Congratulations, you’ve got your big girl (or boy) pants on and you’re moving into your first home! Now, furnishing a home from scratch is expensive, so before you start throwing money away on furniture or decor that doesn’t work in your space, I’ve compiled a list of non-negotiables to ensure that your brand new home feels cohesive, functional and perfectly you.

Step 1

Pinterest, Pinterest, Pinterest

Inspiration is the start of everything, how can you expect to decorate a home if you don’t know what you like? Mid Century Modern? Farmhouse? Minimalist? A mixture of everything?

Start scouring Pinterest, Instagram, Tiktok etc. and save everything that you like and I mean e v e r y t h i n g. Then, when you’ve got a good selection of inspiration pictures, go through and pick out what it is in the design that you like.

Do you like the limewashed walls or that the room is colour drenched? The artwork or the tiles that have been used?

What exactly do you like about the sofa? The bed? The layout of the room?

How does the space make you feel? Relaxed? Uplifted? Safe? Cosy?

Step 2

Functional is sexy

Well done, you’ve now got a better understanding of your personal style and how you want your space to feel. The next step is ensuring that this space works perfectly for you and your family. Your home should work alongside you, supporting your day to day life not hindering it.

I know what you’re thinking, how can something be functional AND sexy? You’re very easy to read do you know that? I’m not talking about making your nanny Jean’s compression socks sexy, although there could be a business opportunity there. Your space has to be functional, otherwise it’s just gonna piss you off and let’s face it, you don’t have the money for botox right now.

To decide on the function of an interior space, identify the primary activities that will occur there, consider how many people will use the space, and plan for the flow of movement. Assess the existing layout and any architectural features like windows or fireplaces to find potential focal points.

Step 3

GCSE’s maths, now is your time to shine

Most people aren’t able to visualise how furniture will fit into a space and I’ve seen it time and time again, you’ll drop a lot of money on a brand new piece of furniture without measuring properly and then spend the next 2-5 years banging your shin every time you walk past it. So, for the sake of your shins and my sanity, please draw your floor plan and furniture to scale.

This handy article explains how to draw a floor plan to scale much better than I ever could

Step 4

In the words of Abba, money money money..

Look you’re likely to be broke, moving house costs a lot of money and although we would all love to buy that £2000 Calcutta marble coffee table, it just isn’t realistic (don’t worry, I’m just as upset as you are). If you are budgeting for an entire house renovation, then costs are going to be tight and you need to decide what is a priority for you. If you’re moving into a blank white space that just needs furnishing, then split your budget over big ticket items first like your sofa and bed and make sure you’re finding something that lasts.

When shopping for things like sofa’s and beds, please please PLEASE ensure you are investing in something that is comfy, durable and adaptable. When I say adaptable, I don’t mean a sofa that folds up into a Transformer. I mean ensuring that when the inevitable happens and your styles changes, that it will still work in your space, because lets face it, no one wants to be buying a new sofa every couple of years because they’ve decided that they no longer like crushed velvet (thank god).

Facebook marketplace, eBay and Vinterior are fantastic for sourcing unreal decor items at low pricing, I’ve sourced a £750 Six The Residence footstool for 70 great British pounds from Facebook before! Curate your Facebook marketplace and eBay recommendations the same way you did with your Pinterest boards, save absolutely everything you like the look of. I don’t care if you’re in London and the console table you’ve seen is in York (although that didn’t stop me from driving over 5 hours to pick it up), Facebook and eBay aren’t mind readers and won’t recommend products unless you feed it inspiration.

When you first start searching for products, you also need to be as vague as possible in your search terms, like really vague. I’m talking searching ‘armchair’, rather than ‘mid century modern arm chair’ and then go through and hunt for what you want. If you do the hard work now, I promise the Facebook marketplace Gods will reward you.

Another effective hack is re-upholstering things yourself, it isn’t as scary as it seems and can be as easy as finding a cheap footstool and fabric off cuts, covering it, stapling it down et voila it’s been given a new lease of life. Art is also notoriously expensive and even if you’re not the most creative person, you can grab a large canvas, some paint and scribble some of your favourite phrases across it. I touch on where to get cheap canvases and how to feel inspired in my ‘death to the big white box’ blog that’ll be published soon.

*An example of my Facebook Marketplace saves*

Step 5

Are you left or right brained?

That sounds rude, but there is logic behind my question.

If you are fortunate enough to be incredibly creative and can easily picture things in your head, then I’m not sure why you’re still here? For most people, it is incredibly hard to picture how furniture or decor will look within a space, so Canva will be your best friend. It’s really straight forward to use and the free feature pretty much has everything that you need. Save a photo of the furniture, remove the background, layer it on the design and et voila a mood board an interior designer would be proud of. You can also add links to the images, so if your memory is as bad as mine, then you can quickly see where a product is from.

Tip - don’t forget to check the dimensions of the furniture against your scaled floor plan, there’s no point falling in love with it and adding it to the mood board if it doesn’t fit.

*An example of a mood board created on Canva*

Step 6

"I have to go shopping now" - Cher, Clueless

It’s time… this is the moment you have been preparing for. I give you my blessing. Credit cards at the ready ladies and gents, it’s shopping time!

All those hours agonising over how you are going to decorate your home are going to be so worth it. Don’t get too comfortable though, you need to be militant, cut throat even. No website will be browsed without a discount code, no furniture bought without a saving.

I’m joking, but seriously, look for the bargains. The best way to do this is by doing a reverse image search on Google, either screenshot the item you’ve found or take a picture of it in store and pop that thing right into google. I’d bet good money that the side table you thought was super unique is bulk bought from a manufacturer in China and 7 other different websites have it listed cheaper.

Sign up for all the mailing lists and take full advantage of any new user discount codes. Shops love a seasonal sale, so if you can hold off until the black Friday sale (which always lasts a lot longer than a singular Friday - I’m looking at you Amazon), just be patient and wait until then.

Step 7

You have shopped until you dropped, your savings have been destroyed and you may or not have been dumped by your partner for going over budget, but hey… at least you have a Pinterest worthy home.

Well done, I am incredibly proud of you, * wipes tears away * , you did it. Gosh I’m getting all emotional. The hard work is done (once you have unpacked, built, painted, hung artwork, chopped cushions and cleaned up after yourself.. obvs). You can now enjoy your new home, congratulations.

A few tips to ensure your new home is protected

Buy furniture pads for the feet of all your furniture. You’ll regret it not buying them when you’re lovely wooden floor is covered in scratches. Screwfix sell sticky felt pads or you can buy silicone covers from Amazon.
Check the care instructions for your sofa, please. Sofa’s are notoriously expensive, so save yourself the heart break now and just check what cleaning products you can use on it when you inevitably drop something down it.
Register. Your. Warranties. If you’re moving into a new build, or a new-ish build, register the warranties for all of your white goods, boiler etc. If you’re moving into a new-ish build (wow I’m getting really lazy with my writing, what even is a new-ish build Ceri?), ask the previous owners for the warranty information and see if you can get it transferred over to your name.

That’s it! Gods speed, au revoir, auf wiedersehen!

Don’t f*** it up!

So you’re moving into your first home, how the f*** do you furnish it?

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