A lovely old painting prompts the question: when did furniture stopped being something we expected to live with for years?
There is a danger, when you spend too long thinking about sofas, that you start seeing them everywhere… In paintings, for example.
Yes, it turns out that old portraits and interior scenes are absolutely stuffed full of sofas, chairs and chaises on which people are doing people things… reading, lounging, sulking, flirting, being bored, falling asleep and so on.
What’s more, when you become mildly obsessed with real furniture, you find yourself thinking not only about what it looks like, but how it is made, what it is made from, and how long it is expected to last.
This painting, Quiet by William W. Nicol (1860), is a good example. It’s a lovely little domestic Victorian scene: a woman sits on a sofa with a book in her hand while a child snuggles against her. There are patterned cushions, heavy curtains, Arts & Crafts-ish wallpaper and flowers in the window.
And, of course, the sofa, without which this little instance of domestic harmony couldn’t really happen.
Quiet (1860) by William W. Nicol. York Art Gallery. Public domain
So one way of looking at paintings like this is that the furniture is much more important than just a background detail....The sofa is an essential part of the emotional life of the family and its relationships.
Perhaps that’s why people get so attached to their best pieces of furniture: the ones they’ve inherited, repaired, re-covered, lived with for years, or hope one day to hand down.
At Schplendid, we’ve become seriously interested in that older ‘seriousness’ of furniture. That is, in the idea that the hidden bits mattered as much as the visible ones: solid frames, real springs, natural stuffing, good fabric and skilled upholstery. It’s furniture made from the inside out, and designed to be as good as possible and last as long as possible.
And once you start thinking about that, modern sofas can look a little strange. Beautiful on the surface, perhaps, but underneath often full of foam, fibre and cheap ingredients, designed more for the showroom than for years of actual living.
So yes, we rather love the idea of bringing back real furniture.
Not for nostalgic purposes, or because the Victorians did everything better (though, in this particular department, they often had a point) but because really good home furniture represents something special and meaningful about people, families, rooms, memories and the connection between generations.
We think beautiful, well-made things that last forever should be available to as many people as possible.
When Furniture Had a Future
A lovely old painting prompts the question: when did furniture stopped being something we expected to live with for years?
There is a danger, when you spend too long thinking about sofas, that you start seeing them everywhere… In paintings, for example.
Yes, it turns out that old portraits and interior scenes are absolutely stuffed full of sofas, chairs and chaises on which people are doing people things… reading, lounging, sulking, flirting, being bored, falling asleep and so on.
What’s more, when you become mildly obsessed with real furniture, you find yourself thinking not only about what it looks like, but how it is made, what it is made from, and how long it is expected to last.
This painting, Quiet by William W. Nicol (1860), is a good example. It’s a lovely little domestic Victorian scene: a woman sits on a sofa with a book in her hand while a child snuggles against her. There are patterned cushions, heavy curtains, Arts & Crafts-ish wallpaper and flowers in the window.
And, of course, the sofa, without which this little instance of domestic harmony couldn’t really happen.
So one way of looking at paintings like this is that the furniture is much more important than just a background detail....The sofa is an essential part of the emotional life of the family and its relationships.
Perhaps that’s why people get so attached to their best pieces of furniture: the ones they’ve inherited, repaired, re-covered, lived with for years, or hope one day to hand down.
At Schplendid, we’ve become seriously interested in that older ‘seriousness’ of furniture. That is, in the idea that the hidden bits mattered as much as the visible ones: solid frames, real springs, natural stuffing, good fabric and skilled upholstery. It’s furniture made from the inside out, and designed to be as good as possible and last as long as possible.
And once you start thinking about that, modern sofas can look a little strange. Beautiful on the surface, perhaps, but underneath often full of foam, fibre and cheap ingredients, designed more for the showroom than for years of actual living.
So yes, we rather love the idea of bringing back real furniture.
Not for nostalgic purposes, or because the Victorians did everything better (though, in this particular department, they often had a point) but because really good home furniture represents something special and meaningful about people, families, rooms, memories and the connection between generations.
We think beautiful, well-made things that last forever should be available to as many people as possible.
That’s really what Schplendid is all about.