Finding furniture that fits your style (and budget) can be difficult! Especially when you’re in a rush like I’m feeling as I try to finish my One Room Challenge Primary Bedroom Makeover. How is it already week 7 of this 8 week challenge?!?! I’ve been through quite the little saga as I’ve searched for the right nightstands for our room, and have a few tips to share if you’re struggling like me!
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Before we get into that, I want to give a shoutout and huge thank you to my partners for this room makeover:
- By Cloud Designs for my gorgeous Turkish rug pillows
- Fanimation Lighting for our new modern ceiling fan
- Sleep & Beyond for my new favorite bedding
Nightstand | Bedframe | Mirror | Lamp | Rug
How to Find Furniture to Fit Your Style and Budget
It’s honestly funny to me that I’m writing this post because I struggle so much with finding furniture I really love. But, most of my blog posts are written based on things I need to hear or have learned that’s worked, so here we are! Now, let me take you along on my nightstand saga and share some tips to help you find furniture that fits your style and budget.
1. Determine YOUR Style
Maybe you already know your style or maybe you don’t. Either way that’s okay! One of the things I struggle with when searching for furniture is that I like many different styles. So sometimes I like something, but it doesn’t fit how I’ve designed my home. In the rest of our home, I’ve successfully mixed modern with rustic with vintage. Our dining room is the perfect example of this. However, when I’m in a rush to find certain furniture pieces, I’m much more likely to settle rather than finding something I love.
When designing a room, I like to create a mood board for what I’m aiming for (you can read more about planning a room makeover here). If you want to find furniture you love, then it helps to define the style you are aiming for. You can mix styles within one room, but it’s helpful to know what kind of style you want for that specific piece of furniture.
2. Determine the Size of Your Furniture
Furniture is one area that size really matters! You want to make sure the piece you’re going to buy is the right size for your space before buying it. Besides taking actual measurements, if you’re considering a specific piece of furniture for your room, I have an easy trick for you! Grab some masking tape and tape out the dimensions of the furniture on your wall. This will help you visualize the size in your room to make sure it fits the way you want it to. After buying two sets of nightstands that were too large for our bedroom, I used this tape trick and the next set was exactly the size I wanted! The large nightstands fit in my space, but they felt too big once I had them in the room. So that’s where the tape really comes in handy.
3. Determine Your Budget
Ah, budget. The least fun part of renovating your home. While I like a good challenge and LOVE finding a great deal, it can be hard to stick within a tight budget for furniture. For me, I’m very picky about the quality of the furniture I buy. I have expensive taste, but more than just looks, I want my furniture to FEEL sturdy and well built. Of course, I also don’t want to spend a fortune, so it’s a tricky game of seeking and being patient.
For our nightstands, I didn’t want to spend more than $500 for the set (and ideally much less than that if possible). Of course, anything new in the size I needed was at least twice that much, so the search was on! If you’re trying to keep to a tight budget for quality furniture, patience really is the key. You’ll find the perfect thrifted furniture eventually, I promise, you just have to keep patiently searching.
Bed frame | Wall Light | Alarm Clock
4. Visualize the Furniture in Your Room Before Buying
Remember that mood board I mentioned? If you’re uncertain how a piece of furniture will go with the rest of your room, I have a very easy solution for you! Grab a picture of the furniture and insert it into your mood board or over a picture of your current room. This helps you to literally SEE it in your room before buying. I did this with multiple nightstands for our bedroom and it helped me easily determine if I would like them with the rest of my decor before buying them.
After buying and selling a few pairs of nightstands, I finally found nightstands for our bedroom. These MCM nightstands for a great deal and they were just what I was looking for! It only took me 6 weeks of searching, but it was worth it. I hope these tips are helpful in finding your next great furniture find as well!
One Room Challenge Primary Bedroom Update:
My goodness, this room makeover has been quite the challenge! I’m thankful to report that my parents are here and helping me finish up my closet. Even so, I have no idea if we’ll actually finish it before the reveal deadline. Follow along on Instagram and wish me luck!
Currently, we have the shelves fully installed and finished, the doors framed out. We still need to build and install the doors, paint all the trim pieces, and then tackle the entire front feature, including staining the plywood, sanding all the slats I bought, and turning it into a *hopefully* awesome slat wall with hidden doors.
Other than the closet, I removed all other remaining projects for now, because they’re just not feasible at this point. I always planned to install the closet first so I could get a feel for the room with the wood slat wall. So, since that’s not complete yet, I don’t want to rush into any other decisions. Believe me, I’m frustrated that my room won’t be fully complete, but I’m pretty proud of this closet build so far, and am very excited to have the much needed storage space!
Be sure to check out the other room makeovers on the One Room Challenge Blog!
