The basics of furnishing your house

Before considering buying new furniture, you could try sprucing up your old units by re-varnishing or repainting them. All you may need to do is to give the old furniture a really good clean and polish and then add a throw and some cushions. You may have already tried all this malarkey, but you needn't go spending thousands on that brand new teak dining table just yet.

There are umpteen places where you could pick up a second hand piece of furniture that may do just the job and at a fraction of the price of a new item. Car boot sales, flea markets, second hand furniture stores, local and national newspapers advertising used furniture and, of course, the good old Internet where online auctions are all the rage.

All of these choices are viable options for getting just what you need without breaking the bank. If you really don't want to go through the bother of having to search second hand stores and the like there is the option of buying brand new yet saving money the same time by using reputable DIY and home store outlets.

These stores stretch the length and breadth of the country and are not hard to find. The sheer range and standard of quality for the price is unbeatable for a new piece of furniture. MFI and IKEA are but two excellent examples of home store where literally thousands of items are available off the shelf. They manufacture their own-brand goods in bulk making them a lot cheaper conventional furniture stores and often have end-of-season sales.