furnishing a place for the first time, looking for advice and suggestions

Shortly moving into a new flat and I am having to plan furnishing etc. for the first time so I would really like advice on a few things. Its half of a pretty standard Edwardian semi-detached, three bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom living room. It's being redecorated because it is in a pretty shabby state at the moment, but it will just be the basics - repairing, repainting etc. Nothing exciting. -All the rooms are just going pretty bland yellow-white/cream colours for the moment and it is carpeted throughout in cream, I can't be bothered with replacing that for now. Pretty bland. - I have a selection of victorian/edwardian furniture sitting in a storage unit, I am not exactly sure what, but it will certainly provide a fair chunk of the furnishings, going to look into it soon. There will not be enough for it to do everything, I will need to buy new furniture as well and I don't have huge quantities of money to do it with. - I have various bits of ethnic tat, rugs, throws and the like picked up here and there that ideally will go in the place. - I also would like my flat not to be too completely old persony, so I would quite like some of the new furniture to be more modern, also I can't afford to fill all the gaps in the furniture I have with more antiques, so I don't really have a choice anyway. So how do I combine the bland flat with oldish and modern furniture and my entho-tat in a way that doesn't look like ass? I am looking for any tips, any suggestions of reading materials, suggestions of individual bits of furniture (available in the UK preferably), really any experience people can share on furnishing and decorating a new place. Sorry that was so long.

Seriously no suggestions? Some random woman I met managed to at least recommend me a book.

Anyway my sister who also owns part of it has apparently told the decorator to paint the living room like a homosecksual love den, so I have my hands fill dealing with that now.

In a perfect world I would get rid of it, but its ok looking and given the poor level of soundproofing in old houses and the fact I want to throw parties and have people over late without pissing off whoever lives downstairs, it has to stay (or proper soundproofing put under the floor, but that is not happening).

Daahrrling, peter Jones is just not what it used to be, really can't be relied upon. I will be heading furniture auction place to get rid of some of the more hideous pieces I have been left with, and will be on the look out for good stuff there to buy myself. I hadn't thought of craigslit, I will definitely check it out and see what markets I can find in the area. The trouble with most markets in London in my experience is they either sell crap or they are just as pricey as shops, in fact you may pay more for the "genuine market experience" but I will look into them.

No, your advice was not useless. I am doing most of the flat in fairly pale colours and off white anyway, but all comment is welcome, I know next to nothing and am open to all advice, anecdotes or musings even vaguely related to the topic.

I wish I could fix some of the house up myself, but I am pretty shit at making things. I might replace the cabinet doors in the kitchen myself. Fairly serious work is needed so I have called in the pros, I might as well get them to do pretty much all of it.

Spent a little time doing that myself, anything is better than revising. Sadly the sex postings on craigslist in areas I have lived in have never been very exciting. It is not that I would want to follow one up, but it does make the whole thing more exciting if it might be someone you know or see in the supermarket. On a slight aside, thank you for giving the educational background of the individual in the anecdote, not enough people do and it is nice to know you are hearing stories about your peers so you know the content is really relevant. Ideally one would also provide a short genealogy, or just a reference to where they can be found in Burke's or Debrett's, so you can be really sure they are the right sort.