertaining? Do you have pets, and will they be allowed on the furniture?
These are some things to consider before purchasing furniture, as they will help you determine the quality of the pieces you want to buy and how they fit within your budget.
Additionally, you will want to look at the ergonomics of your new furniture. Are you a tall family that needs a high-back sofa? Or are you looking for dining room chairs that will be comfortable enough to use for a few hours for celebratory meals?
If you plan to use your new recliner every day, it may be worth investigating ergonomic recliners designed to support the body naturally. This ensures long-term comfort and durability.
There are many factors to consider when picking and choosing new furniture, and if you’re worried you missed something, most furniture stores now provide free in-home design services.
4. How Long Do You Want To Keep Your New Furniture?
If you’re planning on keeping your furniture for a year or longer—you will want to consider the quality of the construction on the furniture. The construction process often will give you hints as to how durable your new furniture will be and how long it will last.
There are many furniture brands, and it can sometimes be difficult to tell which ones are quality and which are not. Whether it’s kitchen cabinets, couches, center tables, or chairs, the durability of these items will influence your choices to a great extent.
The lesser quality furniture may be cheaper initially. Still, it will wear and tear much sooner than if you’d paid a little more for higher quality furniture, leading to timely needs for replacement furniture.
To help, we’ve compiled a list of furniture brands we trust and their general price ranges:
Lexington Home Brands
Price Range: $$ to $$$$
Lexington Home Brands is an umbrella for six distinctive furniture brands that make indoor and outdoor furniture. These brands include Lexington, Tommy Bahama Home, Tommy Bahama Outdoor Living, Artistica Home, Barclay Butera, and Sligh.
This brand carries a look for everyone, from casual pieces to upscale formal designs.
Hooker Furniture
Price Range: $$ to $$$
Hooker Furniture has been on the market for nearly a century, and they continue to create beautiful pieces of new furniture for a wide range of tastes. This quality furniture brand is known for its offerings in the dining, bedroom, and living spaces and its stylish accent pieces.
Hooker Furniture provides timeless furniture ranging from traditional looks to modern pieces for any home.
Bassett Furniture
Price Range: $$ to $$$
Bassett Furniture has been designing and making items in America for 115 years. After all this time, they remain committed to crafting excellent quality, stylish furniture that doesn’t have to be overly expensive and is accessible to everyone.
Another unique feature of the Basset brand is their Bench Made service, which allows you to design custom furniture where you can choose the fabric, color, frame style, and more.
West Elm
Price Range: $$ to $$$
If you’re looking to stay with a minimalist boho vibe, West Elm is the brand you want. They offer new furniture pieces for all areas of your home, including the kitchen, dining room, bedroom, living room, home office, and patio.
Want to get started today? Reach out to a designer for your free consultation and begin designing the space of your dreams!
Ashley Furniture
Price Range: $ to $$$
This brand has furniture for every room in your house, including your entryway! They offer a wide range of styles for your kitchen and dining spaces and bedroom and living spaces. Some unique finds also include items for your home theater, kids' rooms, and small spaces.
Typical prices range from very affordable to moderately expensive, but Ashley always has a stock of sale items that will intrigue any bargain hunter.
How We Selected These Brands:
There are seemingly endless brands of furniture on the market, which can feel overwhelming if you are not familiar with the space. We selected each of the above brands based on the quality of their items, the range of products offered, and the availability of these items through retailers such as Designer Furniture.
5. What Sort of Materials and Fabrics Are You Considering?
In most cases, sofas are chosen based on how their fabric looks and feels. While it’s important to consider what’s on the outside, you also want to be thoughtful about how much maintenance a fabric will be to maintain.
For example, silk may look amazing, but it will not maintain that look if you place it close to a sunny window, as sunlight can change and wash out this fabric pretty quickly. Other fabrics may be prone to wrinkles or snags and not able to withstand heavy use.
Our advice is to select a fabric not only based on looks (although this is important) but also functionality for your lifestyle.
Consider pets, children, and other family members who regularly use the new furniture you plan on buying.
Get Help Choosing New Furniture Today
Keeping these five things in mind while looking for new furniture can help you find the perfect items for your home.
With the Design Center at Designer Furniture, you can see a 3D model of your space to allow you to see different possible layouts with countless furniture items. You also get free advice from an interior designer to help make it even easier.