How to Furnish your Apartment

If you’ve just moved into a new apartment, you need to furnish it. If it’s your first time living out of home you will need to buy all of your furniture, however even if you’re simply moving house you can still take the opportunity to redecorate or change up the look of your home with new stuff!

So if you’re looking to furnish your apartment, there are a few steps you need to take and tools you need to have ready (unless you want to just hire a handy man to put everything up and together for you).

Decide on your décor

Do you want your new place to be bohemian, or minimalist? Should the living space be cosy or open? Part of these decisions will be dictated by the size and layout of the apartment, and by the available light, but you will still need to work out what aesthetic you are going for before you start buying furniture and wall hangings.

If you have an open plan apartment and decide you want to make the space look even bigger, you will need less furniture in the middle of the room, lots of lights, and mirrors on the walls. On the other hand, to make your living area seem cosy you will have things like beanbags around the room, big, puffy couches and dimmer light.

Get Appliances

You will need to bring at least some of your own appliances to the apartment. While many rental kitchens will include things like an oven and dishwasher, you will need to bring your own fridge at least. Similarly, while some dryers are built in you will most likely need to get your own washing machine.

If you are buying new appliances, it is important to make sure that what you buy matches the machines that came with the apartment. If the dishwasher and oven have a stainless steel exterior, your fridge should too, for example.

You can either buy your appliances at a store if you want to make sure it is all good quality, or get second hand goods. If you’re getting something second hand equipment, try to make sure that it works before you hand over any money (getting it off family or friends is a good start).

Buy Furniture

Once you have all the appliances that you need to live in your apartment, it’s time to get started on furniture. Things like a dining table, beds, cupboards and couches are all essential, so the only decision you need to make with regard to these items is which kind and colour to get – and this will be dictated by your chosen décor and the budget you have available.

You also need to decide whether to buy flat pack furniture or not. The advantage of flat pack furniture is that it’s cheap and you can take it apart to move it again in the future – the disadvantage is that it’s hard to put together! Things like your mattress and couch will need to come already assembled, but I recommend getting flat pack where you can (i.e. bed frame, tables, chairs).

You will probably need to have any preassembled furniture delivered, but flat pack will normally fit into your car quite easily – and you can get it quite cheaply at IKEA, or even Kmart.

Assembling the Furniture

If you went for flat pack furniture, you now need to put it together. Generally you can do it all yourself with an Alan key, a screwdriver and a lot of swearing, but it might help to have another person there to hold things together. Or, you can just hire a handy man to do it all for you.

Decorating

Now’s the time to really make your house into a home! Decorating is the best way to put your personal touch on the apartment, and make it feel yours. Hanging mirrors, pictures or paintings all add colour to your walls, while a hanging can make a room feel very trendy.

Summary

If you own the apartment you can use screws or nails to hang things on, while if you’re only renting then sticky hooks can be good. If you’re hammering or screwing, you need to make sure that you are doing it over a node in the wall, otherwise the drywall alone won’t be strong enough to stop the whole thing coming down. If you don’t feel confident, get your handy man to do it for you when they are done with your furniture.