Furniture - Furniture Buying Blunders To Avoid

People often go furniture shopping without any sense of what they like, their long-term goals, or even something so basic as the dimensions of the room. Though mishaps and blunders are quite common when purchasing furniture, it can easily be avoided. After all, who wants to spend an abundance of cash and later regret their decision? Here are a few tips that will help you purchase furniture with no regrets.

Lack of Preparation. Before you visit your first store, draw up a floor plan of the space you’re shopping for, including all measurements. (You can also prepare a plan using an online tool such as Better Homes and Gardens’ Arrange-a-Room.) Take some photographs of the room, and go through design magazines and tear out photos of furniture pieces that appeal to you. Bring paint samples from the room, along with swatches of carpet and fabric from the other furnishings. If you don’t have a fabric swatch, remove the cover from a cushion and bring it with you. Pack these clippings in a file folder or portfolio and bring it with you when you shop.
Ignoring Scale. Stores can play tricks with your sense of proportion. Whatever you do, you absolutely have to measure your room before you shop! Many people love to bargain shop and when they find a sale, they do not hesitate to buy. Unfortunately, this can result in large problems because their “guessing” is completely wrong. If you have a very small bedroom and buy a bed frame that is longer than the width of your room all together, you may be stuck with the results. Therefore, save your money and your impulses by jotting down all measurements before you shop. A piece that looks perfect in a store that’s half the size of a football field and has 20-foot ceilings may appear humongous in an apartment with 8-foot ceilings. Carry a compact tape measure in your purse or car and measure everything before you buy. If you’re still in doubt, go home and map out the piece in newspaper on your floor, or make a mockup with cardboard.
Shopping short-term rather than long-term. Think about your long-term plans for the room: Do you like it the way it is, or do you want to change it? If it’s the latter, what kind of look or feeling do you want the space to have? Buy for the way you want the room to be, not necessarily the way it is; that way, you’re not tossing out your furniture in three years when you finally get around to decorating it the way you want it.
Disregarding style or theme. Let’s say that you want to re-do your bedroom decor. After careful planning you decide on a cozy cottage look. But while shopping you find this amazing industrial modern set of bedside tables with tubular steel legs. On impulse you buy the tables and bring them home, only to realize that they don’t go with your updated cottage theme. Regrettably, this happens far too often. People become very excited about their findings and jump to conclusions before they have a clear picture of how they would like to decorate their room. For this reason, make sure you have a clear map of what you want to do with your room. If you are looking for an animal print style room, the last thing you want to buy is a floral upholstered chair.
Not Bringing Home a Fabric Sample. Fabric looks different under different lighting conditions. Before you buy a piece of upholstered furniture, ask for a fabric swatch and take it home. Then look at the material in the room where the piece will sit—preferably in the daytime and at night. Check how the color looks with other pieces of furniture in the room, and with the wall color.
Not Testing the Furniture. Never buy seating or bedding without testing it out. Sit on it. Lay on it. If it’s a sofa you plan to use for napping or reading, stretch out on it in the store (taking your shoes off first, of course)—you might even bring a book and read for a while.

If the furniture store does not have the piece you want on its floor and they plan to custom-order it for you, ask if a wholesale showroom nearby carries the same item. Likewise, if you’re planning to buy a piece of furniture on the Internet, try to find the same item at a bricks-and-mortar retailer and test it in advance.
Buying on Impulse. It can be hard to resist a piece of furniture that’s marked 50% off. But think things through before you pull out that billfold. If the item doesn’t work with your room’s scale, style or colors, you’ve just made a poor choice that you may be forced to live with.

Don’t start shopping for new furniture two days before your in-laws arrive. Buying furniture takes time, so don’t rush it; give yourself plenty of chances to look around and comparison shop. And if you absolutely can’t pass up that sale item, make sure it’s returnable. If not, see if the store will allow you to take it home and return it by the following morning if it’s not right.

It is far too common for a shopper to immediately buy the first piece of furniture they see and like. One simple phrase should do the trick: slow down! Bargains are everywhere—from thrift stores to online furniture stores and even the major discount department store chains. Chances are there is a more affordable piece of furniture that is just as beautiful if you’ll give yourself a little more time to look. After checking out a number of furniture options if you still like the item you first saw then simply go back and buy it. You won’t have the regrets you might encounter if you had not shopped around more.
Refusing Help. Shoppers are notoriously independent, thus refusing to ask questions or help from any salesperson or employee. This tends to occur because employees have a habit of breathing down our necks as we shop. However, unless you’ve studied interior design or apprenticed with an upholsterer, it’s a safe bet the salesperson will know more about their merchandise than you. Take advantage of that. Give them a chance and the odds of getting the right product at the right price are dramatically increased. If you’re going to need a lot of help and want the salesperson to give you his or her undivided attention, don’t go shopping on the weekend. That’s when furniture stores are busiest and the staff is most distracted. Pick a weekday and you might be able to monopolize the salesperson’s time for hours.
Forgetting to Measure Doors & Elevators. Everyone who sells furniture has heard stories about people who bought a sofa and then couldn’t get it through the front door, up the stairs or into the elevator. Don’t become another statistic! Measure the size of every opening leading up to the room where the piece will sit. (Don’t overlook windows as an alternate entry point.) If you live in an apartment or condo, measure the elevator door and compartment, or the service elevator, if there is one.
Paying Too Much. If the piece isn’t discounted already, wait for a sale. Many retailers mark down everything in the store during three-day holiday weekends (Memorial Day, Labor Day, etc.) or monthly sales events. If you don’t want to wait for a sale, you might try to negotiate the price, especially if you’re buying several items.

If the salesperson says no, don’t be offended: Some manufacturers and stores do not permit their merchandise to be sold at a discount. Smaller, non-corporate stores are often more receptive to the idea. Mom and pop type enterprises are generally willing to go out of their way to help you walk away with a good deal. As a rule of thumb you could ask for a 20% discount to see how the furniture dealer reacts. You might also try to negotiate delivery or assembly charges. Some stores can charge up to 15%, but many are willing to negotiate those fees, so ask. Many stores offer enticing financing plans that postpone payments for a year or more. Don’t take advantage of them unless you’re certain you’ll be able to pay off the balance in full by that date. A majority of customers are unable to pay in full and end up paying sky-high interest charges retroactive to the day they took the furniture home. Don’t be another victim—pay for it now or start putting money aside every month until the balance is due.