Thinking Beyond the Store
One of the biggest challenges I feel that occur when shopping for furniture is that people shop within the context of the store. You see a giant line of couches, and so you go from couch to couch, looking at each one and evaluating what you think of it. However, the couch, bed, or dressers don’t exist on their own and instead, are a part of the greater room that you put them in. As such, one of the best ways to ensure a satisfactory purchase is to think about the furniture in the bigger picture of your home.
The first piece to consider when thinking about your home is the size of your room and the space you have for the object. For instance, if a couch you are buying is going to be on a smaller wall in the room, you don’t want to purchase a large couch that will extend beyond the space for the wall. Likewise, if a room is narrow, you wouldn’t want to buy a deep couch that would stick too far out. These issues apply to every facet of furniture shopping. You can’t get a dining room table that is too large for the room you want to place it in, or a bedroom set that dominates the room. While these things seem obvious, they are difficult to process in a furniture store as the space is often open without any real frame of reference.
Emphasis here is on the beyond part.
On a similar note, the colors of your home will play another role. While a couch can have a slipcover placed on it, it’s often good to pick out a color that will flow with the colors of your room. Finding designs that are cohesive with the existing colors found on your walls and in other decorations in the room will make the entire presentation flow much nicer. You don’t just want a couch that looks good, but one that will look good in the context of your home. These same forms of logic apply with the style of furniture and the colors of wood, as finding a nice consistency can go a long way.
Lastly, keeping in mind who might be using a piece of furniture can play a big role in deciding the styles that will work best for you. Obviously, you don’t need to buy a dining room table that can hold 12 people if you don’t think you’ll ever have more than four or five people at your house. Likewise, if you don’t think you’ll have people spending the night, a pull out couch probably isn’t worth the added expense. Evaluating your audience and likely use cases for furniture will help prevent overspending and get you to buy the things you need.
By thinking beyond the store, you’ll be able to have a better furniture shopping experience. You want to imagine the furniture in your own home, as that is where it will ultimately end up. If you pick pieces you think will look good in your house, you’ll be much more likely to end up with furniture that satisfies you.