1 Period piece

It is hard to find a better heirloom than a piece of Georgian mahogany. “You can't go wrong with something practical,” says Charlie Thomas, head of furniture at Bonhams. “At the moment Georgian furniture is particularly good value.” A dining room table for 12 costs £2,000 to £3,000, a wingback chair £1,500 and a chest of drawers between £500 and £700.

2 A better sort of junk

You can find even cheaper quality furniture in small antiques dealers and “junk” shops. Older furniture that has stood the test of time is also often better made. A good Edwardian or pre-1950s chest of drawers, for example, can cost well under £400. The drawers are often deeper than a cheap modern version. If the wood is not good enough to sand down you can paint it. And you can completely change the appearance by adding colourful knobs, such as the Pumpkin glass ones from Graham and Green (£3.95 each, grahamandgreen.co.uk ).

3 Make do and mend...

Mending old furniture can be cheaper and more rewarding than buying new. “An heirloom lies in the eyes of the beholder,” says Richard Edwards, a furniture restorer in Kent. “People like the things they grew up with and that they inherited from their family.” Covering an old chair with bold modern fabric can look strikingly contemporary (richardedwardsupholstery.co.uk ).

4 ...get it made...

A bespoke piece of furniture will be gratefully received by future generations and be well worth the money you spend on it. But stick with simple designs that will hold their value in the future and invest in something useful. Dining room tables made by Christian Blake in Bedfordshire (blakesfurniture.co.uk) start at about £1,550 for a 4ft round table in American white oak. A rectangular 12-seater in walnut would cost about £5,000.

5...or recycle

Give the out-of-town DIY warehouses a miss and fill your home with reclaimed fixtures and fittings. Thanks to the property boom over the past decade you can find almost anything in salvage form as homeowners and property developers alike ripped out period doors, fireplaces and ironwork in the name of home improvement. Salvo (salvo.co.uk) is also a good way to source recycled building materials.

6 Modern classics rock

The iconic Arne Jacobsen Egg chair created for a Copenhagen hotel is one of the most copied pieces of 20th-century design. Even McDonald's refurbished its restaurants using reproduction Egg chairs in 2006. Originals can cost more than £30,000 but you can find “Jacobsen-inspired” chairs on eBay for about £200; be aware that some reproductions are better than others.

7 A mirror on our age

Real antique mirrors have thick glass and are mercury-backed, which makes them look steely grey compared with bright contemporary ones. Expect to pay between £200 and £1,000 for a Victorian overmantle, depending on size and condition. Shaw Select Furniture in South London is selling late Victorian and French hallway mirrors between £300 and £950 (shawselectfurniture.co.uk).

8 The new Brit Art

Who would have thought that Charles Saatchi, the great patron of Brit Art, would be buying Chinese? But tastes change with fashion, so if you are buying for posterity make sure that you avoid the hype. Research the market, take independent advice, especially on value, check the provenance of the painting and verify the seller. Or you can just take a punt and buy what you like from one of the art school degree shows. Who knows - you may find the next Damien Hirst or Tracey Emin (degreeshow.com ).

9 Photo shop

Commission a photographer to take pictures of something you like or buy from a known name. Brahm, interior designer to the rich, believes that limited-edition photography will appreciate and become future heirlooms, so commissioned a series of images of London by Matthew Pillsbury to capture what he thought made the capital special (matthewpillsbury. com ). If you have any artistic flair, frame your own. They will be all the more special to your heirs.

10 It's not all austerity

Chandeliers have made a comeback and are available in almost every shape, size and price. If you are buying for posterity make sure it is something that will hold its value. Swarovski crystal chandeliers make good contemporary pieces; for something more traditional try authentic Murano glass, which continues to be popular.

Case study: the castle that runs in the family

Heirlooms come in many shapes and sizes, but perhaps the most treasured of them all is the family home. The Berkeley family have managed to keep hold of theirs for more than 850 years. Berkeley Castle, Gloucestershire, is the oldest building in the country to be inhabited by the same family who built it - with only a few forced evictions over the centuries.

Charles Berkeley, 39, inherited the castle last Christmas and is the 25th generation to call it home. He gives guided tours through parts of the castle, recounting stories of his childhood as well as showing off such family heirlooms as a cabin chest belonging to Francis Drake, Queen Elizabeth I's bedspread and a banner that the 4th Earl of Berkeley took to Culloden.

The keep was completed in 1153 to keep out the Welsh; the castle has all the trappings, including arrow slits, murder holes, enormous barred doors and worn stones where sentries stood guard. Since its heyday the estate has shrunk to 6,000 acres, including a medieval deer park, 18 tenant farms, a stretch of the River Severn and the castle itself. Some sections of the property are in disrepair but about half the castle is still open to the public.

It's well worth a visit, not least because it contains the dungeon where Edward II was most gruesomely murdered in 1327.

berkeley-castle.com

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