I like me some solid wood.

So, after a month of absence, I am back ! And with another budget post. This time, furniture and homeware. Come on, we all love a good homeware haul.

This last month has been somewhat hectic, as well as emotional.

Anyway, on with the haul. At the beginning of the month, mine and my boyfriends housemate announced his leave, a long with some of his lovely furniture.

Fair well lovely leather sofas ...

We were anticipating this for a while and had two lovely ladies ready to move in with us. But as far as furniture goes we had a lot to purchase and on a very toight budget.

So gumtree, ebay and local charity shops I went.

Our shopping list was as follows. A chest of draws, a sofa, armchairs, a TV stand, a coffee table, a bookcase, a desk, a dining table, a shoe rack, a bathroom cabinet, a shower caddy, a few kitchen items and a cuddly toy. The last was optional.

We managed to bag all of this for under 400 pounds. Yes some of it was purchased from shops. TK MAXX, Hollllaaaaaaaa ! But all of the furniture was purchased from gumtree and charity shops. And good furniture at that. Wood, oak, pine, even a laura Ashley chest of draws. OOooooooh arrrrhhhhh.

Some of my favourite pieces, our bed. A bargain at only 50 pounds, solid wood and well made.

Next, with a little bit of work and imagination is the bookcase. An old tea chest and crates who were being made by a guy in Plymouth. 5 for £20. A bit of wood stain later and hello there beautiful bookcase.

Our lovely oak coffee table was £30 pounds from a lovely old couple, whose house was a cracker. All it needed was a quick sand down with a 15 pound Wilko sander and some linseed oil and this table is good to go.

My final favourite, two oak reclining chairs. Sensing a theme here. What can I say, I like things that are solid. Innuendo intended. At 20 pounds a piece. You can't argue with that can you ?

Some top tips for when buying furniture, be patient, take measurements, and also ask if they will deliver for an extra cost. The lovely people who we got our bed from kindly delivered it to our door and offered us help if we got stuck assembling it.

Wouldn't get that with Argos now would you ? Just poor instructions and missing pieces. Sorry Argos, it's true. You do a good bread bin though !

Let me know if you have purchased and home ware and furniture steals.

Jess, just another blogger

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