Furnishing our open-plan space for under £1,600

Hope everyone had a lovely long weekend! May has come around so quickly. I can’t believe it has been a year since we got the keys to our flat! Time has flown by! I was looking at photos from the day we collected the keys and it has changed so much!

As you can see in the below photos, we have an open-plan space. Initially Hubby and I weren’t sure how to decorate this space because our kitchen, dining area and living room was all in one room.  

We spend a lot of time in our kitchen dining living space and so the first post of the series is to talk about how we furnished this space for less than £1,600. 

We had the added challenge of moving in during the first lockdown and the shops weren’t open so had to buy most of our furniture online. I was a little disappointed as normally I would prefer to go to the shops so I can see and touch the furniture. As a result, we weren’t keen to splash out on the furniture in case of disappointment and hassle of returning it. 

Also, as it’s our first home and not our forever home, we wanted pieces which were affordable and good value for money as we’ll probably refresh our furniture the next time we move.

Hubby was pretty relaxed on how we furnished the home and his main ask was wooden or wood effect furniture.  He’s also not keen on spending what feels like endless hours on the internet looking at furniture so it meant that I often found a few options for him and then he’d choose which one he liked the most and we would order that!

Let’s start with the lounging area first!

Lounging Area

Sofa (£458)

We bought our sofa from DFS when the sales were on so this two seater sofa was £458. This includes the delivery charge of £69. The size is just what we were looking for and we find it very comfortable. I love the colour! For me, I think the only downside is that the back cushions sometimes go out of shape and we need to plump them up regularly. We don't need to plump the seat cushions though!

Tip: If possible, order the sofa early on as it can take several weeks until delivery. Ours took around 10 weeks to arrive! I wrote a blog post on our experience of buying a sofa and you can see our tips here.

Rug (£89)

I thought a rug would be nice to help make our space feel more cosy and help with the zoning of the space. We found our rug on Dunelm.

It’s a wool rug and we thought it was good value for money.  The colour in the website photo is a bit brighter than reality but actually we didn’t mind that. In terms of texture, it’s a little rough for our liking (the downside of buying online) but I was pleased with the thickness.

Tip: We also bought the rug anti-slip mat (£10) which has worked really well.

Coffee table (£57)

We found this coffee table when Habitat had an online sale. It was discounted from £76 to £57!  It’s sturdy and quick to assemble. We needed to buy some coasters as when we put a mug on it, it left a mark.  It’s a shame that one of the screws was loose no matter how many times we tried to screw it in. The customer services team was great though and we received a replacement.  

They also arrange a delivery company to collect the faulty item but the delivery company didn’t turn up the first time. Luckily, they picked it up on the second time.

Laptop stand (£14)

Hubby suggested this IKEA laptop stand and it has been so useful! As we are working from home, Hubby works at the dining table so often we end up eating sitting on the sofa so the laptop table is really handy. It was easy to assemble and good quality. 

TV stand (£143)

Initially, I felt like a lot of the TV stands I found online were just so expensive! Okay, I mean having mostly lived in furnished flats, I was just surprised generally at how much furniture cost when we were building our budget for furnishing our flat.

I finally spotted this, in my opinion, very affordable TV stand from Dunelm and we were pleasantly surprised by the just how much storage space there is! It was also the perfect size for us as we needed a TV stand that fits between the wall and our radiator. It was quite straightforward to assemble and I thought it was a good quality product.

It’s still available on the Dunelm website!

TV (gift)

Dad actually gifted us the TV a few years ago so we didn’t need to buy one.

Sonos (£139)

Hubby wanted a speaker so we bought the Sonos - One SL during the Black Friday sales at Currys!  I love the sound quality, I wish we got one sooner! 

Dining area

Kitchen table and chairs (£247)

I think this was our best bargain out of all the furniture that we bought! I’m really impressed with the value for money of these products. It's the Habitat Chicago Solid Wood Extending Table & 4 Chairs set from Argos.

It is expandable and has a solid wood table top. I was pleased to find that the table top is quite durable. We’ve had quite a few spills over the past year and it’s easy to wipe clean and we don’t need to use coasters as the mugs don’t leave water marks on the wood.  I love the two tone finish - it goes well with the Laura Ashley seat covers that I bought a while back! Personally, I think it’s more cream than off-white.

For the price, I think it’s good quality and quite sturdy. The only time I notice that it could be more sturdy is when I’m kneading bread by hand. It doesn’t happen often so I’m not too fussed!

The table itself was super quick to assemble. The chairs took more time but overall, I’m really happy with the set!

There was a small crack in the main frame of one of the chairs and it was super quick and easy to order a replacement part online. It was delivered very quickly too so we were happy with the overall process.

Tip: Don’t forget to check delivery costs. Delivery was £6.95 but with Argos, we found that delivery was usually quite quick! We have ordered quite a few items from Argos before and several times, it’s possible to get a next day delivery!

Bookcase (£189)

There were a lot of bookcases we liked but they were quite expensive. Luckily in the end, we found this one from made.com!

It was our first time ordering from made.com so we used the £10 off discount code that we got for joining their newsletter. 

The delivery took around 10 - 12 weeks. In terms of assembly, it was quite straightforward apart from the base section as the instructions for attaching the base section wasn’t clear. 

Kitchen

Bin (£39)

We bought a bin from made.com to brighten up the kitchen and we love it! 

Microwave (£72)

We also needed to buy a microwave so I bought this one from John Lewis. Through work, I can get a discount on e-vouchers so we used them to help lower the cost of our furniture. 

Windows

Curtains and curtain poles (£100)

I’ve written about our curtain purchases here! If you also want to read about our experience of installing them and our tips, see this post. 

We also bought a tension rod for our balcony door with these voiles from The Range. Really love how they look! The tension rod was very quick to put up too which was great!

Our total cost was £1,557 to furnish our open-plan space and this post focused on the furniture and appliances that we purchased. I’m slowly buying the home accessories to decorate and I’ll write about this another time!

Thanks for reading! Please do share with others if you find it useful! Follow @adventuresofahomebuyer on Instagram for tips and home decor ideas and subscribe to have the latest blog posts sent straight to your inbox! 

Jess