The credit crunch has resulted in an ever increasing requirement to cut costs and making a home is one area in which this matters more than most. Setting up a home and furnishing it can be expensive and therefore it’s important to know how to find inexpensive furniture that you like and which matches your requirements. This is particularly true in the room in which you spend the most time and which provides a haven against the increasing pace of the world – the bedroom. With this in mind I thought I would provide a few tips for finding inexpensive bedroom furniture.
In terms of cost, firstly consider if you are going to buy a built and finished unit, a built unfinished unit or a flat-packed unit that you will assemble yourself.
The cheapest option is clearly the flat packed item but some units will take and skill to assemble and the result can tend to look shabby and cheap.
The next cheapest option is to buy a pre-built unit but which is unfinished. This means that you will have to sand and stain/varnish the unit. The advantage of this type of unit is that it can be considerably cheaper than a finished item and also you can choose the color and finish you require. If you prefer dark wood then stain it dark. If a pine color is your preference then stain it accordingly.
The most expensive option is to buy a completely finished item. Despite the cost, this type of item is likely to have the best finish unless you have some real skills in finishing furniture. The item is likely to have been factory finished or even better finished by a craftsman of some repute.
Another area to consider is the type of wood that is used for the unit. The hard woods such as oak and mahogany are considerably higher than the softwoods such as pine although this price is likely to be reflected in the life expectancy of the product.
Another tip when seeking to find inexpensive bedroom furniture is to consider buying pre-used items. Many items come up for sale in garage sales or house clearance sales and I have seen a whole house cleared for less than the price of an antique set of bedroom drawers!
Many on-line auctions now exist and this makes searching so much easier than physically traveling to each sale. The process of searching can also be narrowed down to very specific search terms which results in it becoming very easy to compare prices on identical items. Don’t forget our old friend EBay, which contains hundreds of items of furniture every day. Completing a search today for “bedroom furniture” revealed over 18,000 pieces of furniture, including an Oak Mission Style Bedroom Furniture Set for less than $1,800. You can even specify the search to look for items that are local pick up only which saves money on shipping costs. I know someone who managed to buy a complete bedroom vanity unit for $10 because they were the sole bidder.