Affordable Living Room Table Sets: Stylish Options on a Budget
Affordable Living Room Table Sets: I very clearly remember purchasing furniture for and decorating my first apartment. I was in my mid-20s, only had my own room furniture, and found myself in need of things like a sofa and coffee table after taking up a job three hours south of my home city. It was my first real foray into “design,” and man, was it exciting.
You know, except for the part that I had very little money to do any of it. As any very responsible twenty-something would be alright (i.e., this was a terrible idea. I continue to still pay off debt today from it, so I do not recommend this route even though it is just in the name of decorating). I went for lines of credit (don’t do this) to purchase furniture, so I wasn’t sitting on the floor for many months.
Being a total furniture newb, look at the web, not really knowing what anything should/would expense. What stores should you go to besides Rooms To Go or Ashley? Also, IKEA. This was my first real adult apartment (I am not counting my college dorm rooms with the clinical waiting-room furniture they provided).
So clearly, it had to be a chic work of art that exactly expressed my 26-year-old tastes. The reality was that I was now, ahem, a design magazine editor. Also, do you know what I wish I had back then, all those years ago? AN ULTIMATE low-cost APARTMENT FURNITURE GUIDE. Like THIS ONE! If you can never help your past self, help the present. Also, future people are living your same experiences, right? Or perhaps you can just save on some super great-looking furniture pieces, with no age limit.
Not a generic furniture
There are so many more options these days, specifically online, for furniture that is not just a generic honey oak veneered box. Alternatively, the same espresso-stained birchwood media stuff over and over again. That is what I affectionately call furniture déjà vu. When you reach a point in the discovery process where we recognize every silhouette, it just goes by a changed name and price at a different digital store.
Anyhow, none of this is to say I never fondly remember my gray velvet Macy’s Chloe sofa, which I purchased during a One-Day Sale for $600, my too-small-but-who-cares black-and-white rug, or the wood coffee table, which I afforded with a discount for signing up for AT&T Place.
I was proud of what I had put together, which eventually made me want to have people over (except I had no friends because I was living in a new city). It felt like an “adult” with my awesome throw pillows. Also, the Diyed wall art (a non-stop reminder I clearly needed of my initials plastered in lots of parts of my apartment).
My very practical brother continued telling me not to waste my money because it was “not more than a rental.” However, I knew better. In fact, I knew that I would want to go back to a place that felt special to me, that had “my touch.” Sure, in the end, I’d upgrade from most of that stuff once I merged places with my S.O.
However, I carried it with me through three apartments, and I never regretted the cash or time I put into my “just rentals.” In addition, they all were sold off or donated to new homes. I’d like to think that old Macy’s couch is somewhere still, probably in another 20-something’s penthouse, definitely not splattered with red wine stains or French fry grease.
Affordable living room furniture
And now we have reached the part of this blog where I realized no one besides my mom would give a dam about my furniture ghosts of apartments past. In addition, I’m about to get to why you would probably be here in the initial place. That, or you created your own blog post reading adventure and thus skipped ahead to about here.
We worked really hard to dig up cost-friendly living room furniture that we love right now. We attempted to touch on the main pieces one would need. This roundup doesn’t include any soft stuff (pillows, rugs, curtains). so those are pretty easy to find in your own individual style. Rather, sofas, coffee tables, armchairs, media devices, and accent tables at price points by category we considered were fair but manageable.
SOFAS UNDER $800
Here’s something funny we learned while we were sifting through this exercise: cheap sofas are not that difficult to find (a handful here are even under $400). Now, we can’t vouch for luxury/comfort here, so be sure to dig through reviews as best anybody can…and double-check measurements. So many of these are on the smaller “apartment-sized” side, though there are a couple of larger ones.
COFFEE TABLES UNDER $300
While “budget” sofas in awesome styles are easy enough to come by, coffee table sets are an entirely different story. Man are these are never to source under $300. We did, however, excavate some that are $150 and under and a few others that didn’t feel like the usual coffee table fare.
MEDIA CONSOLES UNDER $300(ISH)
Alright, so a couple of these are just over $340. I LOVED it. I could customize the interior storage although I wanted (shelves, drawers, etc. Companies like Semihandmade sell great retro-fit door variations to up the design factor and one can throw on some cute legs from Etsy or Prettypegs. Also, boom, you’ve got yourself a custom cabinet/media console. (Check out my dining room unit for an example).
SIDE TABLE SETS UNDER $125
Side table sets because we all have to get a place to set a drink and some various stacks of books/decor items. This is their official slogan. So, the good news is that side table sets can be super cost-effective (four of these are under $80 . However, two are under $100), which is a good thing because usually. You need two of them for each side (not matching per se) of the couch or next to a sofa/armchair. I’m very into the double-tier area, as well as the little sling accent from various options.
