Have you seen the adverts for ‘modern’ furniture – styled on items from yesteryear?
As a Senior Move Manager, we see a lot of actual retro furniture of original design and solidly built in the 50’s, 60’s or 70’s. Furniture which has had history, survived numerous moves, 30-40 years wear and tear, and absorbed love and lots of memories.
Unlike today’s flat packed, cold feeling furniture – which falls apart after one house move!
Gone are the days of handing over ‘heirlooms’ to start a new home.
It doesn’t seem to fit into the minimal lifestyles/colour schemes. Nowadays we would rather buy a ‘retro’ looking piece, made in cheap throw-away materials, that collapse, chip and break with ease, and are so easily discarded via the verge within a couple of years (if lucky)! This type of furniture certainly wasn’t built to last, because it fuels our consumer throw-away society. So, do we truly get our money’s worth?
Where it’s cheaper to buy new, and ‘fixing things’ is a dirty word (or an expensive option) thanks to some ‘Made in’ Countries.
Recently, our clients have had some beautiful solid furniture pieces, that we were selling on their behalf. A sideboard, a very unusual and cute dining table that folded in on itself to be half the size – and who do you think brought them?
Middle to older age people!
Not only because they loved the look and feel, but the warmth it offered; and they saw the importance of buying solid made furniture that would last another 20-30 years, with some TLC. They wanted to own some furniture with history and we could provide them that, each having their own story to tell.
So, will our Great Great Great Grandchildren look back at our present and see furniture that we used – probably not!
Because craftsmen have now turned into machines, churning out hundreds of products with a push of a computer to cut the pattern. The life of furniture begins as a cold drawing, never to be touched by human hands – until the pieces are scantily glued together with a pea size bit of adhesive – or we put them together ourselves!
There is no bevelling, blind mortise and tenon joints or sanding down by hand with the grain – allowing the creator to feel the warmth and solidness of the wood.
Before you buy your next piece of furniture – make sure to look at the antique shops, op shops, Gumtree and Marketplace – because you’ll be buying history and a great piece of furniture that is actually retro!
