Ikea, Homebase, Argos and Furniture Village have filled our generation’s want for inexpensive, flat pack furniture that will change a living room into the spread of a style mag in a single day. But then, 6 years on, the style will be different and suddenly Sally isn’t happy with her Moroccan living room any longer suddenly she craves contemporary chic. Now what happens? She throws the stuff out and gets new stuff – now her old coffee table is sitting on a massive pile of rubble on a refuse mountain – what a waste. None of the furniture means anything to Sally and her boyfriend, it was brought from a shed and probably delivered by a spotty teen at an ackward time. The only contact the couple have had with it is the shouting and explitives that went on whilst they put it up. Do you understand where I’m going here? Is the cycle of buying new, chucking out, getting new, chucking out a good one? Shouldn’t we feel some sort of connection with the things that make up our home? It is the chair where you’ll help your one year old daughter open her presents on that special Christmas, or the kitchen table top where she will talk to you about what she learnt at school, & the pedestal dining table where you will eat her graduation meal. A home is so much more than a Morocan table, it shouldn’t be a collection of poor quality ply wood. It should be about building memories not about purchasing the latest style.
That does not mean you should spend your weekends in antique markets & car boot sales, although it’s possible to pick out some quality things and it is always a fun day out! All I’m urging you to do is ditch the throw away culture and buy quality pieces that you know will last. If you treat it properley it will last half a century, easily. That’s at least 6 sets for most UK home owner so you can definitely afford to spend a little more and purchase quality materials. You don’t have to forget style either. 1st off purchase classic pieces that won’t go in and out of fashion, you can change the entire look of a place just by painting the walls or adding extra features. You can even be creative with your furniture and update it on you own using some simple restoration approaches. Wood stain is the simplest one to master and it can utterley transform the piece. You can give your table top a stunning antique finish or lighten your coffee table to fit in with a French theme. It is fun, cheap and you connect with your home. Just make sure that when you’re staining the table bases or stool bases you catch the drips! It may sound funny but really working with the wood and making it personal will help you to get an emotional connection with it. This will also mean you’ll be less likely to just chuck it away because it will have sentimental value.
