How to furnish your new home in Dublin, Ireland on a budget

Congratulations, you finally have your own home! Once the excitement has died down, you realise it's now time to fill up all those bare spaces!

Here are the tips for furnishing your first home.

Decide what's on top of your priority list! If you are on a tight budget (and you may very well be given the Irish housing crisis), then you need to prioritise! What's most important? A bed, since you will be spending a lot of time lazing around? A TV set and a couch, for those times when you transform into a couch potato? A dining table and a fully furnished kitchen for entertaining? Make a list with items and schedules, and spend your money wisely.

The rest can be bought over time. When we moved into our new apartment, we literally had a mattress and a desktop monitor with a chromecast as a TV. If we survived, so will you ;)

It's perfectly fine to furnish your home in bits and pieces. And trust us when we say that collecting things over the years and completing your home will add lots of personality and character to your space. We have been through it and Oh, the joy of each new piece in our living room is almost as much as when we got our keys!

Here are all the places we found while furnishing our new apartment in Dublin after talking to many of our friends who went through the process and endless Google searching, Instagram research and 1000+ Irish home furnishing related articles

• Kian furniture : They have good budget friendly recliner couch options. We got lucky with an immediately available couch by convincing them to sell us the sample on display. In Ireland, it is common to take 3-6 months to get a new piece since they are made to order in Germany, Italy or China and then shipped!!

• Boconcept Sandyford : expensive but great designs. They have a free interior design consultation. Worth taking it to get some ideas. Bought our dining table here

• CA design: if you are into midcentury furniture, here you can get unbelievable replicas. We bought a Noguchi coffee table here

• Pieces.ie (store in city center) : great collection of chairs. Our dining chairs are from here

• Home street home: refurbished furniture with old Indian/ Indonesian feel. Slightly expensive but sure to add some zing and character to your home

• Zinzan: ecomm store where you can call the owner (Brendan) and go see the furniture before buying. Brendan was extremely helpful to us in finding other options from his friendly stores and suppliers too!

• Michael Murphy: decent variety of rugs, cushions, lamps. They keep running discounts on and off. Better to shop in store

• S alternative: boho chic furniture, lamps. mid century stuff like Eames chair, Togo sofa etc.

• Kave home and Sklum: Many young expats buy from these two Spanish websites primarily due to the excessive advertising and retargeting. Mostly boho chic collections. We just got some basics here. Added them here for the sake of completeness

Don't shy away from buying second-hand. This is a great way to save money and also to be more sustainable. There are many apps and facebook groups with second-hand furniture from expats moving away or people upgrading. My favourite so far has been adverts.ie. Just make sure to ask questions about exact size and condition before you pick something up. Most of these transactions don't have a return policy ;)

Be patient. It takes time to find the perfect pieces for your home, so don't rush into anything. Take your time to browse around, and wait for the right deals to come along.

Shop around. Don't just stick to one store, as you may find better deals elsewhere. Compare prices online and in-store, and don't be afraid to ask for a discount nicely. Most local Irish stores run by individual owners would happily offer a bit of discount if you are buying a few things or one very expensive piece from them.

Finally, don't forget to furnish your home with love. Your home is a reflection of YOUR personality, so take your time to choose pieces that you love. Don't be afraid to mix and match different styles, and have fun with it! Do let us know if this helped you in anyway. Ping us if you want to have a quick chat about some of the options above.

Love,

Nalini and Sherry

Your Local homeys in Dublin