Looking to Buy Affordable Apartment Furniture? Top 7 Places to Shop

Congratulations on moving into your new apartment. The next common step is the planning of accessorizing and decorating your apartment with all the goodies the marketplace has to offer. After shopping and looking for apartment furniture ourselves, here are the 7 best sites and stores we found that offer new or used affordable apartment furniture and decor. If you feel overwhelmed about what to pick and what to not, we have come up with a complete guide at the end of this article to help you choose the most affordable furniture for apartments.

Top 7 Places to Shop for Affordable Apartment Furniture

1. Ikea: DIY Affordable Apartment Furniture

If you live in a big state in the US and elsewhere, Ikea is the de facto name in apartment furniture. Let’s use Texas as an example. Ikea has 5 locations in Texas. These five outlets comprise 9% of the total locations of Ikea. The first store of the brand opened in Houston in 1992. In recent years, the brand has expanded its activity in Houston with an outlet nearly twice the size of the old one. Today, the biggest Ikea outlet in Houston is around 300,000 square feet.

Ikea is known as a one-stop-shop for affordable and multifunctional furniture. The innovative and modern designed furniture makes your apartment simple and sleek. Big outlets, like the one in Houston, have sample settings for customers so that you can get the perfect idea about what to pick for your place. This swedish brand offers a lengthy walking path for all your interior furniture needs, usually constructed at home by hand.

2. Craigslist: Great Used Apartment Furniture Deals

Craigslist is an extremely affordable option if you’re moving into somewhere in the city where there’s a lot of other people around also moving or looking to sell old furniture. It’s a website that allows people to list things for sale online locally. Let’s use New York City in this example. If you have recently managed to get an apartment in New York City, the chances are that you are tight on budget for furniture. We blame the surging apartment prices for cutting down expenses from our furniture. Luckily, Craigslist is still in business to save us from our demise.

Craigslist is one of the oldest online marketplaces. The furniture section offers hundreds and thousands of secondhand, sometimes custom-made pieces. People often post their old furniture to be taken for free. Some sellers offer to make furniture on Craigslist cheaper than the retailer. Searching with dedication and patience, you can always find the right furniture at an affordable price on Craigslist. Just be cautious of scammers, and you are all set to get the best furniture deals in New York. When you show up, evaluate the item for its use and smell, and try negotiating for the best deal.

3. Target: Reliable And Affordable Apartment Furniture

Target is another dependable and fair priced option for apartment furnishings. If you’re in a big metro city like Chicago, there is a good chance there is a target nearby. The state of Illinois has around 100 Target stores. Among them, 86 stores are located in the Chicago area, which makes it easy to find Target shops of loyal Target buyers.

One thing we love about the furniture section of Target is the versatility. From small space living room furniture to sectional sofas, couches, built-in storage furniture – we find ourselves in a conundrum about what to take and what to leave. Luckily, you are already here with the basic furniture list. Now search for the items for your dream apartment, and depending on if you order online and the current deals offered, if they cost you more than $35, you will get the delivery for free! 

4. Pottery Barn: Modern and Aesthetic Apartment Furniture

We cannot help loving the aesthetic furniture and soft furnishes from Pottery Barn. They offer designer furniture pieces and merchandise made with sustainable materials. Since retailer outlet ones are often out of our budget, we can shop directly from Pottery Barn Outlets in Los Angeles. Hip and modern cities like Los Angeles will frequently have a pottery barn nearby, although the pricing can be high.

Pottery Barn outlets usually store furniture that has not been sold, returned from online customers, display pieces, or furniture with insignificant damage. You can get from 10% to 80% sale of authentic Pottery Barn furniture from these outlets. Overstock furniture is identified with white tags, and the longer the furniture remains in the store, the cheaper it gets. 

5. Amazon: Largest Online Selection & Free Member Shipping

It’s hard to beat the variety and options found on Amazon. While you lose out on being able to see items in your room beforehand, measuring out your floor plan and comparing it to listed dimensions will help. If you’re a prime member, you’ll also find easy returns for prime items if they don’t work out.

We find the prices on Amazon to be good and it’s an especially good option for the soft furnishings and accessories that you may need, like mattress covers, bedding, and curtains.  

6. Offer Up: Authentic Local Used Apartment Furniture Deals

The online marketplace Offer Up is expanding as more and more quality products are becoming available. You can find apps for your mobile phone for offer up. What scares online shoppers the most are scammers. Luckily with the TrueYou feature and review options, OfferUp builds a more secured online market for buyers.

OfferUp connects local sellers with local buyers. So, if you are looking for suitable furniture in a metro city that will have a lot of offer up users like Philadelphia, you can get it from a local seller easily. OfferUp has almost anything you can think of. You can get the best deal for quality furniture as the platform works like a drop shipping service. We recommend you to buy only from verified sellers with good reviews, and to make sure you are satisfied with your inspection before purchasing. This is how none of your money from the furniture budget will go to scammers. 

7. Overstock.com or Wayfair.com: Lowest Priced New Apartment Furniture Online

One of the best things about living in a big city like San Antonio and buying from Overstock.com is that you will get standard free delivery for purchases over $45!

Overstock justifies its name by offering unsold merchandise and returned goods. But it never means that these sites are not worthy of your money. You can get the best deals in this place with unique furniture sets. The store sells surplus items. Hence the price is significantly reduced. You will find everything from dining room sets to loveseats cheaper than anywhere else. Wayfair, while not focused on overstock, focuses on wholesale and imported sellers at similarly low prices. They usually import their furniture from abroad and so you may find issues with the quality, but from a price perspective it will be hard to beat.

7 Things to Consider Before Buying Apartment Furniture

1. Budget & Cost

If you have recently purchased an apartment, we will assume that the budget for furniture is quite shrunk already. Even if you are residing in a rental apartment, that also punches your bank balance quite hard. With rent costs continuing to grow, we are left with very little money to buy necessary furniture. For that reason it’s also common not to buy everything at once, but to plan your purchases over weeks or months so that its easier on your income.

Budgeting is not an option; rather, it is mandatory for everyone. Budgeting simply does not imply putting aside some money to buy furniture. It includes going step by step with some brainstorming. Consider how long you will be living in the place, how long the furniture should last, and which items are must-haves, such as if you’re planning to work from home. Answering all these questions with money is your budget for furniture.

Do not forget to count sales tax, delivery charge, and other costs that are associated with the buying of large furniture pieces for your apartment.

2. Functionality & Necessity

Home decor advertisements, Instagram feeds, and those billboard living rooms are constantly telling us that we are not buying enough. But as you face the market with your paycheck, you realize the distance between online fantasy and reality. 

Moving into an apartment is never cheap, no matter how minimal the square feet are. So it is necessary to realize what is a nice fantasy and what you actually need. Plan to first acquire the functional decor you think you actually need (whether it is for seating/working, for yourself or for guests).

After budgeting and identifying what you are ready to spend on furniture either upfront or month over month, the next step should be forming a furniture list. You have to prioritize your necessities over wants in this list. For example, a nice L shaped couch that matches your decor could be your dream. But if the budget is short, it is wiser to opt for a more generic accent chair at first. If purchasing a dining table seems too ambitious, you can skip it for the moment and use a smaller kitchen table instead. You can even purchase a coffee table for much cheaper, and it can serve you well.

3. Soft Furnishings & Accessories

There is no room to become too ambitious with furniture expenses and forget about the accompanying ones. We are talking about soft furnishings that are equally important to make your place ‘the home’, and to get a consistent and usable theme and style across your apartment.

It is not enough to buy bed-frames. You must buy a mattress and mattress topper. Bedsheets and pillows are more than accessories. No matter how minimalist you are, an apartment without a rug always looks sparse. Curtains are also not generally luxury accessories. They uphold the sophistication of your apartment by a thousand folds. They prevent the entry of excess sunlight into your room. They are also great at absorbing noise from the atmosphere.

4. Floorplan & Space

With all the troubles we go through while moving into a new place, we barely have the time to invest in the floor plan. But this simple strategy beforehand can save you cost, space, and energy. It is also useful if you plan to buy items incrementally, as you can plan to furnish room by room starting with the most important or most used.

The trick every designer uses while designing a functional place is making a floor plan. You can find plenty of applications and software online to do floor planning. Or you can choose the classic paper and pencil method. A floor plan is like a map of your current space, with the length and width of each room measured so you know how large of furniture to buy for your apartment.

Working with the software will make the task easy. For paper lovers, get the entire layout of your apartment in the paper. Make 2 to 3 copies of the layout. Now go on with the design and place basic furniture at the designated place. This layout will tell you which furniture in which shape and measurement are good for your place.

5. Design & Theme

Matching pace with the latest trends can be fun and interesting. We are not telling you to go through FOMO or anything, but having the idea that what people are doing with their interiors can keep you updated on modern and desirable style. You may also have a theme in mind that you want to follow your your apartment.

Design inspiration can come from anywhere. It can be your favorite designer or your favorite furniture brand. You might like the living room design of your favorite celebrity. Or just fall in love with the sofa set while scrolling down Instagram.

Designs are becoming dynamic and versatile. But it is never about copying and pasting something in your apartment. Beware of what is winning the hearts of people living in an apartment similar to yours based on your size and theme. That way, you can pick the right track to add furniture to your place. Just don’t get anything you don’t like just because you think others will like it!

6. Materials & Quality

Material is a crucial factor when you are buying furniture. Firstly, the material must be sustainable. Good for people, good for the environment – should be the priority while purchasing. Secondly, smart furniture is trending. Thirdly, furniture made with materials that are safe for pets and children should be in consideration. Lastly, the longevity of the material should be considered. How long do you plan to live in the apartment? If you only plan to be in the apartment for a short time, don’t spend on high quality items. If it’s going to be your place for many years, then consider splurging and slowly buying nice items over time.

Materials such as classic wood are never out of trend. Balance the environment inside your apartment with stone-made pieces. Leather furniture adds luxury to any place. Bamboo furniture offers a minimalist and simple look. We suggest you minimize using PVC furniture as they release microplastics to the environment.

7. Multifunctional Decor

As rent is going higher, the size of affordable apartments is shrinking. We do not have lots of space to accommodate all of our fetishes. This is why multifunctional furniture is making its place in more and more houses. It is smart on your part to opt for furniture that saves space while serving multiple purposes. Consider a couch that can be a bed for your guests if needed. Or consider a table and chairs that can double for dinner or game night.

 

Final Thoughts

With all this knowledge, you are all set to choose the best affordable furniture for your apartment and decorate the apartment of your dream. You should focus on buying what you need aligned to your budget and theme preferences, considering local stores for new items and second hand sellers for used deals on affordable apartment furniture.