This TikToker Decorated Her Whole Apartment With Rental Furniture, And You Won’t Believe the Results

Anyone who has moved at least once in their life knows that it’s stressful and expensive. According to Forbes, the average cost of hiring movers is $1,400, but if you’re going long distance, you could be shelling out as much as $5,700. Did we mention, that’s just to move the furniture? Toss in costs for the sofa you’re replacing, count your losses for the dining table you couldn’t sell on Facebook Marketplace, and everything starts to add up. Oh, and don’t forget that a pile of new furniture is waiting for you to build it when you get to your new place.

But, what if you could furnish your entire space at a fraction of the cost you would pay to move and buy new pieces? That’s what Los Angeles-based TikToker Sruthi Jayadevan did when she relocated from Texas, and the results feel like they’re straight of out of House Beautiful. Here’s how she did it with Fernish, a furniture rental company that Fast Company calls Rent the Runway for sofas.

According to Furnishr, an online interior design company, people typically spend between $5,000 (studio apartment) to $20,000 (three-bedroom apartment) on good-quality furniture for a new space. If you move every few years and like to try new styles, that adds up—fast. Or maybe you just need a couch or a dining table. Still, considering that the average price of a moderate-range sofa alone is between $1,500 and $3,000, and that’s enough to make you pause. It’s also just another hassle in the already stress-inducing process that is uprooting your life.

For Jayadevan, who moves annually and likes to experiment with different styles, rental furniture provides her with flexibility and convenience. In her previous apartment, she went for a dark, sleek vibe that saw more grey and black tones creating a modern look. This time around, she went for an organic, midcentury modern aesthetic. “I love how furniture rental allows me to be creative and flexible in setting up my spaces. It doesn’t feel like I’m stuck with certain pieces I don’t love, and I don’t have to worry if my tastes change over time.” Because let’s get honest: if you plunked down $3,000 for a couch, you probably wouldn’t be super inclined to part with it after 12 months, no matter how much you realized it really wasn’t for you.

As previously noted, you could be spending, on average, up to $20,000 to decorate an apartment with new furniture. In comparison, renting with a service like Fernish could be as little as $149/month (the company’s minimum order). Depending on the items you rent, $149 is around one to three pieces of furniture. That includes items such as Capri Sleeper Sofa ($1,999) for $84/month and Austin Extended Dining Table ($1,099) at $47/month.

According to Fernish’s chief marketing officer, Evelyn Krasnow, a lease usually lasts between 12 and 18 months. So, a year of renting the two pieces is $1,572—just a hair over half the cost of, say, buying one mid-tier couch at $3,000. When the lease is over, you can swap and try something new, no hassle to you. And if you loved it? The money you paid in rent goes towards the total price.

“My favorite thing about renting my furniture is that I get to live with such gorgeous and high-quality pieces rather than getting lower quality furniture just because I’m only using it for a little while,” Jayadevan says. “The high-quality and modern pieces allow me to have the best space even if I only rent it temporarily.”