Furniture in Germany: Discount Stores, IKEA, and Buying a Kitchen

Setting up a home in Germany means navigating an unfamiliar retail landscape. The mainstream furniture chains rarely sit in city centres; they operate as suburban superstores or digital retailers where transport and delivery fees quickly add up. Whether you are outfitting a single room or facing the common German task of buying an entire fitted kitchen from scratch, knowing where to source your furniture, and how to get it through the door, saves both time and money.

Budget stores

IKEA is budget to lower mid-range. People go for flat-pack storage such as Pax and Billy. Kitchens use the Metod system, which you can plan online or at a desk in the store. Delivery to the room depends on the order value, roughly €89 to €159, and a cheaper drop at the curb exists for smaller loads. Unused items often have a long return window, but collecting bulky goods can cost around €75.

Poco and Roller are the strict budget shops: cheap furniture, laminate, carpets, and basic household goods. The look is often plain or traditional. Their kitchens are ready-made rows you can sometimes take the same day. One appliance may have a low local delivery fee, but a full furniture order is priced by what is in the basket, and that can reach the low hundreds of euros.

Mid-market warehouse stores

Möbel Höffner has large traditional showrooms, with solid wood, European brands, and home textiles. The kitchen studio orders from German makers such as Nobilia or Nolte, then delivers and installs. Möbel Kraft belongs to the same group, but only a few Kraft stores are left, so Höffner is the name you will see across the country.

XXXLutz is mid to upper mid-range: huge stores, many brands, frequent sales, and the oversized red chairs outside. Mömax is the trendier sister brand, budget to mid-range, with more ready-made furniture than flat-pack. Both plan custom kitchens, often with Miele or Bosch appliances, and both offer delivery and installation. Non-parcel delivery at XXXLutz is often a flat €59.99.

Most of these stores sit in retail parks at the edge of the city. Shops in the centre are usually smaller places for decor.

Online and home-delivery furniture stores

Buying a whole flat’s worth of furniture from an edge-of-town warehouse is hard without a car. A classic van hire can mean a large card deposit and awkward pickup times. A foreign driving licence is often still valid for about six months after you register your address, but check the rental company’s rules before you book. Van-sharing apps near cities and IKEA stores can cover a one-day haul. Ordering online skips the van and brings the boxes to your building.

Where to order online

• Otto (otto.de). Germany’s largest home-grown online shop after Amazon, from cheap flat-pack to mid-range solid wood. Bulky pieces often arrive with two people carrying them into the room you choose, for a flat fee around €39.95. Many lines can be returned free within 30 days.
• Amazon (amazon.de). Huge catalog and fast delivery on many smaller pieces. For sofas and wardrobes, check whether Amazon or a third-party seller ships the item, and what return freight costs.
• Check24 (check24.de). Comparison site that also sells furniture and home goods. Useful for price checks; delivery and returns still depend on the seller behind the listing.
• Home24 (home24.de). An online furniture shop in the XXXLutz group, mostly modern and Scandinavian pieces at mid-market prices. Delivery fees depend on your postcode and the supplier. Own-brand goods often still have 30 days to return, with free pickup.
• OK Living (ok-living.de). Budget online furniture and kitchen pieces under its own brands, aimed at cheap starter setups.
• hood.de. German marketplace for private and small-seller listings, closer to classifieds than a chain store. Inspect photos, seller ratings, and pickup or shipping terms carefully.
• IKEA online (ikea.de). The full range, with the same room-delivery fees as the store. One big order is usually cheaper than several small deliveries.
• Mömax online (moemax.de). Ready-to-use furniture in a similar look to IKEA, from budget to mid-range. Delivery to the room is often about €59 to €79, depending on the order value.

What to check before you order

• Your name on the doorbell. Couriers rarely phone you. If your name is not on the intercom and the mailbox, they often take the parcel back as undeliverable. After you move in, tape your name to the doorbell, or address the parcel care of the main tenant if that is how the building works.
• A drop at the curb. Cheap delivery often stops at the street. On a high floor in an old walk-up with no lift, book delivery into the room. That usually means two people carry it up.
• Narrow stairs. Old stairwells have tight turns. Check the box size, not only the finished furniture, because drivers can refuse a carton that will not fit.
• Returns, and custom kitchens. Ordinary online goods usually have at least 14 days to cancel, and many shops give longer. Sending a wardrobe or mattress back is still awkward, and bulky pickup often costs extra. Ready-made cabinets keep that cancellation right. A kitchen built to your room usually does not. Lamps, textiles, and desks are fine to buy online. Sofas and kitchen layouts are easier to judge in a shop.

Which furniture store fits you

The shops are not doing the same job. The table below shows price, kitchens, and delivery. On a phone, swipe right to see more columns.

IKEA or a full-service store

IKEA is usually cheaper on the tag, and the tag is the price. You do more of the carrying and building, or you pay IKEA’s kitchen installers separately. XXXLutz often starts higher, then advertises 20% to 50% off. In return you get German brands, custom sizes, and someone who delivers and fits the kitchen.

A tight budget and no car points to IKEA or Otto. A long stay, some savings, and a kitchen you do not want to build yourself points to XXXLutz or Höffner, ideally during a sale.

Buying a kitchen for an empty flat

In Germany, flats are often rented without a fitted kitchen. You may get the room and the water and power points, but no fridge, stove, or cabinets. Buying and installing one is then your job. If you are still choosing a flat, Finding an Apartment in Germany walks through kitchen-included versus empty.

On listings, EBK (Einbauküche) means a fitted kitchen is already in the flat. Empty kitchens say ohne EBK, Küche leer, or never mention a kitchen at all. If the kitchen is included, the landlord normally keeps those appliances working.

A normal modular kitchen that uses the existing water taps and wall sockets does not need the landlord’s permission. You do need approval if you change the building: an extractor drilled through an outer wall, pipes or wiring moved, or tiles cut so the wall is damaged. When you leave, you can usually take a kitchen you paid for, or sell it to the next tenant. If nobody wants it, you take it out and leave the room roughly as you found it. A landlord who wants to keep it has to pay you a fair amount. They cannot just keep it.

If you buy the outgoing tenant’s kitchen, pay something close to what it is still worth. A price that is obviously far too high can be challenged, and a fee that is only for handing over the flat is not allowed. Measure twice, and check where the water, power, and extractor are, because delivery on heavy pieces can wipe out a low price.

Kitchen studios plan cabinets around the connections that are already there. They do not rewire your fuse box. Heavy appliances often need their own circuits, and many electric hobs need a special cooktop feed, not a normal plug. If that wiring is missing, call an electrician before you order cabinets.

Budget or DIY. IKEA or Poco, for modular kits or ready-made rows. You order, move, and build it, or you hire someone. That suits students, short stays, and simple kitchens. IKEA’s ordinary furniture assembly covers wardrobes and shelves, not kitchen plumbing or cooktop hookups. Kitchen installation is a separate IKEA service, priced by the length of cabinets plus a fee for each built-in appliance.

Full-service custom. Höffner, XXXLutz, or a local kitchen studio. They plan it in the shop and build it to the room. Factory time is often 6 to 12 weeks, and sometimes longer once an installer is free. Delivery and hookup are usually on the quote. A kitchen made to your measurements usually cannot be cancelled the way a normal online order can, so read the cancellation fee before you pay a deposit.

Buying curtains

German rentals do not come with curtains or blinds. On a ground floor, or with another building close by, privacy is a day-one job.

Before you buy fabric, look at the ceiling and the window. Most rooms use one of these:

• Ceiling tracks. Common in newer flats. A plastic or aluminium rail runs on the ceiling. Curtains hang from small gliders that click into the track, not from rings on a pole.
• Curtain poles. Fixed into the wall above the window. If brackets are already there, you only need a matching pole. If not, you drill into brick or concrete with wall plugs. Leases usually ban drilling into plastic or aluminium window frames themselves.
• Clamp-on blinds (Klemmfix). For glass privacy without screws, clamp-on pleated blinds hook onto the opening sash. No drill, no sticky residue on the frame.

Ready-made curtains

Packaged panels suit modern flats with ceiling heights around 2.40 m to 2.55 m. Common widths are 135 cm to 145 cm, and lengths are usually 245 cm or 250 cm. IKEA also stocks some designs at 300 cm.

Expect about €15 to €60 a pair for basic sheers, linen-look drapes, or blackout panels. Most packs include iron-on hemming tape: measure from the track or pole to the floor, fold the extra at the bottom, and press the tape with a steam iron. IKEA, JYSK, Poco, Otto, and Amazon all sell ready-made options.

Custom curtains

Older buildings often have ceilings from about 3.0 m to 3.80 m. A standard 245 cm panel will hang far short of the floor, so you need fabric by the metre and a sewing service, or a specialist who measures and makes the panels.

You measure floor to ceiling and the track width, choose fabric and heading (gliders, eyelets, or wave pleats), and pay a workshop fee on top of the cloth. Fabric plus sewing often lands around €80 to €250 per window, depending on weight, lining, and blackout. Local workshops commonly take 2 to 4 weeks.

Where to buy curtains and hardware

• TTM / TTL and Hammer. Decorating chains with fabric by the metre, ready-made panels, tracks, and an in-house sewing counter. Some offer a home measuring visit for awkward windows. TTM and TTL are common in central and southern Germany; Hammer is more nationwide.
• TEDOX. The cheap brick-and-mortar option for fabric, plain panels, basic rods, and hemming tape, plus a low-cost sewing service.
• IKEA, JYSK, and Poco. Best for standard sizes and same-day stock. JYSK and IKEA are the easiest places to find clamp-on blinds in person.
• Bauhaus, Hornbach, and Obi. Hardware stores for tracks cut to length, wall plugs, replacement gliders, and tools, not for the nicest fabric selection.

Second-hand furniture

Kleinanzeigen and local Facebook groups are how a lot of people furnish the first month, and used kitchens turn up there if you can move them. Some IKEA stores also resell returned furniture with a short warranty. Keep a kitchen takeover close to what the units are still worth, and do not pay just to secure the flat.

If your budget is thin, free furniture is worth a look. Kleinanzeigen lists most giveaways under zu verschenken, and that category has far more listings than Freecycle, Trash Nothing, or Facebook. Freecycle and Trash Nothing are volunteer groups in many cities, while Facebook is quicker when someone needs a large piece collected the same day. On bulky-waste collection days (Sperrmüll), people also leave usable furniture on the curb. yeybu gathers free listings from several of these places into one search, so you don’t have to follow each site.

Do not order a custom kitchen before the lease is signed, and get a delivery quote before you commit to a cheap sofa. On the listing, EBK means the kitchen is already there.

Monthly housing costs are covered in Cost of Living in Germany.

Common questions

Do German flats come with a kitchen?

Often no. Listings say ohne EBK or Küche leer when there is no fitted kitchen. EBK means one is already there, and the landlord normally keeps those appliances working. If the kitchen is empty, buying and installing one is your job.

Do I need the landlord’s permission to install a kitchen in Germany?

A normal modular kitchen that uses the existing water taps and wall sockets does not. You need approval if you drill an extractor through an outer wall, move pipes or wiring, or cut tiles. When you leave, you can usually take a kitchen you paid for, or sell it to the next tenant.

How much does furniture delivery cost in Germany?

IKEA room delivery is roughly €89 to €159, depending on the order value. A cheaper drop at the curb exists for smaller loads. Otto often carries bulky pieces into the room for about €39.95. XXXLutz large-item delivery is often a flat €59.99.

Can I return a custom kitchen in Germany?

A kitchen built to your room usually cannot be cancelled the way a normal online order can. Ready-made cabinets still have a cancellation right. Factory time for a custom kitchen is often 6 to 12 weeks. Read the cancellation fee before you pay a deposit.

Useful links

• IKEA Germany
• Otto
• Home24
• Make it in Germany: Housing