5 Steps to selecting the perfect furniture

Whether you're designing a new house, or are in the market for a replacement piece, there's a better way to choose furniture.

Here in the :Designed Happy household, we've been making furniture selections together since we had empty dorm rooms to outfit.  Over these past 16 years (...16?!) we've been able to find and refine a process that works for both of us.  Here's how we found the furniture for our new living space:

Step 1: Have an idea about what you're looking for
We knew that we wanted either a large sectional or a few separate pieces that we could group together.  We also new that wanted simple pieces that weren't too modern and would keep within the color scheme of the house - white, gray, and navy blue

Step 2: Look online for furniture you like
Once we had that general idea, we hit up our favorite retailers' websites to see what they had to offer.  We bookmarked a bunch of pieces that we would be happy with.  Since we were working within a defined color palette and style, we didn't have to worry if they would look good together - if we mixed and matched, things would look purposeful but not too matchy

Step 3: Get yourself a floor plan of your space
This was easy for us since we had floor plans a-plenty.  If you don't have one, either give me a shout, or draw something simple.  All you need to do is jot down the measurements of your space.  Then on graph paper draw the walls to scale by translating every foot of real-life space to either 2 or 4 boxes (depending on the room fits on the page).  

Step 4: Draw the furniture you have bookmarked
Using the same scale as you did for the floor plan of the space, use the dimensions on the websites you bookmarked to draw the furniture.  Once you have them drawn, cut out each piece and write its name and where its from on the back, like this:

Be sure to draw any pieces that you already have and are keeping (for us it was my keyboard)

Step5: Mix and match
Now that you have your floor plan and your scaled furniture, mix and match until you find the perfect combination.

And have some fun! I wanted to see if we could fit a baby grand piano

An early version of a layout we were considering

This is pretty close to the layout we're going with

Once you mix and match the pieces to find a layout you like, it's fun to flip them over and see which ones they are.

Obviously at some point before you buy, you should go to the store to actually sit on the pieces to make sure they're comfy.  We did this twice - once before we made the paper cutouts, and once after we decided on the final plan (just to double check).

Have you ever tried picking furniture this way?  If not, what's your favorite method?

Bye for now,
​TJ
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