by Jan Wognnugh

Created on: March 19, 2007   Last Updated: May 31, 2012

If you are looking to furnish your house on a budget, it means two things, the first being that you would like to spend as little as possible on doing up your house yet be able to achieve maximum result in creating a house that represents who you are and you are comfortable in. The second would be that you will need extreme planning and thought in advance as there is little or no room for you to just buy all the stuff and experiment with the look. Any experimenting if any will have to be done on paper or in your head first before you commit to any purchases.

Having said the above, let's look at what options you have when furnishing your house on a budget. The most basic aspect we should look at first is the color scheme of the house. Questions you should ask yourself includes, "Is the current state of paint in the house in good condition?", "Is the color something you want to retain? If not what color would suit you best?" With regards to what color you should use as the main canvas backdrop for your home, you may want to look up some resources on color selection and how color affects your mood, especially at home. Good choices of colors includes shades of blue (therapeutic) and green (nature). The choice of color is entirely up to you, the individual as some people may find red to be too stressful while others may like the edgy feel that red brings into the home.

Now that we have settled on the choice of color for your home, we need to look at the current furniture that you may have. If you are on a budget while attempting to furnish your home, the most basic thing you need to keep in mind is what resources you may already have on hand that you can re-engineer or retain. It is advisable that the color of your furniture do not clash with the main color scheme of your house or end up looking like a disastrous mishmash of design themes and a colorful nightmare.

If you have furniture that is worth salvaging, do retain them and perhaps give them a new life by giving them a good varnish, paint or even doing something as simple as changing the sofa covers from dull gray to ocean blue! A simple act like that costs much much less than buying a new sofa but to the casual observer, it looks as good as a new one.

If you are known to be a hands-on D-I-Y person, you should seriously consider creating your own furniture pieces. Items such as coffee tables in the living room are often easy items to create on your own. Furniture stores often charge high prices for them due to them being brand name products from well-known designers or simply because they need to make profits, so do their middle men, the importers and exporters. The raw material cost of the product is often very low and the value increases when it becomes a finished product and costs such as labor, manufacturing, taxes, profits all end up being paid for by you. Coffee tables, compared to complicated pieces like cabinets and TV consoles are easy to put together.

A simple coffee table can be put together using a nice wooden base (varnished and painted of course to fit the overall design theme and color) and a glass top purchased from a glass supplier (do ask for the grade of glass suitable for use as a coffee table) and let your creativity take over! A note of caution though, do exercise caution when handling glass and hardware, and if you are not particularly endowed in such an area, you might be much better off buying one off the stores.

Do take time to shop around for the best deals and remember, on a budget does not equate cheap, it simply means you need to get creative and get the bargains you need on a budget (defined as a challenge you set yourself), so have fun while doing it!

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