9 Furniture Pieces to Buy for Your First Apartment and Use Forever, According to Pro Designers

Moving into a new apartment is a lot of things all at once: overwhelming, exciting, expensive— the list goes on. When it’s your first apartment ever, furnishing that blank canvas can be even more intimidating. Whether you’re receiving some hand-me-downs or going in with nothing at all, you’re going to need to buy some furniture. The good news is that there are some essential items you only need to buy once, and they’ll last you for years. 

To help you figure out exactly what furniture you need to shop for, I spoke to three design pros: digital creator and interior expert Emily Auffrey; DIYer and digital creator Mallory Wackerman; and interior designer Sandy Saintilus. With their expert insights into what the most important elements are to build a cozy, comfortable home, I was able to narrow down the nine furniture essentials that every first apartment needs.

Before you add to cart, Auffrey recommends “closing your eyes and thinking about what you want to feel when you get home.” This can help you understand the style and design you hope to achieve in your space. All three experts say you should measure your rooms and hallways as well as the doorways leading up to your apartment to make sure the furniture you buy will fit. Lastly, check your lease’s rules about putting holes in the wall for any furniture that needs to be mounted. When you’ve done all that, you’re finally ready to go furniture shopping! 

Here’s the expert-curated short list you should keep handy to know which are the most important furniture pieces to invest in; you’ll use them for years to come.

“The first thing you need to invest in is a mattress,” Wackerman says. Having a quality mattress can instantly help make an apartment feel like home. 

Wackerman goes so far as to recommend that if you only have one piece of furniture in your apartment on move-in day, make sure it’s a comfy mattress. 

You can go the traditional route and buy a mattress at a store, or you can have it shipped to your new apartment, rolled up in a compact box. While experts recommend getting a new mattress every seven to 15 years, that’s still a long time to sleep on something, so make sure you invest in one that suits your sleep style. Your future well-rested self will thank you. 

You can easily overthink what kind of bed frame you want, but don’t forget its main purpose: supporting your mattress. “Getting the mattress off the floor is critical,” Wackerman says. 

Auffrey recommends shopping for a frame with storage in mind; take stock of the amount of storage you have or will need in your new apartment. “A higher bed frame helps with under-bed storage,” she says. While a platform bed with no built-in drawers forgoes the option for stashing anything underneath, a frame with even a few extra inches of height can allow you to slide bins and containers underneath when you need them. 

Though buying a bed may seem like a huge decision, you can find inexpensive wooden or metal frames at pretty affordable prices, which can take some pressure off your post-graduation wallet, and still easily be a bed you’ll use for years to come. 

The last necessity for the bedroom is a nightstand, or two (depending on how much space you have). Whether you want an open table or one with more storage, it’s an important part of the function of the room. Wackerman says her bedroom only truly felt like home when she added nightstands; they completed the look and meant she could finally set her book and other nighttime essentials down without getting up. 

Nightstands can add personality to your space, too, whether that’s because of the color and shape of the table itself or what you decide to display on it. Finding a unique, vintage table at an antique store could make for a fun focal point of the bedroom, but you might also opt for a simple set that blends into the room and lets the bed, from your duvet to your throw pillows, really shine. 

Another big-ticket item to tackle is a sofa or couch for your living space. No matter what size your apartment is — a studio, a one-bedroom, or bigger — a comfortable place to sit, other than a bed, is a must (if you have room for it). According to Saintilus, depending on your budget, it is well worth it to invest in a high-quality couch. “Get the good sofa, because you’re going to have it for a long time,” she says, noting that you can find beautiful, affordable options at retailers like IKEA and Wayfair. 

Auffrey also recommends taking a trip to local vintage shops or browsing secondhand retailers online to find really nice sofas at lower price points and to consider your lifestyle before committing. If you, for instance, have a pet who loves to scratch things, you may want to consider buying a microfiber or velvet couch over a tweed or linen one that would easily show claw marks. 

If you’re inheriting a hand-me-down sofa, Wackerman’s advice is to look into sofa covers. IKEA and Amazon have inexpensive options, and Bemz has a wide range of colorful options for a bigger budget. Sofa covers also let you test out a color or fabric on your couch so you know what looks good and what you like when you’re ready to invest in your dream sofa.

It’s easy to overlook a coffee table when you’re spending money on bigger pieces like beds and sofas, but they add so much function to your living space. Looking to set down your drink while watching a movie? Need a place to work on a jigsaw puzzle? You’re going to need a coffee table. 

Secondhand retail sites like Facebook Marketplace are great places to find basic tables and statement pieces. A coffee table is also the perfect place to display your personality with knickknacks and books. 

Among all these investment pieces you’ll use for years, an extra perk about a coffee table is that it’s one of the easiest to move from place to place. Not to mention, you can use a coffee table in so many ways and in different rooms throughout its life. 

You probably don’t want your TV sitting on the floor, but mounting a TV to the wall in a rental can be very stressful.  Thankfully, many different pieces of furniture can serve as a TV stand — a narrow table, an entertainment center, or a console table, for example. 

According to Saintilus, you don’t need to spend a ton of money on a TV stand. Inexpensive yet quality pieces are not hard to come across, whether you’re buying new or shopping from a vintage or secondhand store. 

If you have the space for it, a desk is a useful piece of furniture to have, even if you don’t work from home. Whether it serves mostly as storage for things like journals and office supplies or as an actual workstation, a desk can be really valuable. 

You can find these anywhere, but it’s important to evaluate your needs before committing. Do you need more storage? Find a desk with drawers. Need it to fit in a compact space? A corner desk might work best. If you can fit it in your bedroom, it can also double as a vanity.

“Table” is a flexible word here. Depending on the amount of space you have in your apartment, investing in a full dining room set might not be smart. “If you’re in a studio, get a standing TV dinner tray,” Saintilus says, “so you have somewhere to set your food while you eat.” 

If you have square footage for a table but don’t have a proper dining room, don’t worry; Saintilus simply suggests putting it in its own intentional space. “If a space has no function, it becomes a dumping ground,” she says, which isn’t what you want when you’re sitting down to eat.

According to Wackerman, a small dining table will work perfectly fine for most people, and can still be a piece you’ll use for years to come. If you’re an avid host, though, a larger table might be worth looking into. You can find plenty of options in secondhand markets, too, including Facebook Marketplace. Make sure you take stock of where you want to put a table and chairs to understand what size you need and what shape (e.g., round, square, rectangle) will work best for your space.

One of the often forgotten but most useful furniture items in an apartment is an entryway table or a shelving unit near the entrance to the home. “Somewhere to put your stuff down is important,” Auffrey says. Some kind of table is perfect for avoiding chaos right when you walk in the door. Adding a bowl or a hook for your keys and a mirror on the wall makes it into its own functional space.