Furniture Budget Calculator
Furnish a home room by room and see how the total sits against the money you have.
Furnishing a home from empty is one of the few large purchases that arrives all at once and cannot be spread over years, because a bed and a fridge are needed on the first night.
Enter the budget for each room and what you have set aside, and this calculator totals the furnishing, shows the average cost per room and the gap against your funds.
At a glance
- What you enter
- Living room, Main bedroom, Other bedrooms, Kitchen equipment, Bathroom and laundry, Outdoor and storage, Other items, Rooms being furnished, Money set aside, Net monthly income (optional)
- What you get
- Total furnishing budget, Average cost per room, Left of your funds, Still to find
- Formula shown
- Yes - every step, right below your results.
- Cost and privacy
- Free, no account needed, and nothing you type is stored.
See worked examples ↓ Read the FAQ ↓ Share this calculator ↓
Results are estimates for general information only - always verify with a professional or official source before acting on them.
How to use the Furniture Budget Calculator
- 1 Enter Living room - Sofa, table, chairs, shelving, television stand.
- 2 Enter Main bedroom
- 3 Enter Other bedrooms
- 4 Enter Kitchen equipment - Appliances, cookware, crockery, small equipment.
- 5 Enter Bathroom and laundry
- 6 Enter Outdoor and storage
- 7 Enter Other items - Delivery, assembly, curtains, lighting, rugs, tools.
- 8 Enter Rooms being furnished (rooms)
- 9 Enter Money set aside
- 10 Enter Net monthly income (optional) - Enter 0 to skip the income comparison.
- 11 Press Calculate. You get Total furnishing budget, Average cost per room, Left of your funds, Still to find, and every intermediate step stays visible under “How is this calculated?”
- 12 Change one number at a time to see what moves the result - that is usually the most useful thing a calculator can tell you.
Worked examples
Real numbers run through this calculator. Open any example to load it into the form above and change it.
Furnishing a three-room flat for $5,300
A first home with modest budgets for each room and $6,000 set aside.
You enter
- Living room
- $1,800.00
- Main bedroom
- $1,200.00
- Other bedrooms
- $400.00
- Kitchen equipment
- $900.00
- Bathroom and laundry
- $350.00
- Outdoor and storage
- $200.00
- Other items
- $450.00
- Rooms being furnished
- 3 rooms
- Money set aside
- $6,000.00
- Net monthly income (optional)
- $3,200.00
You get
- Total furnishing budget
- $5,300.00
- Average cost per room
- $1,766.67
- Left of your funds
- $700.00
- Still to find
- $0.00
The total is $5,300, which is $1,766.67 for each of the three rooms, and it leaves $700 of the $6,000 set aside, so your funds cover the whole budget and there is no shortfall. The furnishing comes to 165.6% of one month of net income, which is the reminder that this is a one-off purchase paid from savings rather than from a single month of pay.
Furnishing a five-room family home for $12,900
A larger house with a $2,900 gap against the $10,000 available.
You enter
- Living room
- $3,500.00
- Main bedroom
- $2,500.00
- Other bedrooms
- $2,200.00
- Kitchen equipment
- $2,000.00
- Bathroom and laundry
- $800.00
- Outdoor and storage
- $700.00
- Other items
- $1,200.00
- Rooms being furnished
- 5 rooms
- Money set aside
- $10,000.00
- Net monthly income (optional)
- $4,500.00
You get
- Total furnishing budget
- $12,900.00
- Average cost per room
- $2,580.00
- Left of your funds
- -$2,900.00
- Still to find
- $2,900.00
The total is $12,900, which is $2,580 for each of the five rooms and $2,900 more than the $10,000 set aside: your funds cover 77.5% of it. The furnishing comes to 286.7% of one month of net income, close to three months of pay. Leaving the other bedroom ($2,200) and the outdoor items ($700) until later would bring the budget to exactly $10,000 and remove the gap.
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Frequently asked questions
How many rooms should I enter?
Enter the number of rooms you are actually furnishing, because it is used to work out the average cost per room. A bedroom, a living room and a kitchen all count; a hallway you are buying nothing for does not, and neither does a room that already has furniture in it.
The number does not change the total, only the average, so treat it as a sense check. If the average looks too low for the rooms on your list, one of the individual budgets is probably optimistic.
Why is the average cost per room not what each room costs?
Because it is the total divided by the number of rooms, and rooms are not equal. A living room with a sofa, a table and shelving usually costs several times a bathroom, and a main bedroom costs more than a spare one. The average shows the shape of the spending rather than the price of any single room.
If you want to know what one room will cost, add up its own line and compare it with the money you have for it. The kitchen and living room are usually where the budget goes, and where buying second-hand or waiting a year changes the total most.
Is there a target for the share of one month of income?
No, the income comparison is context rather than a rule. Spending one month of net income on furnishing is manageable for a household with savings; spending three months of income is a decision that will hold back an emergency fund or a house deposit for a long time.
What matters more than the percentage is where the money comes from. If it is coming out of savings, the Emergency Fund Calculator shows what that does to your buffer, and if it is going on credit, the monthly payment matters more than the total.
Which furnishing costs are easiest to forget?
Delivery, assembly, curtains and blinds, lighting, rugs, small kitchen equipment, a vacuum cleaner, garden tools and the first shop for cleaning products. They are individually small and collectively often several hundred dollars, which is what the other items line is for.
The second thing people forget is timing. A bed, a fridge, a cooker and somewhere to sit are needed on the first night, while a second sofa, a spare bed and outdoor furniture can wait until you know how the rooms are actually used.