did I go overboard on spending for decorating new house?

[BusyMom5]

When we built a much bigger house, we budgeted in extra furniture.   Since then, we budget some for new things as needed.  For several years it would be 1 nice piece for furniture or set- one year was a new table and benches, another year it was a big wall bookcase, stuff like that.   Now that we have all the main furniture,  I'm repainting lots of things.  Last year it was refinishing a door,  painting a few rooms, and a few outside things that needed done.  It helps that we budget it in, so it doesn't feel like decorating, it's more like upkeep.  I dont consider all the curtains or bathroom stuff decorations,  and depending on the need, the furniture isn't either.   

[fairfarmhand]

2 hours ago, hjffkj said:

 

In my mind rugs are strictly a decorative thing. I don't see any purpose in them other than to tie a room together. Socks and slippers is what we do instead of rugs. But I'm not a fan of creating more housework for myself and having to vacuum, spot clean, etc a rug is just not worth the decorative value.

I do not live in an area that is always warm. Some of our rooms are wall to wall carpet but I wish they weren't. I much prefer a hard floor with no dust collecting rugs

We have a trail of washable rugs from the back door to the kitchen. Because farming is mud and otherwise we have dirt smears on the floor nonstop. 

[Meriwether]

We've moved several times with my husband's job. It is a fact that what works with one house may not work well in another house. I always chose to get some things. Also, moving seemed to be a good time to make other transitions like moving a toddler into a real bed.

[katilac]

To all those who would never spend money on 'unnecessary' or strictly decorative items: in addition to the legitimate enjoyment the owner may get out of them, they do help sell a house. If there's a chance you will sell your house, it makes more fiscal sense to buy things over time rather than in a rush when you go to sell. People with good decorating abilities are just staging their house in advance, lol. I am not one of those people, but it's not a reckless or spendthrift thing to do (certainly not the way the OP is doing it). 

[TravelingChris]

No, you did very well. We moved to our house in 2011. We spent over 2k on a couch, chair, and 3 stools in the first year. We had thrown away 2 worn out couches before we moved.  The 3 stools were needed because in this house, we had no room in our kitchen for a breakfast or casual lunch or dinner table but did have a big counter we could eat at.  That was right away.  

[DawnM]

We also upsized our house, and I need some things.  I am trying to plan my spending carefully because I know it will be pricey.

But I have already spent over 2K.  I bought a nice sectional for our media/hang out room.

I still need to replace the rug in the living room.  I have out old muted green rug in there and it doesn't go AT ALL!   The furniture is grey and the walls are white.  I need a white or grey rug in there.

And I want a freestanding headboard for our master bedroom.

And, and, and.......

I am trying to be careful with spending and only get what I really want.  It will take a couple of years to get things just right.

 

[fairfarmhand]

I think that considering that you bought furniture, you did exceptionally well. I won’t buy used upholstery furniture, and I spent about 2k on the recliner/sofa that we use in our sunroom. 
 

I am very affected by my environment. Things don’t have to be fancy or upscale but I do like them to be pretty and tidy and cozy. Some personalities don’t get that. My dh doesn’t. But he respects it. So making my house nice and cozy is something worth apending money on.

[Loowit]

When we bought our new house last year I spent more than that.  I am not sure everything  you listed I would consider to be decorative.

We needed curtains.  The house came with blinds, but the neighborhood is so light that we needed something to block that out.  We wanted to get couches for the living room.  It was the first time in my married life to have new furniture.  Every other couch, chair, what have you was hand me downs from relatives.  We got rugs, though not strictly necessary, they really help with noise and warmth.

I didn't discuss most of my purchases with DH and he has no idea how much we spent.  Big things like couches I ran past him, mostly for style rather than for cost.  I would have had a hard time if DH had gotten on me about spending money to make the house more homey.  I have already had a hard time transitioning to the new house and not feeling like it is home, so it was important that, since we had the money, we could get stuff to make it feel more like home.

[fairfarmhand]

1 hour ago, OKBud said:

+1

And this requires places to put things. We don't keep a lot of extraneous things. But what we have needs to have a place to stay. DH balks at this every single move. But his home office...ooo boy! He's taken the opposite tack: nothing has a place to stay LOL. His work space at work is always meticulous so I think he uses up that "energy" so to speak at work, which is definitely where it should be used if there's only so much of it. But it definitely drives home the fact that our house is my work space!  Plus, I can assure you that he inherently prefers a cozy, tidy home too. He just doesn't see what it takes (time/money or other kinds of resourcefulness, which I lack) to get there from zero. 

 

Oh YES! My dh is a wonderful man. But he's not creative and he doesn't have a very artistic eye. He also can't picture things in a space. We built a sun room and he had grand ideas about what all would fit in it, and I kept saying no, no. He'd say, "What about this?" and me and my second dd (who also has an eye for decoration) would look at him like he was nuts. Empty, the room looked big, but I knew when we got a sofa in there, it would look much less massive. For that project and many others, I had to find photos for him. He has to see that other people did x y z and it didn't look crappy. Truly for us, a picture is worth a thousand words.  So if I have a picture to show him "I would like to make our space look kinda like this, but I think I need to buy this this and this to do it." He does better than if I just start buying (to his mind) random stuff.

[Tree Frog]

15 hours ago, katilac said:

To all those who would never spend money on 'unnecessary' or strictly decorative items: in addition to the legitimate enjoyment the owner may get out of them, they do help sell a house. If there's a chance you will sell your house, it makes more fiscal sense to buy things over time rather than in a rush when you go to sell. People with good decorating abilities are just staging their house in advance, lol. I am not one of those people, but it's not a reckless or spendthrift thing to do (certainly not the way the OP is doing it). 

This has been one consideration when we purchase a house. For the first house, we bought several items when it was time to stage the house. Some of them we could use in the new house, some we couldn't. It was at that point we decided it made more sense to purchase the items we like so we can enjoy them and can later use them for staging.

[Alicia64]

I don't think you've gone overboard at all. You went from a medium house to a large house. 3300 feet is large.

If it were me, my dh would say exactly the same thing. He wouldn't see the point of curtains, rods, furniture.

Plus I think you did amazingly well with $2000.

I don't think there's one person is right/one is wrong. You just don't match up in exactly the same way when it comes to turning a house into a home.

See, to maintain the peace I would have decorated the house over many months and years. It was just how I decided to handle things. But getting it all done at once seriously appeals to me.

Alley

[Shoeless]

$2000 isn't that much to outfit a big house, especially for the things you've gotten.  Furniture, rugs, window treatments are all expensive, even if you get "cheap" stuff. 

I mean, you aren't running around town buying darling new hats, like in "I Love Lucy".  It's towels and blackout curtains, for Pete's sake.  These are not fun, frivolous purchases. They are utilitarian, household items that benefit multiple people. 

Did you ask him how much he thought these things should have cost? Is he just out of touch with how much things cost these days? Or does he think none of it was needed in the first place? 

[LucyStoner]

That’s not much more than my brother is spending to make his tiny two bedroom apartment more comfortable, organized and tidy.  
 

I think that you have done very well.  

[Laura Corin]

Wrong thread!

Edited February 9, 2020 by Laura Corin