I have spent my life moving from place to place as the child of a military service member. Then when I married my husband, I moved with him due to his job. Because I spent my life moving from place to place, I have not only become an expert at packing, I also have had the opportunity to experience room decor in various types of living spaces with plenty of failures in the process! This experience has helped me learn the right way to shop for furniture for a room’s design. What do you mean, failures, Nikki? Sometimes the design ideas we have for a room may not fit the room itself. The design may not fit our lifestyle either.
My Most Memorable Room Design Failure
I have a lot of stories about room design failures, but one example has shaped what I consider to be the right way to shop for furniture forever! Allow me to take you back to when I moved into my first apartment. I remember buying this beautiful four post bedroom set. It was a lovely peaceful tan color, which reminded me of a Mediterranean spa. The posts were 12″ squares that stood 6′ tall, and the bed sat so high that I, at 5’9″, could swing my feet if I sat on the edge. I dressed that bed in white linens and a white down comforter. I had such a beautiful, peaceful bedroom!
However, that joy didn’t last long because I soon was taken on a nightmarish journey. Who would have thought that 17 years later, I would still be talking about this purchase! So let’s discuss my first lesson.
Lesson 1: Consider Your Furniture’s Mobility
The first problem came when it was time to move. I had gotten married and we were moving out of state. I wanted my bedroom set to be our bed. Well, no one told me it was going to be tough to break down the bed! The movers had to break one of the posts off of the headboard to pack it. Thankfully it was still good and we were able to put it back together with some extra long nails but it was never the same. I learned then that while it looked nice on the showroom floor, that bed was not meant to travel.
It was meant for someone who planned to stay in their home beyond a decade. Therefore, you have to ask yourself:
- How long do I plan to be in my current home?
- Will this furniture move with me?
- Does the furniture match my room design needs?
Lesson 2: Thoroughly examine the space for your room design
It’s a room with four walls and a window, Nikki. Do I need to check for scratches and marks too? No, my friend. Examine the layout.
Ask yourself the following room design questions:
- Where are your wall outlets?
- How tall are the ceilings?
- What is the width of the doorway?
- Does your closet have a door?
- How much space does it take up when it opens?
Newer home designs have all these considerations in mind when it comes to the placement of furniture for your room design. For example, they determine what wall you will have your bed against, even before you buy your furniture. That wasn’t the case when I moved with that large bed. We temporarily moved to an apartment until we could found a house and I failed to examine the space! The outlets did not align with my large bed. We had one outlet behind our large headboard that could only be reached by sliding my scrawny arm between the base of the headboard and the mattress. We spun a wheel each night to decide what would get plugged in! Did we need lamplight or our phones charged? Phones usually won. And did I mention that my headboard covered the light switch too? The room was just too small, and I regret not thoroughly examining the space.
From then on, even in my newer home, if I am buying furniture, I take certain room design measurements.
Ask yourself the following questions:
- What is the distance of the outlets to my furniture?
- What is the height of the light switch to my furniture?
- How wide is my walking space around the room?
I walk around my space and make sure that the average person can move around the room comfortably. There is nothing worse than furniture that you have to squeeze past to walk through your home.
Even if the room in question is going to be used as an office space, I still make sure that it will fit other furniture. What other furniture, Nikki? Bedroom furniture, playroom furniture. Just like a family is always growing or shrinking, sometimes the furniture for your room design changes even without moving. So I play the what-if game in my mind. What if I decide, I want to use this space for something else? What would it be?
Lesson 3: Don’t Just Measure The Space, Measure The Areas That Lead To It!
And yes, I am still using the bed as an example! When we bought our home and got ready to move again, I was pregnant with my first child. The house was a cute bungalow that fit our growing family. I knew we had struggled with the bed in one move, so I thought I had picked a house where it would fit. I felt proud for measuring. The room ceiling was just tall enough for the bedposts. Check! There were two wall outlets, and the headboard fit in-between. Check! The light switch was on a wall next to the door and not covered by any of the furniture. Check! I felt so unstoppable.
The Measurement I Missed
I was ready to accept my “Expert Mover” award until moving day when it all fell apart. I thought you said the bed fit in the room, Nikki? It did fit in the room, close to perfect. It just didn’t fit in the hallway!!!! The boxspring, more specifically. You see, we purchased an older home built in 1914. The hallways were built narrower back then. And the stairwell to our bedroom had a pivot point, so you walked up halfway before turning left to go up another set of steps.
How could I have missed this logistical step? And I was eight months pregnant, so I couldn’t be Wonder Woman and try to help my husband shove it into the room. Needless to say, our bed remained half upstairs, half downstairs while, we slept in the guest room.
The Problem With Narrow Hallways
After doing some research, I discovered that narrow hallways and large box springs were a common problem in the area where we lived. What did people do? They bought what was called a split boxspring. It was two smaller boxspring that together created a queen or king-size boxspring. A split boxspring was also expensive, and I had just purchased new furniture for the rest of the house. I did not want to spend more money when I had a good boxspring already.
On my about page, I talk about always being resourceful. It’s the creative in me. If this post were a movie, there would be a montage of me drawing, getting frustrated, calculating, watching videos, thinking by a lake, then running home with the answer! I did come up with a solution to our problem. I sawed our boxspring in half for us to be able to carry it upstairs. Then once it was upstairs, I used brackets and screws to put it back together, where it remained until we moved again four years later.
What I Know Now
I said good riddance to that bed once we moved. It wasn’t going to make another move, and I couldn’t bear to deal with it again. That very bed has left such an impression on my family’s life in how we shop for furniture. “We don’t want the huge bed problem again,” is what we always say when purchasing furniture. I don’t buy large or heavy pieces because we may move again, and I don’t want the problems that come with it. And yes, I go as far as to lift furniture up and thoroughly measure it in the showroom. The salesperson may look at me strange, and so I proceed to share with them about my large bed. ” That’s a good point. I never thought about that,” they usually say. And I’m sure they haven’t, but that’s because they didn’t live through what I had.
Ordering Online
The same tactics apply when ordering online, but in a different form. I check all the measurements, and I map it out in my home using painter’s tape. I mark the length, width, and height. If the online store offers a virtual tool to see if it will fit in your space, then use it! The goal is to be able to get an idea of how much space something will take up. Sometimes I even check the weight, especially if I need to carry it upstairs. I also measure my doorways and read customer reviews about the items.
I ask the following questions:
- How it was delivered?
- Did it come in multiple pieces?
- Did they have a problem getting it in their house?
- Was it difficult to put together?
- Did it fall apart or break after assembly?
Weed Through The Complaints
Often, you will find an even mixture of five-star and one-star reviews about furniture that may deter you from purchasing furniture. Let me start by saying that I wasn’t always a blogger. I used to investigate fraud a while back, and I am trained in interrogation. What does that have to do with furniture, Nikki? Nothing. It does have to do with knowing how to weed through deception.
If the majority of the reviews are positive, I still consider making the purchase. I read the negative reviews, but I keep the following in mind. A valid online compliant should have a specific issue with the item. If you are genuinely writing a complaint about a real problem, you won’t take time out of your day to write, “This is a piece of junk.” I look for those reviews that say, “This is a piece of junk because….” That helps me decide for myself if it is a problem. Think about it. An unspecified complaint could just be that the furniture was functional, just not what they thought it would be for their room design needs. This method has always worked for me when choosing furniture online. I also use extreme caution concerning items will all negative reviews or no reviews at all.
Go Shop For Your Furniture For Your Room Design!
I hope this journey that I took you on involving my failure with a bed purchase has provided you with some thought about the logistics of design. These are the things to consider when you shop for furniture for your room design. That bed taught me a lot of valuable lessons and left an impression on my life that I will never forget. It was an early failure that lead to some great takeaways. Takeaways, I am passing on to you so that you don’t have to make my same mistakes. And if you have already had some room design failures, it’s okay. Please take my advice moving forward. Once you have found your furniture, create some easy and affordable wall art.
Have you struggled with any room design challenges? Have you thought about thoroughly measuring your space? Share your experiences in the comments below! Know someone who is buying a home or looking to design their living area? Please share these tips! It may save them some agony in the long run.
