If you’re a new home owner, your “I can’t wait to decorate my house” excitement probably fizzled out the moment you started looking at the price tags of sofas and dining tables. Thankfully, there are quite a few places (and websites) to shop for cheap furniture in Singapore.

In general, shopping for cheap furniture online can be quite tricky. Just like on Tinder, photos on online shopping stores can be pretty deceiving.

Which is why you should try to shop at online stores that have reasonable return policies (many allow 100-day no-questions-asked returns). That way, if your furniture ends up like your date (i.e. “not true to pic”), you can send them right back. Some also have showrooms and allow requests for fabric swatches.

Where to buy cheap furniture in Singapore

Furniture Sg

Most of Furniture Sg‘s furniture designs are nothing to shout about. However, they do have an overwhelming selection for home owners to choose from, so you might be able to find hidden gems if you look hard enough. Their prices are super cheap though.

I’m confident that you can literally furnish your whole home for under $1,500 – a few clicks and I found a faux leather sofa at $88, a queen bed frame at $110, and a 4-piece dining set at $188. As expected of this price, these are all very cheapo quality goods, but hey, they’re functional (and great for use until you can afford that atas sofa).

Furniture Sg does not charge for delivery and installations, but past customers have written online reviews about hidden charges when they tried to return or exchange the goods. There are also no showrooms and the website has limited descriptions so keep your expectations in check.

Furniture Mart

Browsing Furniture Mart‘s site reminds me of shopping on Taobao – cheap prices and lots of low-resolution stock photos. As with Furniture Sg, Furniture Mart’s selection is not fancy, and e-store is more reminiscent of an online furniture warehouse. They also offer free delivery and a price-match guarantee.

The price range is comparable to Furniture Sg, so I would expect the quality to be similar too. Judging from the poor Google reviews (2.8/5 stars), the after-sales service doesn’t seem too stellar either. Try at your own risk!

Castlery

I’ve walked past the Castlery’s showroom at the Grandstand many times, and have always thought about going in to check them out. But because it looked like it may cost me an organ, I never set foot inside. Imagine my joy when I finally got down to Googling them and found out that Castlery is actually very affordable.

Castlery is their own brand, but what they do is work with award-winning designers to keep their furniture modern and trendy yet cheap. While the prices are not dirt cheap – it’s not Taobao! – it’s definitely value for money. Online reviews on various platforms agree that the quality is impressive for the affordable price tag.

Delivery is $6.99 to $29.99, but it’s waived for orders $300 and up.

Comfort Design Furniture

True to its slogan, Comfort Design Furniture does sell “more than tables and chairs”. They’ve got a good range of furniture, including shelves, racks and even customisable sofas. But perhaps the thing that they’re the most famous for is their designer furniture replicas.

Although they claim to offer a variety of styles, I find that the items are mostly Scandinavian-inspired, featuring light-coloured wood and clean lines. During sales, you can score stylish dining tables for under $300 and 3-seater faux leather sofas for $600+.

Delivery is $30 for orders under $500. If you want, you may also self-collect at their offices in Eunos.

ALSO READ: Best furniture stores in Singapore for every style and home

Bonus: Best credit card for furniture shopping

Now, we’re right about at the halfway mark, so let me interrupt with a bonus furniture shopping tip. Things like beds, shelves, and furniture in general are considered big ticket purchases, so it’s important to you try and squeeze whatever rebates you can get from them.

Understandably — since furniture is a quite niche category — there are no dedicated “furniture shopping credit cards”. However, if you’re ordering from an online site you can use an online shopping credit card like the CIMB Visa Signature Card (10 per cent cash back) or DBS Live Fresh (5 per cent cash back).

If you just want a fuss-free credit card that you can just charge everything to, you can consider using the UOB Absolute Cashback Card which gives you a flat 1.7 per cent cashback on all spend.

Forty Two

Established in 2007, FortyTwo is one of the best e-stores to shop for cheap furniture online. On top of their affordable prices, the furniture store offers a price-match guarantee. So if you see the exact same shelf at another furniture store, you can write in the request a refund. There’s also a 100-day return policy, so shop away.

Make sure you check out their sale section, there are almost always good deals there. While I was shopping there – strictly for work, of course – I found this Bali-esque rattan sofa set (pictured above) that’s only going for $799.90.

Delivery fee is $5.90 to $19.90, but it’s waived for orders over $300. Self-collection is available at their Toh Guan office (free).

Novena Furniture

Novena has been around for 35 years, making it one of the oldest and most established budget furniture megastores.

Their prices are not the cheapest, but if you dig around their website (or any of the two showrooms at Balestier and Sungei Kadut) you might find something for a bargain. Design-wise, I find that Novena’s pieces are slightly dated, and not as trendy as others in this list.

One thing to note though: The online reviews on their service seem pretty bad. Past customers seem to have experienced hard-selling at the physical stores, as well as difficulties when trying to exchange their orders.

Novena sells their furniture online via Lazada too. The price range is quite wide, and varies according to the design and materials used. You will find synthetic leather sofas from $199, but also $2,199 luxe full-leather sofas. There are sofas, dining sets and tables, but not many shelves and cupboards. Delivery is $35 (waived if you spend over $300).

HipVan

Another super popular online furniture store is HipVan, which sells affordable “designer furniture”. That said, HipVan is not purely an outlet store. Other than on-sale branded sofas and dining sets, HipVan also offers chic house-brand furniture that are surprisingly stylish. Be warned though, what HipVan offers is not so much cheap, but instead, discounted furniture.

For the cheapest deals, head to the Display Piece sale – that’s where HipVan clears the stocks previously used for displays. Prices are slashed to as low as 85per cent off the original prices.

Delivery is chargeable for orders under $250 ($14.99 for furniture items, $6.99 for non-furniture items).  Self-collection is available, but you must write in at least 1 day before any pre-scheduled delivery (if any).

Ikea

Many of us spent our childhoods “testing” sofas and beds at Ikea. The mother of affordable furniture, this megastore sells everything from ready-to-assemble cabinets and tables to chic rugs and other furnishings. To be honest, Ikea is not as cheap as it used to be, but for the quality and convenience, their prices are still relatively reasonable.

Plus, Scandinavian-style decor is wildly popular these days, and seeing as Ikea literally hails from Sweden, you’re not going to get any more authentic than this (sorry Muji).

If you’ve decided against a built-in wardrobe, Ikea sells simple wardrobes from just $190. Of course, those are very small (suitable for one person), but the bigger ones (suitable for couples) remain similarly affordable at the $350 to $800 range.

I’m not a fan of fancy sofas with puffy quilts and elaborate designs, so I especially appreciate the selection of plain, easy-to-match sofas at Ikea. If you can’t afford genuine leather (usually $2,000 and up), opt for the coated fabric ones – you can get them from $800 at Ikea.

Ikea has both online and offline stores. Delivery for the online store is $70, but if you shop at the Tampines or Alexandra stores, delivery charges are $55.

Hock Siong & Co – for secondhand furniture

If you want furniture with a little bit of character (and history), Hock Siong & Co is a treasure trove of secondhand goodies.

The business is started by a family of karang guni traders who eventually decided to make a furniture business out of what they found. The prices largely depend on what you choose, but in general it’s definitely cheaper than getting something similar brand new.

There’s really no saying what you’ll find here, but that’s part of the fun. If you’re curious what kind of goods they have, check out the Hock Siong Instagram page. I found this set of super cute giant dice stools (pictured above).

This article was first published in MoneySmart.