Furnishing your first apartment: the priority list that saves money

Your first apartment is one of life's best feelings — and one of its most expensive months. Everything is needed at once, the budget is tight and the IKEA trolley fills itself. Here's the priority order that gives the most home for the money, and the trick that saves you from the wrong buys.

Buy in this order

First: sleeping and sitting

A proper bed with a good mattress and a sofa you actually want to sit in. These are the two pieces you use the most hours per day — economise elsewhere.

Then: the light

Ceiling lights make no apartment cosy. Two or three light points in each room — floor lamp, table lamp, string lights — transform the feeling for under a hundred euros.

Last: the details

Rugs, art, ornaments — important for the feeling, but this can grow over time. Flea markets and your parents' storage are your friends.

Classic mistakes to skip

• Buying everything at once — the home becomes a catalogue page instead of yours
• Wrong scale: measure the room before you buy the sofa (or test it digitally, see below)
• Only function, no personality — or the other way round
• Forgetting storage: chaos eats style for breakfast

Test before you buy — for real

Here's the trick that saves money: photograph the empty room and furnish it digitally before you buy anything. Try styles, see whether the dream sofa from an online listing fits (drop in the listing's image as a reference) and avoid the wrong buys entirely. Three images are free — enough for a living room, bedroom and kitchen.

Read: How to see an exact piece of furniture in your room →