Furniture Shopping Tip and Tricks

Do you need new furniture and don’t know where to start? If you are smart you will read this blog because I am going to lay it all out for you. Where to shop for your budget, How to shop for your home and my little tips and tricks for making sure you get it right!

If you haven’t been furniture shopping in a long time you need to first realize that prices have gone up on everything just like your groceries have over time! You need to take a half an hour one day and either just look online at some of the local furniture stores sites or just go out and browse. It is important for you to be realistic about what you can afford to do with your budget. Also, if you are planning on putting it on credit, visit the stores and see what credit programs they have and even apply for the charge card to see how much they will give you. A little time doing some of the homework on the financial end of things will pay off in the long run.

So you have your budget, now you need to get out your tape measure and measure your room!


NO, don’t look at the pretty fabrics just yet…
You need to measure the room overall size first and then measure each wall and opening. Draw the square on a piece of paper and then go around the room. Record all the sizes of the walls and openings in inches! I also want you to take another minute and look at the all the door openings that you have to get the furniture in your home. Go to the front door, back door and garage door and write down how wide the opening is. I have heard of people buying furniture that won’t go through the doors! This will be very important later!

 

Now you can go shopping! Spend some time looking at the quality of pieces you want. I will give you a quick lesson. There are several furniture stores that sell pieces of furniture that LOOK like wood but they are all cardboard and veneer. Mostly the backs of the case goods (that is a fancy word for tables) have cardboard backs. These pieces of furniture are shipped into the USA in small boxes and put together in the warehouses locally. They are then delivered in the stores’ fancy trucks. Some of the pieces are solid wood and are fabricated in the USA. Mostly those are pieces in the Amish furniture categories or Made in the USA pieces.

 

I am going to stop right here and say…If you can buy a piece made in the USA, do it! The pieces that come over on a barge have been sprayed down so they don’t combust! That isn’t good for you to have on furniture in your home!

After you have visited several stores and determined the quality of the pieces you want to purchase and they are in your budget you can start deciding what pieces you want and what is going to fit in your room. Now is the time you take out your handy floorplan and hand it over to your salesperson! Some stores like Bassett and Front Room Furnishings will take your floorplan and draw it on their computer and then start placing the furniture pieces on that floorplan to see if the size fits. The salespeople should also be able to help you place the furniture in a very nice arrangement.

When you are looking at furniture pieces keep in mind who you are buying the furniture for, also if someone has a bad back, if someone is overly overweight, if the person is super tall, etc. If you have any animals make sure you think about the cats’ claws or the dog slobber! The furniture needs to fit your family too! Another thing to keep in mind is how you are going to take care of it. Its leather and needs conditioned? Do you need to vacuum the cover?

Once your pieces are selected revisit the door opening measurements of your home to make sure the pieces will fit through the doors!

The last point I want to make it watch for sales. A lot of furniture stores have sales around holidays. In the furniture world, there are “markets” every Spring and Fall. They want to get rid of their inventory before the market so they can bring in new.

 

I hope this helps! If you are needing any assistance and this feels overwhelming to you I will help you do all of the above! Give me a call and I will go with you shopping!!