No straying because I start with no plan lol!

On the extreme budgets I have been on I started with no plan. My plan doesn't start until I have the first major piece of furniture, like the sofa (that I like). In my sons town house I had to pull off some sort of look for under $2,000. Out of that 2 grand I needed a sofa, curtains for two windows, art work, a living room rug, side tables & coffee table, some bench seats for extra seating, living room chair, TV/Credenza, lamps, chandelier, dining table and four chairs, couch & chair decor pillows, a kitchen table and bench seats, and decorative accessories.
My goal was to furnish the combo living/dining room but I ended up doing a bit in the kitchen within that budget. In some ways it was horrible because I living on CL but in other ways I LOVED it.
I bought from craigslist, garage sales, outlet stores, ebay and Habitat Rehoming. Lots of the accessories came from garage sales for $1 and $2.
I started with this leather CL sofa for $150.00 (this picture was taken as we were setting it all up so it's a bit wonky). Next came the CL rug with black leather trim $60.00. The cool CL coffee table that has solid brass legs and onyx tops with matching side table $325. Lamps total for room (3) $140, Big a$$ chair (son picked) $125, curtains $140 for both rooms). TV/Credenza $35 and another side table for $75 that was new. Mirror mural $152.

Sons big a$$ chair about killed me!

The dining table, chairs, accessories and chandelier where a total of $320. The two little bench seats for extra seating came to $90 total after fabric and such.

I painted the picture with a canvas I had (this is before the sides were touched up).

Here's his ugly kitchen, I got the butcher block table on CL for $50 (I had to refinish the top).
On the other side of this room is a table with a LAMINATE top! This is perfect for the young twenty somethings. I haven't a picture but I also found two long bench seats with solid walnut legs and gray fabric upholstery (keeps the room open). Table $100 , benches total $70. My son bought the two bar stools and a few odds and ends.

OK OK I know this is not magazine worthy but did I pull off a sort of look on a penny or what?

I would have to do a room that had a cohesive styled look to it, even if it was not my favorite style, over a mish mash of used and abused. I personally have a pretty low tolerance for the cluttered flea market vibe.

But I could do 1940-50 maple. I could do matched suite of late 1960s items. I could do Law Office 1987. I could do contemporary. I could do rustic/wrought iron.

I could NOT do country look, grainy oak of any era, plastic-y MCM, victorian, or Memphis.

I like the basic proportions of traditional English and Irish and French furniture, and woods with even grain tones that stain evenly like cherry and maple.

jterrilyn,

That's a great example. It's fun looking and a little ironic, kind of Kelly Wearstler-on-a-budget. It Is best, I think, in some situations to start without a stylistic goal, and see where it leads you.

I'm neither a refinisher nor an upholsterer, so that restriction is easy!
I'd be willing to stray pretty far, with a five-part plan, I think:

1. Accurate plan and elevation layout and concept sketches.
2. A well-edited color palette.
3. Careful scrounging.
4. Allocating some of the budget to buying expert help (e.g., slipcovers).
5. Willingness to paint, paint, paint.

Here's an example of what I would consider: this is 1960s Louis XVI, blue grey, laminate tops. I wouldn't normally do a matching set, and I may lose the headboard and mirror for that reason, but a 7-piece set of this furniture is under $700, and the door dresser by itself is under $600. This shows how prices vary per region. It's kinda feminine, and French, but I think you could overall make the room a bit more gender non-specific and even veer a bit Swedish neo-Classical because of the coloring:

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Personally, I would have a really hard time spending money on things that weren't my taste. I'm not a professional decorator, though. So if I were to do a room that had to function well for $4k I would put money into the important items (bed & mattress for a bedroom, sofa & TV for a den). The other items would probably be reused from what I have available. I might use a 3-drawer dresser under the TV, for instance, instead of a console table.

If it was a space for just ME (not guests) I'd even use stacked plastic totes as temporary side tables if I had to ;) Then, as more money became available I'd buy the ones I really liked (used or new).

I have a strong aversion to buying things I don't really like/love because I know how hard it is to get rid of them. Partially due to my own guilt about discarding items that still have some usefulness in them (even if they are unattractive) and partially because it's hard to get DH to let go of things. I'm pretty happy to Freecycle stuff once I've determined I don't love it & have found a replacement. DH struggles a bit with the idea that it *might* come in handy someday, so we should hang onto it.

But do you think there are ways to work with things that aren't exactly your taste and make them work with your taste? Work with them within the context of your taste?

Because I think a lot of people buy things that aren't their taste, or even a particular taste--bits and pieces of ready-to-assemble, (or plastic bins, for example) because they want something and want it now, to put something on or in, and then they keep it forever anyway. So I not sure what is different about a real piece of furniture that is outside your general parameters of taste.

The above pieces, for example, are not what I would buy if I had a large budget. But I find them fairly pleasant looking and they are real furniture. Why do you think there is a difference to some people between something that is put together with allen wrenches a la Target or IKEA (that they don't like that much) vs. a piece of real furniture for almost the same price (that they don't like that much--but at least doesn't look temporary on top of it?)

But I couldn't do a room full of this type of thing, no matter how inexpensive, because this is too different from what I like Except, maybe, if the Edwardian stuff was appropriate to the house itself.
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I would have a hard time using micro fiber anything.
I also refused to do a black sofa and chair in son#1's house. Being that I have two sons I will have to do the same for the other. I kept a log of everything I spent with son #1. The budget and color restrictions for older son may force me into a microfiber sofa (hope not). When the time comes for son2 I will need a color scheme beforehand and more of a plan. The colors will be anything dismal or black, mid browns or midtone mudded or grayed down restrained shades. The only true color he likes is blue, but not too bright. He does not like a lot of pattern of any kind. He likes expensive woods without a lot of form and well-made stuff. Serious, conservative with no whimsy! I will have an easier time finding things to use, a harder time with budget and little joy in creating.

I like that bedroom set btw!

When I was in my 20's just starting out in my own place I collected pieces of furniture from my parents basement and then picked through to-be-discarded rooms of furniture from their best friends. They and their friends were redoing their own homes and rooms.

The stuff was free but I only took it if I could survive and breath in it. It had to be clean lines, no frous-frous, and good solid furniture. This was in the 70's and the furniture was probably made in the 40's and 50s. One sectional was probably made in the 20's and came from the parents of my parents friends. I scrounged a buffet and corner table from my uncle that he had made in high school.

I couldn't afford to reupholster anything but I could afford to accessorize and that is how I pulled the stuff together.

For me it isn't a look so much as it is the ability to breath and relax in the room and having a cohesive colour palette. But for most of us it does probably come down to that - how comfortable does the furniture make us feel and can we relax, can we breath in the room without our shoulders shrugging up and tensing.

Pal- the furniture that you posted at 10:32? I'd rather sleep in a sleeping bag on the floor than sleep in the room with that..

Oh and that sectional that was made in the 20's - it's still in my living room and has been reupholstered once, the furniture that my uncle made in high school in 1952 still in my DR, the DR table scrounged from my parents (1930) still in my DR and all of it very clean lines.

I have never bought something I didn't like just to fill up space and never will, nor the desire to purchase something well beyond my budget. Years ago I couldn't afford Drexel Heritage, but if I were to fall in love with something from the brand, now I could. Or a custom piece, yes, but do I need it that badly when I can purchase ready-made? Besides, I rarely buy new since I prefer vintage/antique, and an able to find wonderful pieces at a local auction house, many brought in from France~only my upholstered pieces are new. IMO, 4K would get *me* a lot. ;o)

Oh, good - an empty room to decorate and be a home for my extra art n'stuff!

What's the time-line on finishing this room? Of course I don't believe in 'finishing' decorating any room but how long before company arrives! :D

First I'd buy a new mattresses/box spring/base so there's bed to sleep in and a non-custom shade/blind for the window for privacy. Some combination of new sofa/loveseat/chairs for the den. I don't do used mattresses or upholstered furniture but would look in the 2nd hand markets for case goods - Craigslist/2nd hand/antique stores. I'd be very careful as there's an epidemic of bed bugs and they can even be in wood furniture. I'd look for traditional styles but no laminate tops. I don't like to paint furniture but would use Restor-A-Finish and wax to improve a wood finish. I like 'patina'. If the top of a piece is damaged and it doesn't look great after that treatment I'd cover it with a vintage or burlap runner.

One can use fabrics in many ways for an elegant finished look without using a lot of furniture or going over-budget. I'd buy some print fabric for the WT's on a good sale early on so I could take a color from it for the walls. Likely do a warm medium color in case the room was under-furnished for awhile as that would help it look less stark.

I might buy a bookcase for either room and put some books and decorative accessories there so it looks somewhat decorated. I have enough things I could borrow from other rooms in my house. Possibly borrow some furniture until I found what I want.

No Colonial or Danish Modern but I might use one piece of French Provincial or Regency depending if it was compatible with other things I found.

Neither of those budgets would be restrictive for me, I love finding nice things very inexpensively and I wouldn't stray far from the style of the rest of my house which is traditional, somewhat eclectic.

I think you would be pretty surprised how quickly $3-4000 adds up when you need to get a mattress and a custom window shade, and the room is otherwise empty.

jterrilynn, do you adopt?

My parents didn't furnish my first place - I took my bed and the old dresser from my room, and all the rest was the GoodWill store, muslin from the fabric store, dishes from the seconds warehouse, cheap brass from the import store (long before Pier I expanded past California), even cheaper posters from I forget where, and Big Trash Day.

We were all freegans when it came to furnishing. The only thing I remember spending significant money on was a stereo, which meant a KLH turntable, a Marantz tuner, and a couple of big speakers.

My only question now is, why do I remember all this, when I can barely remember the names of the people I had to dinner last night...?

bronwynsmom- that's exactly what I got when I left home - my bedroom furniture which, 35 years later, I still have! Everything else was scrounged from people I knew (see above) or from the "Free" column of the local flyer. No craigslist in those days.

Pal, even if the mattress costs 1/2 the budget I'm sure it can be done, and I know I could buy an acceptable mattress for less than $2000. And I wouldn't do a custom shade (was that obligatory?) or anything custom with a limited budget.

Let's do a theoretical budget:

Mattress/box spring, bed base or sofa/chair on 50% off sale $2000.
Used case goods $800.
Area rug $400.
Fabric from discount store $200.
Bedding $300.
Paint 4 gallons @ $50/gal. = $200.
Decorative accessories $100.

What have I missed? Some things would be more and some less. Does this sound possible?

Granted one might have to sew the WT's oneself to keep the cost at $200. but I've seen and bought nice fabrics for less than $10/yd. and one might buy ready made panels and bed cover. No $1000. sheets in this bedroom!

I don't know what "used case goods" are - is that the dresser and headboard, bedside table, lighting etc? I think that is what Pal is talking about. IF you had to put together a bedroom within a week for someone, and so had to buy the furniture in a rush and were on a budget and wanted real furniture - how far out of your comfort zone, style wise, would you stray based on a budget to buy what you needed.

Whoa - I couldn't do the stuff posted by Pal at 11:48 either.

I'm in a recently rural/farm part of the southern Bible Belt. This means there's a fair amount of antique furniture around but, relatively speaking, not a whole lot in the way of very good quality "used" furniture. Even for those who could afford it, and they're around, most traditionally have not considered it appropriate to spend "too" much on material things. And the wealthy class for whom it was mandatory--decimated for 100 years after the Civil War. Just not a lot of them for a long while, and the middle class here didn't start growing comparable to other regions until after passage of the Civil Rights Act encouraged manufacturing to move in.

With some time and careful searching, somebody so inclined could probably put together a nice Mid-Century Modern room, or Victorian, within that budget. Both were boom eras, money and population, which seem to have left behind more worth having of themselves than some others. Mid-Century isn't hot here, but the trick would be to grab the good items before someone from the city. Of course, you'll see suites of the modern furniture lines sold over in North Carolina, often resold by people on the move after very little use.

Like other posters (if DH weren't a factor), I'd put the entire amount into a piece or two of the fine antiques that can be found in this old part of the country.

Is paint included in this theoretical budget? If so, who does the painting? I find I can easily spend $50-100 on painting supplies (not the paint itself) if I haven't painted in a while.

Let's do a theoretical budget:

Mattress/box spring, bed base or sofa/chair on 50% off sale $2000.
Used case goods $800.
Area rug $400.
Fabric from discount store $200.
Bedding $300.
Paint 4 gallons @ $50/gal. = $200.
Decorative accessories $100.

I think that's pretty good although I hope you could skip the paint and apply that to the accessories budget. I would also skip ANY custom window treatment. Come on, windows aren't that hard. And, SW has paint sales often and their flat paint can be had for 25 a gallon.
I've used it for years and it's great.

Last year, I did my brothers living room for him. Ignoring my persistent and deep advice, he had his house interior professionally painted. I wanted him to do it himself to save $$. But he didn't.
Anyway, I found a very nice, brand new looking, sofa, big coordinating chair, and love seat for 600. I don't really understand this completely, it looked like it had never been used ever. It was Ashely furniture (junk, I know) but the design and style were very nice. All brownish tapestry and leather. My brother saw it at the sellers nice house and he also delivered it to my brother who lives about 30 miles away.
The guys wife said they wanted to redecorate. Who knows.
But for the money it was all very nice. It shocked me, actually.

We bought pottery, mango end tables, lamps, and "art" from Marshalls. A few more things from Pier One. Total cost excluding the paint job, about 2,500.
I picked out 3 Kerne Erickson travel posters from Art.com and bought frames from Target. They look fabulous on his big wall ledge. We looked at the Kerne art together and brother picked out the ones he like best. I got them all the same size, btw. They were 30 apiece and 25 each for the frames. They make an interesting and large statement.
We also found a nice table and chairs on craigslist for around 200.
He did already have a few things, a beautiful watercolor over his mantlepiece, a nice antique trunk of my grandmothers for a coffee table, an ugly cat climbing thing :-(, a nice hall table, great bar stools, a good looking tv armoire.
The total price, excluding the paint job, was around 2,500.
The whole thing turned out great.
What I learned is that if you use current, popular colors, there are tons of options.

I could do a Heyward Wakefield bedroom, mainly because I have a complete H-W bedroom set in my basement, waiting for a certain someone to ask me for it.

Pal, I'm telling you you need to come to Florida before the snow birds come back. I found a whole bedroom set for you for $35.00 lol. OK, I know this is not your style but for $35 could you learn to like it? At this time of year even if they are asking $900 to 1,200 for the good stuff you can normally get it for $575 or much much less.

Here is a link that might be useful: Daddy-O's bedroom

The 11:48 example is stuff I could definitely Not do unless it was a period house (maybe then).

I did a Heywood Wakefield bedroom for client that was a full bed, a bedside table, two dressers, two mirrors, a vanity and a pouf, and it was maybe $1200. The finish was not bad.

I think there is a difference now, that we are (some of us), middle-aged adults, and that there are things like Craigslist and eBay.

At 25 I happily trash picked almost an entire room except for a couple of pieces and it looked great because I was 25 and I also had an oriental rug. I was also sleeping either on a rollaway mattress or a single futon, and I was alternating because both made my back hurt, but in opposite ways.

Then, without Craigslist and eBay, people put things out, gave them away, essentially freecycling them. Now (at least here), people either know what they have/can get (because of eBay) , or Think they have something great and put the most abysmal junk on Craigslist and still want $200 for it.

They have improved access to things astronomically, but they have also improved peoples' estimation of the value of their own cast offs.

I also think at 40+ your expectations are (and should be higher) than they are at 20. It might be fun and quirky to live with junk at 20, but at 40 it's potentially embarrassing. The above client with the H-W bedroom had her 20 something furniture in her house, complete with legs that wobbled and water damaged tops etc, and when we finished a couple rooms in her house that was what a couple of her friends said, that the before was "kinda embarrassing" and that they were "waiting for her to grow up".

Luckygal I so agree with your approach! You can make a dollar stretch! I'd spend $72.00 a gal. for paint, rather than your $50.00, since I can't resist Ben Moore's Aura formula, but I'd spend a bit less on the rug or something else, so it evens out!

Yes, an acceptable mattress can be found for under $2,000! We paid $535.00 for our king size mattress and box springs six years ago, and that included tax & delivery. It's incredibly comfortable. I love our bed! I wouldn't want a more comfy one...I'd never get out of it! Best $535.00 I ever spent!

$4,000 for one room is a high budget in my experience! My goodness, with that budget, a nicely appointed room should be well within reach! Having said that, custom window treatments of any sort are quite pricey. I HAVE sprung for them, in spite of my generally tightwad spending! They can make everything else in a room seem more expensive and thus pay dividends on the investment. But if one doesn't have a tricky window, measurement or shape wise, money could be saved there by purchasing something ready-made. In today's world, there are some gorgeous ready-made options...even at Home Depot & Lowes!

Jterrilynn, I want to say you did a really fantastic job for very little money! Good for you! You should have your own "Decorating on a Dime" sort of TV series!

Also, I think the headboard in the "11:48" post is really pretty!

We tend to live with what we have until we can afford what we really want. Dh and I built this house 22ish years ago as cheaply as we could. Our furniture was stuff we had and stuff our parents gave us. A lot of it was that 60's era maple furniture that we painted. We have sort of just struggled along with kind of mismatched things. Each kid got a room makeover, the dining room had some love a while ago and the living room is a work in progress. This year we finally bought furniture for our bedroom and re-did our master bath. I'm happy with what we bought (so far) and the window treatments were pretty expensive for us, but we don't tend to change things often. I can't say I loved the mish mash of furniture but we did try to keep it looking as nice as we could. I'd rather do that than buy cheaper stuff that didn't last.

Beth P.

I've done less expensive rooms, sure, but if you were buying new furniture, as most people do, and starting out with an empty room, $4000 doesn't really go that far.

I think a lot of people buy bits and pieces over time and don't Realize how much they are spending as a sum total.

I went to Ethan Allen and priced out a full bed, a pair of nightstands, a double dresser and an upholstered chair.
$5800

No lamps, no mattress, no bedding, no rug, no paint, no window treatments, and EA is hardly couture furniture, and people complain about its current quality.

Pottery Barn: Queen bed, two nightstands, a long dresser and an upholstered chair $2300. Again, no lamps, no mattress, no bedding no rug, no paint, no window treatments.

If a new, empty bedroom suddenly appeared in my house at the same time as $4,000 in my bank account .... and I only had a month.

My personal preference is for Mission, Arts and Crafts or Shaker influenced style - clean-lined, casual rustic. To make it more challenging, I will avoid those.

New mattress: I just did this, and the total of internet pourchased mattress (ultra-firm), memory foam topper and steel platform bed base was about $1,000.

Need two night stands, one dresser.

This craigslist set (pictured at bottom): $400 for the dresser and one nightstand. It's innocuously traditional, but not too ornate. Nice warm wood color, looks like it's in good condition.

Add a non-matching night stand like this one (the darkest one) for $175 from overstock.com http://www.overstock.com/Worldstock-Fair-Trade/Handmade-Rosewood-Nightstand-India/2002421/product.html

Bench for the foot of the bed is $200 from world market, curvy legs, dark, and a bit rustic: http://www.worldmarket.com/product/sourav-bench.do

Headboard (I don't do footboards, but need headboard for reading) may be more difficult, but this one is only $40 for the headboard and would blend with the dresser. Curved, pared-down traditional look.

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With the furniture purchased (and being shipped), to shove it firmly in the direction of my taste, I have $2100 for the following:

curtains (full height linen sheer panels or maybe splurge on silk-look with blackout roller blind)
bedside rugs (flat woven wool: Chimayo or Saltillo from Santa Fe shops)
reading lamps (wall mounted)
bedding (cream sheets, some sort of ethnic/boho bedspread, maybe a Mexican blanket or two)

The final look will be "Midwestern bride brought her furniture to Santa Fe".

"Midwestern bride brought her furniture to Santa Fe".
That's funny, Lazy! Good shopping!

"Because I think a lot of people buy things that aren't their taste, or even a particular taste--bits and pieces of ready-to-assemble, (or plastic bins, for example) because they want something and want it now, to put something on or in, and then they keep it forever anyway. So I not sure what is different about a real piece of furniture that is outside your general parameters of taste."

Pal - you raise a good point. I think the difference is that a RTA piece from Target or IKEA often is style agnostic as much as it can be. It's not really shaker, not really MCM, and sort of in the transitional style. But a "real" piece of furniture from Craigslist might have a very definite style. It's a slice of hearty rye in comparison to the Target white bread.

And rye bread is okay for some sandwiches - but you need to commit to a filling before you choose it. And some people (like me) abhor rye - especially with caraway seeds - and have a visceral reaction to the smell of it even. So I think that's why people will spend money on Target or IKEA for filler pieces but won't spend it on used furniture. They picture used furniture stores being full of icky rye bread, but they can't afford the artisanal sourdough they want, so they get some cheap white bread in the meantime. It's still not what they want, but it isn't the stuff they hate, either.

And I just have to defend IKEA for a sec, their white Hemnes book cases are quite nice and well priced, and their PAX wardrobe system has rocked my world for closet organization :). A lot of their stuff is crap, but I do love those 2 things!

I have nothing against IKEA at all. I have done entire home offices in it that are very sturdy, and they make a couple of pieces that are "go to's" in a given situation.

But a whole room of RTA furniture (not styled by the IKEA stylists which tends to make it look fine)...a whole room of the typical RTA done in a typical way that people do it...just has no resonance for me at all. Soulless is probably too strong a word, but no matter how permanent the furniture actually becomes, the impermanence that it conveys is palpable.

But I don't eat that kind of white bread either.

Stinky, thank you! Although I started with no plan and low budget I did want a few of the pieces to be descent quality. The sofa, chair, and coffee table should last him a bit into the future. Heck even some of those fugly pieces will last awhile, they are still going strong after forty years. When I got stuck on this room and posted here one gal suggested that it was all going to be destroyed anyway. I'm happy to say that so far everything has been very well maintained.

Bronwynsmom, No parental furnishings here either, and I had the exact stereo set-up as you! One just had to have a Marantz tuner back then. I first roomed in furnished apartments until I saved enough to get my own apartment and decor (no room mates) at twenty two. I'll never forget my first beloved furnishings. I bought everything from classified ad moving sales with a few new things thrown in. I scored big at a moving sale where the couple was moving across country. My car was sick so I had to ride my ten speed to the sale and got there a half an hour early. Oh glory days did I hit the jackpot, I bought a nearly new, perfect, absolutely gorgeous $4,000 half circle sectional for $550 (a lot of money then) and a new Sony TV with all the latest and greatest high tech's of the day. That started my theme. After I bought every thing I had to cruise town on my ten speed to find a couple of willing guys with a truck to help me move it. I had the most incredible bachelorette pad when I was done complete with large abstract paintings and, of course, the all important leather bar with matching stools lol. Remember those horrible porta bars everyone had then?

Pal, I'm sorry I thought the bedroom furniture was meant for your dad, did I mix that up?

I think I could put together an acceptable bedroom for $4000, and that would include a new, organic mattress (depending on the size). Mattress + box spring might be another matter altogether though. But I live minutes from any number of stores selling antiques and used stuff. I could also pick up things at Rago's and other auction houses and, if pieces at their major auctions would blow the budget, I could shop the so-called "discovery" auctions and the estate auctions.

So, I would probably get a great mattress and fill up with acceptable used furniture. I would not have to shop for new things; it wouldn't make any sense in terms of the budget.

Other rooms probably could be done under budget as well. I would have trouble with a library because my preference (for myself) would be for beautiful bookshelves, and many of them. Maybe I could manage the bookshelves, but after having them installed, there'd be no money for actual books! Although even there, now that I think about it, some of the local auction houses could well offer attractive bookshelves that could be had at a good price.

Another reason why I could probably do rooms to my taste and under budget is that I don't think I have an eye for distinguishing really "good" antiques from perfectly acceptable used furniture. Or maybe I would be able to tell the difference, but, in most cases, it probably wouldn't matter to me.

With your budget, I would have to forego some furnishings that I like or have dreamed of owning, but that does not contradict my previous comment. I might love a "real" antique, but I could be very happy with its vintage or knockoff cousin. In fact, I might buy the latter with the expectation of someday replacing it with the former only to eventually realize that I'm happy with the room just as it is.

IOW I could see myself redoing rooms because my taste has changed but I probably would never bother because a new budget allowed for "better" stuff.

I have no idea what RTA furniture is.

As far as Ikea goes, I have Ikea furniture for a home office. It's well-designed, sturdy, and functional. However, it's no longer to my taste, nor is much that Ikea sells. It also took me six hours to put it all together, and some of it is so heavy that I'm sure it added a tidy amount to our total moving costs. I'd far rather pay to have someone deliver something I'd won at auction than shop for and put together Ikea again.

When my husband had a different kind of client and a long-term contract requiring an expanded staff, we furnished a five-room suite of offices with modular pieces from Ikea that were of fine quality, easy to put together, and came in very flexible sizes and shapes.

We reconfigured that collection of pieces and parts through three other iterations in our work lives, and finally ended up keeping one smallish desk configuration for a home office, and donating the whole truckload of desktops, legs, shelving, and storage bits to a local non-profit that was working out of cardboard file boxes on folding caterer's tables and board-and-cinderblock shelves.

Great for us, great for them, and a good home for the furniture, which still looked great and functioned wonderfully after almost 20 years.

RTA= Ready To Assemble, because I didn't want to single out IKEA.

Pal - You said that lots of people buy bits and pieces over time and don't realize how much they're spending. That's it exactly. It's unlikely that I'll ever have the budget to furnish a room the way I'd like all at once. I still maintain that I'd buy the one or two nicer pieces that are necessary for the room's function, and add more pieces as budget allows over time.

It's not necessary to have a bed or a headboard. For years I had a good mattress and box springs and a metal frame. I hid the lack of headboard with euros propped up against the wall.

When my parents bought their starter home, they had nothing. They didn't try to furnish it immediately. They had a mattress, box springs and a frame, nursery furniture (mine!) and a small, portable black and white TV, and that was it. Until they could afford the dressers that they wanted, they hung what they could and stacked the rest. If I was in that position today, I would probably buy some plastic bins to put in the closet to hold things that can't be hung, but I don't think they existed back in the day. I don't "need" a dresser so I'd wait until I can afford what I want.

Why does it all have to be bought at once?

I haven't really furnished most rooms all at once, but I have been pretty capable of sticking to a master plan.

The problems that I see with people furnishing houses are these:

People tend to buy houses toward the top of their budget and have no money budgeted for furniture. My Realtor tells me this is not limited to people starting out, but also to her older clientele--they will buy toward the top of what they can afford and really underestimate how much it costs to really furnish and finish a house. She said that people will rarely set aside $50K - $100K of purchasing power for furniture when it can get them more house (with rooms that stay relatively empty).

Of course this is more of a problem where housing is expensive: you may need to be at the top of your budget.

With regards to sticking to a master plan, very few people seem to be able to do this. The whole idea of what they want changes and evolves as they buy. Rooms get put together with half-finished schemes. Upholstered pieces, bought first, are worn out by the time the rest is purchased.

I had a friend who was purchasing a matched dining room one piece at a time. They stopped making it before she finished. She couldn't save the money to buy it all at once without spending it so thought she would try it this way.

I had a client who bought expensive bedding one piece at a time, and part of it was worn out before the rest was bought. (And they stopped making IT too).

But actually the reason that this is on my mind is that my sister is going to be furnishing a bedroom and a sitting area for my father to use, in the hopes that he will stay for more than a night before driving home.

In thirty + years of living away from home and raising her family, she has almost nothing to show for it in terms of decent furniture. Things come and go, schemes get started and aborted, and sofas and lamps get bought over, and over and over. One of the reasons that my parents would not stay with her is that curtains on tension rods would fall on their heads if you touched them, the lamp may or may not work, the chair you sat in may have a loose leg and the draw er may fall out of the nightstand if you pull on it too hard.

My father is 88. He is not going to be around forever, and with the way my sister has done things in the past, even if he lived to be 100--he well may--she would have several abortive attempts at getting a room or two together with nothing really accomplished. I think this needs to be a once and done.

If she were the exception to the rule I don't think I would be thinking about it so much, but I have met a number of clients and have a number of friends, my age or older, who are exactly the same way.

It's funny how people who grew up in the same house can be so different! Unlike your sister, I buy most things with the expectation that they will be with me for life. My parents' furniture, once purchased, was always exceptional quality, and much of it still exists and looks good today.

It's very nice that your sister is doing this to accomodate your father. He sounds like he might be a bit on the persnickety side. Have you asked him what he wants? $9000 for a guest room and sitting room seems pretty do-able.

I think I can do a sitting area for about $1000-1500 including a possibly pricey window treatment, so I'm really thinking $4000+ for the whole thing. Maybe less if the old adjustable chair she stored in the basement can be fixed.(formerly my mom's but rather too large for her 4'6'' eventual height)

My parents furnished 75% of the house immediately, and my father took another job solely to pay for the furnishings.

Here is my father's room at home. These have been posted a number of times before. The furniture was bought in 1970, the wallpaper installed in 1975 and the textiles updated in 1987. Other than that it has been unchanged with the exception of pictures coming and going. Persnickety, yes, wanting constancy, yes. Dated, perhaps.

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I think your father's room is lovely. Neat, clean, uncluttered, pretty, and a little bit feminine.

I find myself wondering (even though it is none of my business) whether he wants it to stay the same because it has your mother in it.

When you are 88 (or like my mother, 93) you are way beyond any pressure to be modern or new or anything that isn't exactly what makes you feel comfortable and still fully in your life.

So Pal, are you going to do the same color scheme for him at your sisters house? I think he would like that. When my in-laws were alive I did the guest room in colors they liked and they were tickled by that. It was a different style though but with the same soothing colors and a bit of floral for mumsy.

It's interesting, because I think traditional masters always tend to be a bit feminine. One designer my mother used (perhaps the one who did the 1987 bedding?) thought the room was masculine and wanted to know where my mother's room was.

I think my father wants it to be that way, because that's the way it has always been. (And because it has my mother in it as well). But he has managed to find someone to "turn the collars" of his favorite shirts, even though he has dozens of others. If you don't know what this means, it means taking the collars off the shirt and sewing them on with the part that used to be outside on the inside, since the outside is starting to get threadbare.

So while my father doesn't necessarily care about the color scheme, for example, the room needs to have sturdy pieces, in good condition, window treatments that function well, with lamps that can take bright bulbs, and an armchair for putting on shoes and socks. Because that is what a good room has, by his criteria.

My other concern about finishing the room in a timely manner is that he has been sleeping in a different bedroom at my sister's house (which has only the bright lamps at this point, besides a good mattress) and that if he sleeps in it one time too many, that he will want to sleep in That room, because that is the room he Always sleeps in. (At which point I will have to switch everything from one room to the other.)

Whitle it's not my taste, I think the 10:32 set would suit your father well. It's different, but not wildly so, from his current room. Since it's from the same era as his home furnishings, it probably will feel familiar to him.

While. Not whistle. Sorry for the bad autocorrect!

"She said that people will rarely set aside $50K - $100K of purchasing power for furniture when it can get them more house." Then again, it's worth noting, (and a realtor probably does not bend over backwards to point this out to clients) the need to set a sizable sum aside for home maintainance and improvements.

The costs of home ownership include ongoing, never ending upkeep tasks, necessary fixes, and usually at least a modicum of "remodeling." (As Kswl brilliantly noted on another thread, "Every house is a fixer upper!") Suze Orman regularly reminds potential buyers that they need to "add in" such costs to the ticket price and down payment amount to get an accurate view of the "real" price of a house. AND...Suze also points out that a house will need to be *furnished* too (oh, the "hidden" costs of owning a house!)

Some have the philosophy that they prefer to spend more on what "they can take with them" when they sell, such as...furniture. I like that idea. It sounds like a heck of a lot of fun. But, it doesn't work with my uptight, not-fun personality very well, so while I spend conservatively on furnishings, I spend like a drunken sailor on maintainance and improvements of the actual house (relatively speaking!).

I agree that there has been a phenomenon of buyers emphasizing square footage over other attributes. It's also true that it's hard to find really nice smaller houses in well tended, safe, "desirable" neighborhoods. I don't have a huge house (2600 sq. ft.) but I really wanted something with 800-1000 fewer sq.ft.! I couldn't find such a house in a location I'd be comfortable living in, and dh & I aren't ready for condo living just yet.

The "jewel box house" is a niche that I wish designers and builders would address. It's not only people who demand 4,000+ sq. ft. who want quality built houses with nice finishes, attractive lots, in safe, sought after neighborhoods. ( But I digress.)

That bedroom and bathroom don't look dated! They look classic and beautiful. I love the light fixture over the bed especially! So elegant!

"My other concern about finishing the room in a timely manner is that he has been sleeping in a different bedroom at my sister's house (which has only the bright lamps at this point, besides a good mattress) and that if he sleeps in it one time too many, that he will want to sleep in That room, because that is the room he Always sleeps in. (At which point I will have to switch everything from one room to the other.) "

This reminds me of my family so much. I swear I can hear my Grandmother saying this!

Beth P.

And mine. My husband bonded with parchment paper after making his first three trays of cookies a few months ago. It was gone, so I bought him 2 silicone mats as a loving present for his new cookie hobby. Hasn't touched them.

Pal, I really like your parents' bedroom. It doesn't get much more classic than that, within that style anyway. I was recently admiring a bedroom because of very similar wall covering on Houzz. Good elements used well. It would take very little to give it a current look, should anyone want to.

Yes, Rosie, I agree about the wall coverings. I like the wallpaper in both rooms. The bedroom wallpaper would be very "IN" right now, and the color of the stripes on the bath walls are so cheerful, but soft at the same time. I also love how that gorgeous mirror in the bedroom echoes the shape of the light fixture I like so much.

Obviously, these people had excellent taste, bought quality, got it right the first time, and lived with the results for quite a while. That's economical too!

A few years back my parent's microwave was dying --it was one of those gigantic circa 1975 ones.

We had to sneak it out of the house and a new one in, while my father was out. He was furious because "every $%&^ thing is made to break, and nothing lasts" --this about the 35 year old microwave.

He was right though, the "new" one is making strange noises already.

I would stray to the "Holiday" movie set. Especially the kitchen. But the tub itself would cost me 1/3 the budget and no clue what the cost of wood timbers would end up. The only reason it would be difficult to go there is the style would be so out of the norm in my area. I could change many of my current pieces easily to do so. On the other hand I shouldn't care since this is my home forever.