Affordable Living Room Table Sets: Stylish Options on a Budget

I very clearly remember purchasing furniture for and decorating my first apartment. I was in my mid-20s, only had my own room furniture in my possession 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 in the area of “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, and I continue to still pay off debt today from it so I do not recommend this route even though just in the name 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. (Keep reading if you’re keen on the tale of “Arlyn Proudly purchases a Macy’s Sofa and Also Lots of different Things From HomeGoods and the web”…if not, feel free to skip my nostalgia trip and head right to the roundups.) 

Being a total furniture newb, I looked at the web, not really knowing what anything should/would expense, what stores to 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 celarly it had to be a chic work of art that exactly expressed my 26-year-old tastes and the reality that I was now, ahem, a design magazine editor. Also 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 that are living your same experiences, right? Or perhaps you can just save on some super great looking furniture pieces, no age limit.

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 necer fondly remember my gray velvet Macy’s Chloe sofa I purchased during a One-Day Sale for $600 or my too-small-but-who-cares black-and-white rug or the wood coffee table 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). I felt like an “adult” with my awesome throw pillows and 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. However bro. 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 regreted 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 also French fry grease.

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 addiition I’m about to get to why you would probably here in the initial place (that, or you created your own blog post reading adventure thus skipped ahead to about here). Welcome. We worked really hard to dig up cost-friendly living room furniture that we love right now and 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, but 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 was 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 tables 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 TABLES UNDER $125

Side tables…because we all have to get a place to set a drink and some various stack of books/decor items. This is their official slogan. So, the good news is, side tables can be super cost-effective (four of these are under $80 and all however, two 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.