Most Dhaka buyers budget carefully for the flat and barely at all for what goes inside it. The down payment is planned to the taka. The furnishing is left to "we will manage". Then the handover comes, and the managing starts with a bed, a fridge, a gas cylinder, curtains for six windows, and a plumber, all in the same week.
Furnishing a standard 1,000 to 1,200 square foot Dhaka flat from empty to liveable usually runs into several lakhs. The exact figure depends on taste, but the shape of the spending is the same for almost everyone. It helps to see it room by room, before the money starts moving.
The bedroom takes the first big share
A bedroom needs a bed, a mattress, a wardrobe, and bedding, and these four items set the tone for the whole budget. A decent double bed with a mattress, bought from a Dhaka furniture market such as Panthapath or Elephant Road, typically costs in the range of Tk 50,000 to Tk 1,50,000 depending on wood and finish. A wardrobe adds roughly Tk 30,000 to Tk 80,000. Bedding, pillows and a bedside table are smaller lines, but they still add up to Tk 10,000 to Tk 20,000.
Two bedrooms double most of this. Families moving from a rented flat often carry one set of bedroom furniture with them, which cuts the bill sharply. If you are starting from scratch, budget the bedrooms first, because they are the largest single block and the least negotiable. You can eat on the floor for a week. Sleeping on the floor gets old on the second night.
The kitchen is where small items ambush the budget
A kitchen looks cheap until you list it. A refrigerator is the anchor, typically Tk 45,000 to Tk 90,000 for a family-size model. A gas stove, whether piped or cylinder, runs Tk 8,000 to Tk 25,000. Then come the items nobody budgets: pots, pans, plates, glasses, knives, a rice cooker, a blender, storage jars, a water filter. Bought together, these easily reach Tk 25,000 to Tk 50,000.
The trick is to buy the kitchen in two passes. Pass one is what you need to cook the first meal: stove, one set of pots, plates, glasses, and the fridge. Pass two is everything else, bought over the first month as you learn what the kitchen actually lacks. Families who buy the whole kitchen in one trip to New Market usually come home with three things they never use.
The living room can wait, and should
The living room is where furnishing budgets go to die. A sofa set in Dhaka typically costs Tk 60,000 to Tk 2,00,000, a dining table with six chairs Tk 35,000 to Tk 90,000, a television Tk 40,000 to Tk 1,00,000, and curtains for a full flat Tk 15,000 to Tk 40,000. Added together, the living room can cost more than both bedrooms.
This is the room to phase. A new flat does not need a full sofa set on day one. A simple seating arrangement, a dining table, and curtains for the bedrooms will carry a family through the first month. Curtains matter more than most buyers think: a Dhaka flat without curtains is a flat where the neighbours watch dinner. Buy bedroom curtains first, living room curtains second, and the big sofa when the budget has recovered.
The lines everyone forgets
Every furnishing budget has a tail of small items that together become a large one. Light fittings and fans if the developer did not provide them, mosquito nets for the windows, a shoe rack, a washing machine at Tk 35,000 to Tk 70,000, an iron, a vacuum cleaner, cleaning supplies, locks changed on the day of moving in. A realistic allowance for this tail is Tk 30,000 to Tk 60,000, and it is the line most often missing from the plan.
There is also the cost of moving itself: truck, labour, and the day of leave from work. And the first month brings its own bills: the service charge, the gas cylinder deposit, the internet installation.
A simple way to hold the budget together
Take the total you can spend, divide it into three envelopes, and spend them in order. Envelope one, about half the money, covers beds, fridge, stove and the kitchen basics. Envelope two, about a third, covers the dining table, curtains, washing machine and the forgotten tail. Envelope three stays untouched for the first month, and pays for the sofa, the television and the pieces you discover you actually need.
Buy the furniture markets first and the showrooms second. Panthapath, Elephant Road and the local furniture shops near your building will give you a working flat for far less than a branded showroom, and the difference pays for the curtains. Check the wood, sit on the sofa, open the wardrobe doors twice. A furnishing budget is not a race, and the flat will still be there next month. The families who furnish slowly, room by room, end up with homes that fit them. The ones who buy everything in a weekend end up with a showroom they have to live in.
