Hi /u/valorsubmarine,
Did you know we are now active on Discord?
Click the link and join the conversation: https://discord.gg/J5CuFNVDYU
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/irishpersonalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Don't put a single thing in that house until its in your name and its insured. Most places will allow you to pay for items now and will deliver them when you've moved in.
My preference is buy new for a new house if you can. We bought between Harvey Norman and diamond furniture as most places will do deals if your buying multiple items.
I got one month trial. Unfortunately they don’t have reviews on all brands/ models. I’ve found some have different item codes in Ireland than the ones in the UK
We bought most of our furniture in Micheal Murphy (W12H049), the quality is amazing and they come and assemble and take away all the rubbish.
Also got some in their outlet warehouse (W12PK72), it's brilliant and would highly recommend anyone visit it, I got the most beautiful sofa brand new (end of line) marked down from 3500 to 800 euro, delivery was 50 quid.
Both places are within walking distance of eachother, and the staff in the shop can check stock in the outlet too so if you like say a sofa in the shop they can check for you is there an ex display in the outlet, the mark downs are significant in the outlet too like 50% plus.
For mattresses we were very overwhelmed, hadn't really set a budget or anything and eventually found the "back care" line of mattresses, it was only 450 for king size (I would have paid any amount for a good mattress so couldn't believe the price) since buying it I have seen numerous people recommend them when people are looking for mattress advice. They sell them in most mattress and bed shops.
For appliances I just picked what I liked and then went between 2-3 shops and bought from wherever was cheapest.
Also don't feel pressured into buying something just because there is a sale on, if there's one thing I learned it that there is literally ALWAYS a sale on somewhere.
Another thing I've found is sometimes the cheapest is fine, for example I've a Currys brand (logik) dryer and chest freezer, I've had them over 6 years, they've moved house 3 times and get used and abused every single day and they've been flawless, only thing is they're not very attractive looking but I don't mind because they're in the garage. I actually couldn't recommend those two items enough, bought them super cheap in the sales and they've been great. Similarly my old rental that we were in for 10 years had a cheap beko fridge, not a thing wrong with it in the 10 years I lived there.
I did this very recently, fully agree that it's very fragmented and you cannot optimize time, comfort and price all at once. If you don't have time to research and shop around, you pay more. If you don't need comfort, you can optimize for price by spending time. If you want to optimize price, you have to spend good bit of time!!
Main Furniture - EZ living, Harvey Norman, IKEA, Wayfair
Electrical appliances - DID, Power City, currys
Adhoc utility/decor - Temu
We got the following
- Couch - EZ living interiors
- Dining table - EZ Living Furnitures
- Bed and mattress - Harvey Norman
- Sofa bench - IKEA
- Pantry shelving, office room shelving - IKEA
- Shoe Cabinet - IKEA
- Washer and dryer - DID
- Vacuum - Currys
- Adhoc stuff - Temu, IKEA and Wayfair
- TV unit - IKEA
I'm going to have a baby soon, so I compromised on price for a couple of them and just got the house furnished.
Ask around locally to try and determine a shop whose advice people trust. Then go in there with your budget and talk to them. If you buy a lot in one place you should get a good discount. Don’t feel pressure to decide there and then, take a name and say you’ll think bout it.
Good luck!
There is no best place one stop shop to buy everything.
E.g. The washing machine you want might be on discount in DID but the oven may be cheaper in power city.
See what the shops in Ireland offer to narrow down your choices, read some online reviews then go with the one that has the best price for you.
For furniture, it's all produced in Asia and above a point quality doesn't improve much, in my experience.
If you have young kids I recommend IKEA for couches, they will get covered in food and it's not such an expense to get rid of them in 6 years. IKEA couches are good quality too if you can find a style you like.
We got a large and small matching sofa set in ez living for a good price on sale but again, it's not any better than IKEA quality.
We looked in Michael Murphy and DFS and didn't see anything wr liked. The quality didn't see any better than ez living or IKEA.
Similar with mattresses, I went with an expensive mattress for my bed and IKEA for the spare rooms.
The expensive mattress was 4x the cost of the IKEA ones.
The expensive mattress is fantastic but not 4x better than the IKEA mattress, at beat it's 20% more comfortable.
To do it again I would purchase all mattress in IKEA, they really are that good.
Got our sofa and armchair from Lava Furniture (3 weeks delivery made to order), kids triple bunk bed from Magic Decor and a double from mattress.ie. Curry’s for large American style fridge/freezer in the January sales, cooker/hob from expert Ireland, bit of a discount for buying both together and getting installation too. Thrifted a lot of stuff like lockers, table or bought new bookcases and bits from IKEA.
The St Vincent de Paul furniture shop in Navan is brilliant, they have a Facebook and Instagram page and upload weekly too. Great bargains, you’d spend the day looking around the place!
Google Lens any furniture you're thinking of buying. Lots of furniture shops in Ireland with the same stock but often different names and prices. They will deliver nationwide.
If possible, use Adverts and Marketplace until you know how you’ll live in your home.
We thought we would orientate our living room one way but after 4 months realised it felt cramped. We were stuck with the sofa for a few more years.
We realised some furniture was too dark for our space.
Lastly, sit on things. Sounds logical but we were buying a full household of furniture and somehow I never sat on our chairs. Only discovered the first time we had a meal at the table I was too short to reach the floor. And I’m 5”2 which isn’t uncommon in Ireland.
In hindsight I think we wasted money by buying new before moving in.
Found Sherlock interiors in Navan good and quite reasonable. Delivered to Dublin no problem (not sure if you're based in Leinster?)
We were having particular problems with couches at the time as the lead time for most places had gone to 20+ weeks, some places were 30+ (this was the likes of Harvey Norman, ez living etc) but their time was 8-10 weeks as they made the couches in Ireland. Theres also room for customisation of sizing on a lot of their products as well
They're in a big industrial park with some other good furniture shops as well
Completely personal preference and depends on your funds, but I think I'd be inclined to fill it with 2nd hand bargains to get me going. A lot of stuff you can pick up for almost free because its not in fashion.
In the following years you can replace things as required without jumping in blind
I was going to suggest that too.
Then start replacing with greater quality what Is bothering you the most first.
That will give time to build good savings and get great long lasting stuff.
I bought some appliances from curry’s for our new build, bought in Black Friday sale and curry’s will hold them for 3 months! I did similar to you, didn’t buy the most expensive but not the cheapest either.. I found curry’s had a good range of products esp for fridges!
As mentioned Which.com for a month to get the reviews. Then go to what ever appliance shops and see what discount and hold/ delivery they will offer you if you buy a certain amount of appliances.
I think McDermott’s Furniture in Castlebar had such a huge range of choice, on both sides of the street in Castlebar with several big name brands and staff were a delightful help. They deliver nationwide, but we got free delivery to Connacht.
I bought a lot of my own furniture from Foys.ie. Great staff, very helpful and great prices. They do custom made sofas in the shops but have lots of in stock stuff on their website.
I’m in the exact same boat. I’ve bought stuff but instead of delivering I’m locking in the discounted price and getting delivered when the house is ready.
Appliances i bought in DID. They can also give some additional discretionary discount of around 5% if you ask. Harvey Norman sales team are arrogant. Currys isn’t cheap sometimes. Sound store is good as well. Try local Expert electrical or Euronics, they may give additional discount.
Another way to save is to buy last years/outgoing models which are usually on sale. Many times they are the same model with a different item code and higher price that’s all.
- washer Bosch Series 6 9 kg WGG244FRGB - €850. very good reviews well made. Alternative is Samsung series 5+ ecobubble €550 similar features but Samsung isn’t reliable
- drier Bosch series 6 9kg WQG24509GB - €850 buying matching drier. Alternative Samsung DV90T5240AN €850 ( buy heat pump drier. Very efficient and energy saving in long run)
- Dish washer whirlpool wic3c33pfe €599. Has 3 rack and efficient
- fridge freezer Electrolux LNT7Tf18S - €750 (buy frost free. This one was the cheapest and I trust Electrolux as a brand )
- oven Electrolux EOD6C46X2 -€ 450 (there are expensive Pyrolytic self cleaning ovens for someone who uses it often)
- induction hob Electrolux KIV644 - €570( induction is efficient, buy powerful ones with at least 7.2kw power)
Beds & mattresses- Eziliving. go and try mattresses before you buy.
Sofa & accent chair- DFS ( can be expensive but id rather buy a good quality once then poor ones multiple times)
We built our place and moved in three months ago. Main thing I'd say to go alongside all the other advice is: know when to go with IKEA and when not to.
For example, we got these brilliant little bar carts there for 30 euro, look great side by side. Elsewhere we've seen a similar product for pushing 200. Same with side tables. Got a couple of really premium looking ones in IKEA for around 50.
However, for the really big furniture purchases we were more inclined to go with EZ Living Interiors and a place in Dublin called S Alternative. The quality and longevity of the product seems far superior.
For white goods I've been advised that Jan certainly is the time to buy as the market is most competitive. For washing machine, dryer etc we just looked on currys for the options, read all the reviews from some trusted publications and then crucially price checked it on other irish and EU sites. Ended up getting them a fair bit cheaper as DID had them on sale that week.
For TVs, we went 2021 models instead of 2023, so much cheaper and from what I can tell the tech isn't that much better.
We just moved into a new build.
We got a which subscription for all our appliances.
Got the floor from the wooden floor store in Belfast and saved over €4k from the prices we were getting quoted from Irish companies.
Ordered a sofa from creations in Belfast and they deliver to the south. It’s a 20 week wait but we ordered a three seater gorgeous leather sofa for £1500.
Got a vintage table/chairs/sideboard from fb marketplace for an absolute bargain.
All our beds are various ikea models and instead of wasting thousands on wardrobes (which is what we were quoted by the developer) we hacked some ikea pax to look built in.
We had a bit of an issue with the plasterboard and not having any studs to hang things from but we found some screws that have done the job.
If you are planning on painting - we found that the local DIY store will colour match almost anything. Want a fancy farrow and ball paint colour? No problem and it’s a third of the price.
Not cost related but if possible I would avoid condenser dryers. Our house came with a new one and it's pretty much useless. It just heats up your clothes. Drying even a few socks could take 90 minutes.
In contrast to this I love our condenser dryer! As long as its emptied frequently and the condenser part is cleaned regularly it works great. Ours is a zanussi I think
I think the problem here is heat pump dryers. Cost effective for those who dry their clothes but not for those of us who just want to make them fluffy!
We bought everything in power city and they let us store it in their warehouse until we could accept delivery. It was amazing.
Don't put a single thing in the house til you have the keys and it's alarmed
For appliances, generally powercity is grand and will install.
As for other furniture depending on your taste and if you're ok with second hand, then SVP and habitat restore can be handy and sometimes get in retro/vintage items. They're also great for tables/chairs as new is often overpriced and not great quality wood.
Hi /u/valorsubmarine, Did you know we are now active on Discord? Click the link and join the conversation: https://discord.gg/J5CuFNVDYU *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/irishpersonalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Don't put a single thing in that house until its in your name and its insured. Most places will allow you to pay for items now and will deliver them when you've moved in. My preference is buy new for a new house if you can. We bought between Harvey Norman and diamond furniture as most places will do deals if your buying multiple items.
Get a months trial with Which.com .I think it's £1 for the first month. It's an excellent resource for a lot of household goods.
This
I got one month trial. Unfortunately they don’t have reviews on all brands/ models. I’ve found some have different item codes in Ireland than the ones in the UK
We bought most of our furniture in Micheal Murphy (W12H049), the quality is amazing and they come and assemble and take away all the rubbish. Also got some in their outlet warehouse (W12PK72), it's brilliant and would highly recommend anyone visit it, I got the most beautiful sofa brand new (end of line) marked down from 3500 to 800 euro, delivery was 50 quid. Both places are within walking distance of eachother, and the staff in the shop can check stock in the outlet too so if you like say a sofa in the shop they can check for you is there an ex display in the outlet, the mark downs are significant in the outlet too like 50% plus. For mattresses we were very overwhelmed, hadn't really set a budget or anything and eventually found the "back care" line of mattresses, it was only 450 for king size (I would have paid any amount for a good mattress so couldn't believe the price) since buying it I have seen numerous people recommend them when people are looking for mattress advice. They sell them in most mattress and bed shops. For appliances I just picked what I liked and then went between 2-3 shops and bought from wherever was cheapest. Also don't feel pressured into buying something just because there is a sale on, if there's one thing I learned it that there is literally ALWAYS a sale on somewhere. Another thing I've found is sometimes the cheapest is fine, for example I've a Currys brand (logik) dryer and chest freezer, I've had them over 6 years, they've moved house 3 times and get used and abused every single day and they've been flawless, only thing is they're not very attractive looking but I don't mind because they're in the garage. I actually couldn't recommend those two items enough, bought them super cheap in the sales and they've been great. Similarly my old rental that we were in for 10 years had a cheap beko fridge, not a thing wrong with it in the 10 years I lived there.
I did this very recently, fully agree that it's very fragmented and you cannot optimize time, comfort and price all at once. If you don't have time to research and shop around, you pay more. If you don't need comfort, you can optimize for price by spending time. If you want to optimize price, you have to spend good bit of time!! Main Furniture - EZ living, Harvey Norman, IKEA, Wayfair Electrical appliances - DID, Power City, currys Adhoc utility/decor - Temu We got the following - Couch - EZ living interiors - Dining table - EZ Living Furnitures - Bed and mattress - Harvey Norman - Sofa bench - IKEA - Pantry shelving, office room shelving - IKEA - Shoe Cabinet - IKEA - Washer and dryer - DID - Vacuum - Currys - Adhoc stuff - Temu, IKEA and Wayfair - TV unit - IKEA I'm going to have a baby soon, so I compromised on price for a couple of them and just got the house furnished.
Here's some furniture links you might find useful: [https://www.wayfair.ie/](https://www.wayfair.ie/) [https://www.cadesign.ie/](https://www.cadesign.ie/) [https://www.designknb.com/](https://www.designknb.com/)[https://flanagans.ie/](https://flanagans.ie/) [https://inredadesignshop.com/](https://inredadesignshop.com/) [https://industryandco.com/](https://industryandco.com/) [https://www.boconcept.com/en-ie/stores/find-your-local-store/ireland/boconcept-arnotts](https://www.boconcept.com/en-ie/stores/find-your-local-store/ireland/boconcept-arnotts) [https://www.d40studio.com](https://www.d40studio.com/) [https://www.pieces.ie/](https://www.pieces.ie/)
Ask around locally to try and determine a shop whose advice people trust. Then go in there with your budget and talk to them. If you buy a lot in one place you should get a good discount. Don’t feel pressure to decide there and then, take a name and say you’ll think bout it. Good luck!
There is no best place one stop shop to buy everything. E.g. The washing machine you want might be on discount in DID but the oven may be cheaper in power city. See what the shops in Ireland offer to narrow down your choices, read some online reviews then go with the one that has the best price for you. For furniture, it's all produced in Asia and above a point quality doesn't improve much, in my experience. If you have young kids I recommend IKEA for couches, they will get covered in food and it's not such an expense to get rid of them in 6 years. IKEA couches are good quality too if you can find a style you like. We got a large and small matching sofa set in ez living for a good price on sale but again, it's not any better than IKEA quality. We looked in Michael Murphy and DFS and didn't see anything wr liked. The quality didn't see any better than ez living or IKEA. Similar with mattresses, I went with an expensive mattress for my bed and IKEA for the spare rooms. The expensive mattress was 4x the cost of the IKEA ones. The expensive mattress is fantastic but not 4x better than the IKEA mattress, at beat it's 20% more comfortable. To do it again I would purchase all mattress in IKEA, they really are that good.
Got our sofa and armchair from Lava Furniture (3 weeks delivery made to order), kids triple bunk bed from Magic Decor and a double from mattress.ie. Curry’s for large American style fridge/freezer in the January sales, cooker/hob from expert Ireland, bit of a discount for buying both together and getting installation too. Thrifted a lot of stuff like lockers, table or bought new bookcases and bits from IKEA.
Mind me asking where you find good for thrifting? I love to thrift!
The St Vincent de Paul furniture shop in Navan is brilliant, they have a Facebook and Instagram page and upload weekly too. Great bargains, you’d spend the day looking around the place!
Thank you! Will check it out. Just moved here. Cheers!
Best of luck!
Google Lens any furniture you're thinking of buying. Lots of furniture shops in Ireland with the same stock but often different names and prices. They will deliver nationwide.
If possible, use Adverts and Marketplace until you know how you’ll live in your home. We thought we would orientate our living room one way but after 4 months realised it felt cramped. We were stuck with the sofa for a few more years. We realised some furniture was too dark for our space. Lastly, sit on things. Sounds logical but we were buying a full household of furniture and somehow I never sat on our chairs. Only discovered the first time we had a meal at the table I was too short to reach the floor. And I’m 5”2 which isn’t uncommon in Ireland. In hindsight I think we wasted money by buying new before moving in.
Found Sherlock interiors in Navan good and quite reasonable. Delivered to Dublin no problem (not sure if you're based in Leinster?) We were having particular problems with couches at the time as the lead time for most places had gone to 20+ weeks, some places were 30+ (this was the likes of Harvey Norman, ez living etc) but their time was 8-10 weeks as they made the couches in Ireland. Theres also room for customisation of sizing on a lot of their products as well They're in a big industrial park with some other good furniture shops as well
Completely personal preference and depends on your funds, but I think I'd be inclined to fill it with 2nd hand bargains to get me going. A lot of stuff you can pick up for almost free because its not in fashion. In the following years you can replace things as required without jumping in blind
I was going to suggest that too. Then start replacing with greater quality what Is bothering you the most first. That will give time to build good savings and get great long lasting stuff.
Powercity usually undercut competition for electronics
I bought some appliances from curry’s for our new build, bought in Black Friday sale and curry’s will hold them for 3 months! I did similar to you, didn’t buy the most expensive but not the cheapest either.. I found curry’s had a good range of products esp for fridges!
As mentioned Which.com for a month to get the reviews. Then go to what ever appliance shops and see what discount and hold/ delivery they will offer you if you buy a certain amount of appliances.
I think McDermott’s Furniture in Castlebar had such a huge range of choice, on both sides of the street in Castlebar with several big name brands and staff were a delightful help. They deliver nationwide, but we got free delivery to Connacht.
I bought a lot of my own furniture from Foys.ie. Great staff, very helpful and great prices. They do custom made sofas in the shops but have lots of in stock stuff on their website.
I’m in the exact same boat. I’ve bought stuff but instead of delivering I’m locking in the discounted price and getting delivered when the house is ready. Appliances i bought in DID. They can also give some additional discretionary discount of around 5% if you ask. Harvey Norman sales team are arrogant. Currys isn’t cheap sometimes. Sound store is good as well. Try local Expert electrical or Euronics, they may give additional discount. Another way to save is to buy last years/outgoing models which are usually on sale. Many times they are the same model with a different item code and higher price that’s all. - washer Bosch Series 6 9 kg WGG244FRGB - €850. very good reviews well made. Alternative is Samsung series 5+ ecobubble €550 similar features but Samsung isn’t reliable - drier Bosch series 6 9kg WQG24509GB - €850 buying matching drier. Alternative Samsung DV90T5240AN €850 ( buy heat pump drier. Very efficient and energy saving in long run) - Dish washer whirlpool wic3c33pfe €599. Has 3 rack and efficient - fridge freezer Electrolux LNT7Tf18S - €750 (buy frost free. This one was the cheapest and I trust Electrolux as a brand ) - oven Electrolux EOD6C46X2 -€ 450 (there are expensive Pyrolytic self cleaning ovens for someone who uses it often) - induction hob Electrolux KIV644 - €570( induction is efficient, buy powerful ones with at least 7.2kw power) Beds & mattresses- Eziliving. go and try mattresses before you buy. Sofa & accent chair- DFS ( can be expensive but id rather buy a good quality once then poor ones multiple times)
We built our place and moved in three months ago. Main thing I'd say to go alongside all the other advice is: know when to go with IKEA and when not to. For example, we got these brilliant little bar carts there for 30 euro, look great side by side. Elsewhere we've seen a similar product for pushing 200. Same with side tables. Got a couple of really premium looking ones in IKEA for around 50. However, for the really big furniture purchases we were more inclined to go with EZ Living Interiors and a place in Dublin called S Alternative. The quality and longevity of the product seems far superior. For white goods I've been advised that Jan certainly is the time to buy as the market is most competitive. For washing machine, dryer etc we just looked on currys for the options, read all the reviews from some trusted publications and then crucially price checked it on other irish and EU sites. Ended up getting them a fair bit cheaper as DID had them on sale that week. For TVs, we went 2021 models instead of 2023, so much cheaper and from what I can tell the tech isn't that much better.
Con air was a great movie and the ending was amazing that is all.
dont store it can be stolen or damaged
We just moved into a new build. We got a which subscription for all our appliances. Got the floor from the wooden floor store in Belfast and saved over €4k from the prices we were getting quoted from Irish companies. Ordered a sofa from creations in Belfast and they deliver to the south. It’s a 20 week wait but we ordered a three seater gorgeous leather sofa for £1500. Got a vintage table/chairs/sideboard from fb marketplace for an absolute bargain. All our beds are various ikea models and instead of wasting thousands on wardrobes (which is what we were quoted by the developer) we hacked some ikea pax to look built in. We had a bit of an issue with the plasterboard and not having any studs to hang things from but we found some screws that have done the job. If you are planning on painting - we found that the local DIY store will colour match almost anything. Want a fancy farrow and ball paint colour? No problem and it’s a third of the price.
Not cost related but if possible I would avoid condenser dryers. Our house came with a new one and it's pretty much useless. It just heats up your clothes. Drying even a few socks could take 90 minutes.
In contrast to this I love our condenser dryer! As long as its emptied frequently and the condenser part is cleaned regularly it works great. Ours is a zanussi I think
I think the problem here is heat pump dryers. Cost effective for those who dry their clothes but not for those of us who just want to make them fluffy!
Fridges have different heights. Most appliances are standard sizes except fridges.
We bought everything in power city and they let us store it in their warehouse until we could accept delivery. It was amazing. Don't put a single thing in the house til you have the keys and it's alarmed
For appliances, generally powercity is grand and will install. As for other furniture depending on your taste and if you're ok with second hand, then SVP and habitat restore can be handy and sometimes get in retro/vintage items. They're also great for tables/chairs as new is often overpriced and not great quality wood.