Redesigning your home? Adding a few extra furnishings to your interior design? Before purchasing any furniture for your living space, look over a few of these ways to approach furniture buying to make it a smooth and satisfying experience!
- Have an idea in mind of what kind of style you want for your space. You can consult an interior designer or look around online for design ideas.
- Make sure you look around for the best seller of the furnishings you want. It is beneficial to look at buyer reviews not only regarding the seller’s performance but also reviews on the product you are thinking of purchasing. Sometimes less expensive can mean lower quality, but sometimes it depends on where the furnishings are being made. If you are making a large purchase, the seller may even work with you with a percentage discount.
- Lighting changes the appearance of many fabrics and finishes. If you aren’t sure if the color or finish you want will match, ask for swatches to be sent to you if available first.
- If you need the furnishings by a specific time make sure the furnishing you are purchasing isn’t a custom design, these take many weeks to arrive and times differ. Additionally, if a furnishing says 1 -2 weeks delivery, give it a 4 week buffer. This doesn’t mean it will take 4 weeks to arrive, it may even take less than 1 week to arrive, but its important to know that many furnishings come from warehouses in many places and need time to get to you.
- Ask any questions you may have about the furnishing so there aren’t any unpleasant surprises when it arrives.
- Look around online for lifestyle images of the furnishing you want if the seller doesn’t have one on their site. “Lifestyle” images are images of the furnishing in a home setting. This will help you get an idea of how it may look with other furniture and color schemes.
- Keep in mind that if the furnishing has any damages or missing some parts upon arrival, this is ridiculously more common that you might think. Stay calm and realize it isn’t necessarily the fault of the seller or their customer service representatives, most of the time it is issues out of their direct control.
- Lastly but most importantly, have fun! Furniture shopping shouldn’t be a stressful experience. Use your time wisely, ask questions and create your dream space!
