How to Furnish a Build to Rent Apartment

Got the keys? Excellent. Now comes the fun bit: deciding what your new place is going to look like.

Furnishing a Build to Rent apartment gives you plenty of scope to make your home your own. You can pick furniture around the way you live, add the things you’ve collected over the years and finally find a home for that lamp you bought without measuring the space first.

If you’re starting with an unfurnished or part-furnished apartment, a little planning will go a long way. Here’s how to furnish a Build to Rent apartment without buying half of IKEA before you’ve even worked out where the sofa should go.

What is a Build to Rent apartment?

Build to Rent, often shortened to BTR, refers to homes that have been built specifically for renters and are professionally managed.

Developments will often include shared amenities alongside the apartments themselves, giving residents extra spaces to use beyond their front door. Depending on where you live, you might have access to co-working areas, lounges, gyms, gardens and spaces for getting together with neighbours.

Your apartment is still your own home, though. And how you furnish it can have a big impact on how it works for you day to day.

Furnished, Part-furnished or Unfurnished?

Before thinking about sofas, sideboards and suspiciously large houseplants, check what’s already included in your apartment.

A furnished apartment will usually come with the main pieces you need, such as a bed, sofa, dining furniture and storage. You’ll mainly be adding your own belongings and decorative touches.

A part-furnished apartment gives you a head start while leaving room to bring in furniture of your own. It can be a handy middle ground if you already own a few pieces or want greater control over the finished space.

An unfurnished apartment gives you the most freedom. You can choose the furniture, work out the layout and build the room around your own taste and routine.

At Eyewitness in Sheffield, you can explore part-furnished apartments if you’d like some of the essentials already sorted, alongside unfurnished apartments if you fancy starting with a blank canvas.

1. Get the Measurements Before You Get the Furniture

We know. Measuring isn’t the exciting part. But, it’s way more exciting than discovering your dream sofa blocks half the doorway.

Measure each room before ordering larger furniture and make a note of doors, windows, radiators and plug sockets. It’s also worth measuring hallways, lifts and door frames so you know your new furniture can actually make it into the apartment.

Once you know what you’re working with, you can choose pieces that suit the proportions of the room rather than relying on guesswork.

Masking tape can help here too. Mark the dimensions of a sofa, table or bed on the floor and live with the outline for a bit. You’ll quickly see how much room it leaves for moving around.

2. Start With the Furniture You’ll Use Every Day

You don’t need to furnish the entire apartment in one weekend.

Start with the pieces that will make the biggest difference to everyday life. Your bed and mattress will probably be high on the list, followed by somewhere comfortable to sit, a table or desk if you need one and enough storage to stop everything living in cardboard boxes.

Once the essentials are in, you can see how you actually use each room.

That empty corner might need an armchair. Or a desk. Or absolutely nothing. Give yourself time to find out.

3. Think About How You Actually Use Your Apartment

A good layout should suit your routine.

If you work at home regularly, giving your desk a proper spot can help separate work time from the rest of your day. If you have friends over often, you might want a dining table that can handle a few extra chairs. If Friday night generally means takeaway, telly and horizontal sofa time, you know where the furniture budget needs to go.

Think about what you do at home most often and give those activities the space they deserve.

There’s no prize for owning furniture you never use.

4. Choose Furniture That Earns Its Keep

Storage beds, extendable dining tables, nesting tables and ottomans can all do two jobs without filling the room with extra furniture.

Modular pieces can be particularly useful in a rental apartment. Shelving units, side tables and modular sofas can often move around easily if you fancy changing the layout later.

You don’t need every piece to transform into something else at the pull of a lever, but furniture with a bit of flexibility can help you get plenty out of your space.

5. Give Everything Somewhere To Live

Start by using the storage already built into your home, then fill any gaps with pieces that suit what you actually own. A sideboard could handle crockery and glassware. Baskets can take care of the bits that never seem to have an obvious home. Shelving can turn books, records and favourite objects into part of the room.

Think upwards too. Taller storage can make use of vertical space without taking over the floor.

And yes, the chair covered in clothes technically counts as storage. We still think you can do better.

6. Use Lighting To Change The Mood

The big light has its moment. It doesn’t need to have every moment.

Floor lamps, table lamps and smaller light sources can make different areas of your apartment work for different parts of the day. A lamp next to the sofa gives you somewhere cosier to read. A desk lamp makes working from home easier. Softer lighting in the bedroom can help the space wind down in the evening.

Lamps are also an easy way to bring colour, shape and personality into a room without making permanent changes.

7. Bring Your Personality Into The Room

Once the practical stuff is sorted, you can make the apartment unmistakably yours.

Rugs, cushions, bedding, artwork, books, photographs and plants can change a room quickly. They’re also easy to take with you later, so you can invest in pieces you genuinely like rather than decorating purely around one address.

You don’t need to follow whatever interior trend happens to be taking over your feed either. Pick things you’ll still want to look at once the algorithm has moved on.

8. Don’t Buy Everything At Once

An empty apartment can create a powerful urge to fill every available gap immediately.

Resist it.

Living in the space for a few weeks can tell you far more than a frantic furniture shop ever will. You might realise you need extra storage instead of another chair, or that the corner you’d earmarked for a bookcase gets the best light in the apartment and deserves a plant instead.

Furnishing gradually also gives you time to find pieces you genuinely want rather than settling because you need something there.

Your home doesn’t have to look finished by Sunday.

9. Check Your Rental Agreement Before Making Bigger Changes

Furniture, rugs, lamps and accessories give you loads of freedom, but bigger decorative changes may need permission.

Check your tenancy agreement before painting walls, drilling holes or installing anything permanent. If you’re unsure, ask your building team before getting the toolbox out.

There are plenty of renter-friendly ways to bring personality into a room without making permanent changes, so you can still put your stamp on the place.

10. Remember There’s A Whole Building Beyond Your Apartment

One of the handy things about Build to Rent living is that your apartment doesn’t necessarily have to accommodate every part of your life.

If your development has co-working areas, residents’ lounges, gardens or other shared spaces, use them. A shared workspace could mean you don’t need to squeeze a huge desk into your living room. Residents’ spaces give you somewhere else to meet friends or spend time outside your apartment. A gym in the building means you can probably reconsider that exercise bike destined to become a very expensive clothes horse.

Take a look at everything included in your development before deciding what your apartment needs.

Make your Build to Rent apartment yours

The best way to furnish a Build to Rent apartment is to start with the way you live and build the space around it.

Get the essentials sorted first. Measure before you order. Give yourself enough storage. Then add the furniture, artwork, lamps, plants and slightly unnecessary objects that make you happy to come home.

If Sheffield’s on your radar, take a look at our Sheffield apartments to rent. Our part-furnished apartments give you some of the essentials upfront, while our unfurnished apartments leave plenty of room to do your own thing.

Pick the setup that suits you, bring your stuff and make yourself at home.

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