M&S furniture and John Lewis curtains at a snip

We overspent when buying our first house, so needed to scrimp on furniture.

Quality was the name of the game, but doesn’t quality cost?

I had wondered around Habitat (sadly no more) and Heal’s and the furniture was gorgeous, but just too expensive, though we had to have the square extendable table (at full price!).

I decided to go high street and M&S was my first port of call.

The Abbey sofas and Sonoma dining table set were just right. I got in touch with M&S and asked if they had any furniture discount or outlet stores and they told me about Bucks Furniture warehouse in Deptford and another place in north Wales. Sadly the Bucks I knew is no more!

Now Bucks just happened to be a few miles away from our new home, so we went over and got two Abbey sofas for £1,600 – a saving of £800! 13 years later they are still in great condition. We also bought the Sonoma dining set for £400 off list price. Bucks didn’t outwardly advertise that they sold M&S furniture, but to me it was obvious.

To go with the Sonoma dining set, we wanted a sideboard. Even with the discount that M&S sometimes give, we were looking at close to £600 and Bucks didn’t stock it.

Sigh as I liked it…anyway eBay came to the rescue. I found a brand new Sonoma sideboard for just over £200. Now there was no mention of M&S on the listing, but the item was brand new. After reading the reviews and looking carefully at the images, I took the risk and I was so pleased to confirm that it matches my dining set exactly at less than half the price.

We had a massive patio windows and I have always wanted burgundy velvet curtains. John Lewis has a great range of curtains and around £400 with lining was the figure I was quoted, and that wasn’t velvet.

After some searching I found Curtain Factory Outlet in North London. They had some of the same stock as John Lewis and had a no fabric over £6.99 rule per meter, though that may have gone up now. For around £160, we got our curtains. The only downside was carrying the heavy fabric back home on the tube, but the saving was worth it.

We inherited some old kitchen chairs to go with our new Habitat table and to spruce them up bought a roll of leatherette from Birmingham Rag market for £14.

What can I say about furniture shops – Ikea and Dunelm Mill are my faves. We went to an expensive bedroom furniture shop and they offered a free consultation. We took it. The lady came around and designed us a great bedroom…for £3,400. This was for our second home. Again we’d overspent and were over budget, so £3,400 for one bedroom was OTT. We took the design and went to Ikea. For a similar set up, we got our six wardrobes and two beside tables for less than £700.

More money to spend on the bed. Haggle in bedroom stores btw, it works for me. I got two bedside tables and asked for money off and the lady gave me £15 off each at Bensons for Beds. If we take a mattress and frame, give us money off is my mantra. If I am buying two bedside tables, what’s the best pice they can do.

For the finishing touches, Dunelm Mill is great for bedding, mirrors and household goods such as linen baskets.