Furnishing an empty apartment costs roughly €2,500–€4,000 for a 1-bed on a tight budget, €5,000–€9,000 mid-range and €10,000–€18,000 if you buy quality pieces meant to last a decade; add 30–45% for a 2-bed. Two items — the mattress and the sofa — decide most of that number, so decide those first and buy the rest slowly.
Those ranges assume a genuinely empty place: no bed, no sofa, no curtains, nothing in the kitchen drawers. If you are bringing a bed and a table from a previous flat, subtract the relevant rows below rather than guessing.
Room-by-room: 1-bedroom apartment
Ranges are for buying new, in most European cities, excluding delivery. “Budget” is flat-pack and entry-level retailers; “mid” is mid-market chains and better flat-pack; “quality” is solid wood, good upholstery and pieces you would move house with.
| Room / item | Budget | Mid | Quality |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bedroom — mattress (140–160 cm) | €250 – €450 | €500 – €900 | €1,000 – €1,800 |
| Bed frame | €120 – €250 | €300 – €600 | €700 – €1,500 |
| Bedding (2 sets), pillows, duvet | €120 – €200 | €200 – €350 | €350 – €600 |
| Wardrobe or rail + drawers | €150 – €300 | €350 – €800 | €900 – €2,000 |
| Bedside table + lamp (×2) | €80 – €150 | €160 – €320 | €350 – €700 |
| Blackout curtains or blind | €60 – €120 | €120 – €250 | €250 – €500 |
| Living room — sofa (2–3 seats) | €350 – €650 | €800 – €1,600 | €1,800 – €4,000 |
| Coffee or side table | €40 – €90 | €120 – €300 | €300 – €800 |
| TV unit or low sideboard | €70 – €150 | €200 – €450 | €500 – €1,200 |
| Rug (160 × 230 cm or larger) | €60 – €120 | €150 – €400 | €400 – €1,200 |
| Floor lamp + table lamp | €60 – €120 | €150 – €350 | €350 – €800 |
| Curtains (one window) | €50 – €100 | €120 – €300 | €300 – €700 |
| Shelving or bookcase | €50 – €120 | €150 – €400 | €400 – €1,000 |
| Dining / work — table (4 seats) | €100 – €200 | €250 – €600 | €600 – €1,500 |
| 4 chairs | €120 – €240 | €300 – €600 | €600 – €1,600 |
| Kitchen — cookware, knives, basics | €120 – €200 | €250 – €450 | €500 – €1,000 |
| Crockery, glasses, cutlery (4 settings) | €60 – €120 | €120 – €250 | €250 – €600 |
| Small appliances (kettle, toaster, etc.) | €60 – €120 | €150 – €300 | €300 – €700 |
| Bathroom — towels, mat, bin, storage | €60 – €120 | €120 – €250 | €250 – €500 |
| Hallway — hooks, mirror, shoe storage | €40 – €90 | €100 – €250 | €250 – €600 |
| Totals (1-bed) | €2,000 – €3,800 | €4,600 – €9,900 | €10,600 – €23,300 |
The “quality” total runs high because it assumes quality everywhere at once, which almost nobody does. A realistic quality-tier flat mixes a €1,200 mattress and a €2,500 sofa with mid-range everything else, landing around €10,000–€14,000.
Adding a second bedroom (2-bed)
A second bedroom used as a guest room or office adds less than a first bedroom, because you skip the blackout-and-wardrobe seriousness.
| Second bedroom as | Budget | Mid | Quality |
|---|---|---|---|
| Guest room (double bed, mattress, bedding, small wardrobe, lamp, curtain) | €600 – €1,000 | €1,300 – €2,400 | €2,800 – €5,000 |
| Home office (desk, chair, shelving, task lamp, curtain) | €350 – €650 | €800 – €1,600 | €1,800 – €3,500 |
| Child’s room (bed, mattress, storage, desk, lamp, blind) | €500 – €900 | €1,100 – €2,000 | €2,200 – €4,000 |
Add one more dining chair or two and a slightly larger rug and the 2-bed total sits at roughly €2,700–€5,000 budget, €6,000–€12,500 mid and €13,000–€28,000 quality. The home office design guide covers where the office money should actually go, which is the chair, not the desk.
What to buy first
- Mattress and something to put it on. Week one. A mattress on the floor is fine for a month; a bad mattress is not fine for a year.
- Window coverings for the bedroom. Before the first sunrise, ideally. Cheap temporary paper blinds cost under €15 and buy you time to choose properly.
- Somewhere to sit. Sofa if the budget allows, two decent chairs if not.
- A table. Eating, working and unpacking all happen here.
- Three light sources per main room. Overhead alone makes every room look like a waiting room; the three-height rule in how to redesign any room applies to furnishing too.
- Kitchen and bathroom basics. One box each. Do not buy sets; buy what you will use in the first fortnight.
Then stop for 4–8 weeks. Storage, rugs, art and the second lamp all get better when you have watched where the piles form and where you actually sit. Anyone moving in soon should run through the new apartment moving checklist alongside this list so utilities and deliveries land in the right order.
What to buy used
Second-hand typically costs 20–40% of new, and for some categories used is simply better than budget-new because the used piece was once mid or quality tier.
- Buy used with confidence: solid-wood dining tables, chairs, sideboards, bookcases, desks, bed frames, chests of drawers, lamps, mirrors, framed art, cast-iron cookware.
- Buy used with a look: wardrobes (check they disassemble and fit the lift), office chairs (test the gas lift), rugs (check for smell and moth damage).
- Buy new: mattresses, pillows, duvets, upholstered sofas unless the seller is known to you, anything flat-pack that has already been assembled once — the fixings rarely survive a second build.
A mid-tier flat with a used table, chairs, sideboard and bookcase typically drops €800–€1,500 off the total for no loss in quality.
Common overspends
- Buying the sofa before measuring the door. A 240 cm sofa that does not turn the stairwell is the most expensive mistake in the building. Measure the narrowest point of the route and the sofa’s diagonal.
- Full dinner sets for 12. You have 4 chairs. Buy 4–6 settings.
- Matching furniture sets. The set discount is usually smaller than the cost of the pieces you did not need.
- A rug that is too small. A 120 × 170 cm rug under a sofa looks like a bath mat. Go one size up; the front legs of every seat should sit on it.
- Decor before furniture. Cushions, candles and vases feel cheap individually and add up to €300–€600 in the first month without changing how the room works.
- Paint after furniture. If you are allowed to paint, do it in the empty flat; it is half the effort and lets you test colours on bare walls. Photographing the empty room and running it through Homie’s redesign gives a palette and a rough furniture cost before anything is ordered, which makes the tiers above concrete for your actual space. The furniture budget planning guide then turns that palette into a purchase order with priorities.
A worked budget
A 48 m² 1-bed, mid tier, some used pieces, moving in with nothing:
- Mattress €650, frame €350, bedding €250, wardrobe €450, bedsides and lamps €200, blackout blind €150 — €2,050
- Sofa €1,100, used oak coffee table €90, used sideboard €180, rug €250, two lamps €220, curtains €180 — €2,020
- Used dining table €150, four used chairs €160 — €310
- Kitchen basics €350, tableware €150, kettle and toaster €120 — €620
- Bathroom and hallway €300 — €300
Total: about €5,300, with the three used purchases saving roughly €900 against new. Small-space compromises — a sofa bed instead of a guest room, a drop-leaf table — are covered in the small apartment redesign ideas guide and can pull this lower again.
