Blog · · 6 min
Furnish a 2-bedroom on a budget: a simple method
A budget goes further when you decide the order before you shop. Seven steps, from what you already own to three versions you can compare.
1. Write down who lives there and what you own
How many people sleep there, how often guests come, and every piece you already have with its size. A sofa you keep is money you do not spend, so owned pieces go in first and the budget covers the rest.
2. Essentials before extras
The essentials are a bed for each sleeper, a seat for each person in the living room, a table where everyone can eat (planning guides give about 60 cm, 24 in, of table edge per person) and somewhere to put clothes. Rugs, lamps, art and shelves come after.
3. Price the essentials at the lowest price you would accept
Not the cheapest thing in the store: the cheapest you would still be happy to sleep on or sit on every day. That total is your floor. If your budget is under it, decide what waits (keep the old bed for a year, buy the table second-hand) instead of spreading the money thin over everything.
4. Spend the rest where you spend hours
What is left goes first to the pieces you use most: the mattress, the seat you sit in every evening, the table if you eat at home. Decoration can grow slowly.
5. Measure before you buy
Keep about 90 cm (36 in) for the main way through a room, and about 80 cm (32 in) behind a dining chair so you can pull it out and sit. A bargain that blocks a door is not a bargain. How to check a sofa fits.
6. Compare three versions, not one
Make three lists: the cheapest, the one that leaves the most floor free, and a balance of both. Seeing them side by side shows what each extra dollar buys. Write the date next to each price: prices move.
7. Second-hand: measure it yourself
A listing’s sizes can be wrong or missing. Ask for the width, depth and height, or measure it when you see it, and check it against your room and your doors before you carry it home.
How Darplan does it
Type what counts, for example “budget $4,000, we are 4 with 2 kids”. The optimizer places real store pieces and gives three ways in a few seconds: the cheapest, the most space, and the best balance. Each shows its total, the date the prices were seen, the free floor measured on the plan, and what is still missing, such as “3 seats for 4”. On a home in the US or Canada it uses IKEA and Article pieces in US or Canadian dollars. See the optimizer.
Sources for the numbers: per-diner table edge and the space behind dining chairs from the NKBA kitchen and bath planning guidelines (61 cm and 81 cm); walkway width from the same guidelines.