Furnishing my 2-bedroom apartment under $2000
and only losing a bit of sanity.
Last year, we moved from our studio apartment in Boston into a 2-bedroom apartment in the suburbs. For reference, this was our apartment:
The only salvageable items in this apartment were the mattress, computer tables and chairs, coffee table, TV cabinet, and the beautiful ottoman.
For the new apartment, we had to buy a bed frame, a dining table, sofas, a chest of drawers, and a fancy shoe rack/console for the entrance.
We had to move into our new apartment in August, so we were able to get some amazing deals from Ikea on their 4th of July sales. IKEA has a policy that they can hold the bought items for 2 weeks, the same day we would get the keys to our new apartment. So everything worked out great in the end.
SONGESAND Bed Set
First of all, we started looking at bed frames at Ikea.
The very first set that caught our eyes was this Songesand bedroom set.
The bed was beautiful with drawers, but it cost a whopping $500 (with side tables). But we really loved the whole set and were looking to buy the chest of drawers that cost an extra $300.
My husband really loved it, but I did not want to spend a fortune on a single room (although now that I think about it, it would have been really nice, lol). Moreover, I am not the biggest fan of this brown color; it is too sophisticated for me. I wanted every piece of furniture in the room to be a different color and to mix and match everything.
IDANAS Bed
In the end, we decided to go with this Idanas bed frame without the storage drawers, which cost us $280 on sale.
Funny story: when the bed frame arrived and we started to assemble it, we realized that the IKEA beds DO NOT COME WITH THE BED SLATS. So, we had to make an extra trip to IKEA to get the slats for an additional $50.
Rattan Nightstand
We ordered this Rattan Nightstand from Amazon, which cost about $40. The height is a bit too low and is very inconvenient to use, especially at night. We have to twist our arm like a professional athlete to place our phone on it.
MICKE Desk
Going into IKEA, we had no intention of buying another study table, but it was on sale for $75, so we brought this baby home. It matched perfectly with our bed, and I thought it would look really nice on one side of the bed instead of another nightstand. It also offers decent storage space.
Pink Office Chair
To pair with the study table, I got this really pretty pink chair from Amazon for $72. The best thing about this chair is that I can comfortably sit on it with my legs crossed. It doesn’t support the back very well, though. My husband thinks this is the most uncomfortable chair in the world and offers to buy a new chair every time we visit Target or Walmart. But I love this chair and really enjoy it.
Chest of Drawers
I got this really beautiful chest of drawers from Amazon for $220. Compared to the IKEA furniture, it was a dream to assemble. For the price, they are very good quality and glide very smoothly. The only thing is, the holes on the drawers are very big, and you can peek inside, not making them very good for privacy. Other than that, it is a beautiful piece.
Arc Mirror
I got this Arc Mirror from Walmart for $45. I believe the golden frame on the mirror would have looked very nice as well. Overall, the arc mirror elevates the look of the room really nicely.
JOKKMOK Dining Set
When we saw this dining set at IKEA, we instantly fell in love with it, mostly because it cost only $200.
The set was a bit too plain for me, but I could see the potential. I knew that after setting it up with nice mats and other decorations, it would look really nice.
Ashley Ashton Couch
Finding this couch for our living room was a whole journey that I encompassed in a separate vlog. Anyway, this couch costs $630.
Yours Truly
Walmart Sofa Bed
We initially got this sofa bed from Walmart (for only $170) for the second bedroom. But when we put it in the living room, I liked it so much that it stayed here. We really enjoy the extra seating in the living room, especially when the guests come over.
The quality of the cushions on the sofa bed is also great. It turns into a quite comfortable bed. When we first saw this sofa bed at Walmart on display, we thought that this would look alright shoved in the spare bedroom cum my husband’s home office. But it looks really pretty in our living room.
Walmart Rocking Chair
We got this Rocking Chair from Walmart (Online) for $125. In the pictures, it looked more yellow, but in real life, it is light brown in color and almost matches the sofa bed. So in the end, I didn't get the most colorful living room, but it's alright, I guess.
Fancy Lamp
After getting the most affordable furniture pieces for the whole apartment, I thought that it was only fair to treat ourselves to a fancy lamp. So we got this lamp from Amazon for $100.
This lamp was also not very easy to assemble. Actually maybe there is some defect in the lamp because no matter how hard we tried, we couldn’t get the pole to be straight and not so tilted. But we were so tired from shifting and assembling the Ikea furniture that we just decided to roll with it.
Shoe Rack/Console
I got this rattan shoe rack from Wayfair for $135. Again, compared to IKEA’s furniture, it was a dream to assemble.
Van Gogh Posters
One day, we went to the Van Gogh Museum and saw these posters at the gift shop there. The posters were rolled up. My husband was a little skeptical that the stamp “Van Gogh Museum Immersive Experience" at the corner of the posters would not look very classy.
But I was very excited and checked. I DID NOT see the stamps on the rolled up posters, so we bought these two posters for $24. Lo and behold, when we unwrapped the posters at home, the stamps were there, shining in full glory.
In spite of that, I really like these posters.
I ordered the frames for these posters separately from Amazon for $35. Initially, I ordered them in Black.
I did not like the contrast between the black frames and the brown console. After living like this for about a week, it dawned on me that Amazon has this amazing return policy! So I returned those black frames and ordered the brown ones instead.
It would have looked even better if the console and the frames were a closer color match, but still, I love it.
I still think that this setting looks beautiful and I love it very much. Also, the shoe rack is great and stores 16 pairs of shoes.
Final Thoughts
In this way, we were pretty much able to furnish our whole apartment for $2200. The 4th of July sales were a huge contributing factor, though.
One thing we had no idea about was how hard it is to assemble the IKEA furniture. I don't think we will ever be doing that again. The instructions in the manuals are extremely hard to follow and cause a lot of physical and mental stress.
But in the end, you get beautiful pieces at affordable prices. However, I do think Amazon, Wayfair, and Walmart are much better options to get affordable furniture.
