A First Timer's Guide in Buying a Furniture

Without a doubt, my hubby and I committed so many mistakes when we first bought furnitures for our flat 4 years ago. We were too excited to finally have a place we can finally call our own and went impulse buying at a furniture shop without giving a consideration to many factors. If you are a first time homeowner who just got hold of your door keys, here are the things you must bear in mind when buying a furniture for your new nest to avoid committing the same mistakes we did:

1) COLOUR AND MATERIAL
Just like online homes (websites), you have to choose a colour palette that best suits your taste. Pinterest will be your best friend for this, so go ahead and pin as many inspirations as you like and create a board for it. Once you decided on the colour, you have to decide what material you like best, ie. fabric or leather, wooden, glass or plastic.

Well-known colour combinations I know are are grey-blue-yellow and black-red-white. We choose the latter for our home and now, I am thinking of switching to grey-blue-yellow to brighten and lighten up our space but since our current furnitures are still in great condition, I have no choice but to wait until it wears out to replace it.

2) DURABILITY AND SAFETY
A property agent once told us that in case we decide to rent out our place one day, we shouldn't rent out to a family with hyperactive kids as the furnitures will not last long. If you are a new house owner with kids, it's best not to buy furnitures that easily breaks. Furnitures with rounded corners are also highly recommended. Avoid furnitures with glass as well, for safety reasons.

If you are a childless couple and foresees yourselves not having a baby in the near future and you know that you won't be staying at home that often, you may afford to compromise the durability of your furniture, unless you have plans to host guests frequently. You can also go for furnitures with sharp, triangular corners as you please.

3) PRICE AND BRAND
They say the brand and price of the furniture usually determine its quality and shelf life but I beg to disagree. If you are on a tight budget but would love to have branded, classy, high quality furnitures in your new home, there are second-hand stores like Hock Siong that sells high quality refurbished and/or reupholstered furnitures in Singapore that are originally from hotels.

4) HYGIENE AND MAINTENANCE
Parents of young kids like us tend to choose easy to clean furnitures. We bought a sofa with washable cover for hygienic reasons. With kids, expect a mountain of mess (read: germs) everyday. Think food crumbs, vomit, boogers, spilled milk and whatnots. Yikes!

As for tables and chairs, buy something that is easy to maintain. When you buy a leather sofa, you have to invest on a leather spray. If you buy a furniture with glass, you have to purchase a glass spray to keep it shiny and sparkling clean. If I am to advise based on experience, try to avoid buying furnitures that retains marks and finger prints.

BONUS TIP: 
Try to foresee whether you will still like the furniture of your choice five to ten years from now. If not, it's best to go for classic furnitures that can be easily reupholstered or repainted when you feel like changing your colour scheme.

All the best in your furniture shopping!