Prehistoric Furniture

From the moment people learned to farm and live in permanent settlements furniture was manufactured. Some of our earliest known furniture comes from the stone age and is dated as far back as 2000BC. Stone provided the Neolithic builders with an available material that they could work with to turn into items for use around their homes. Without wood, homes would be equipped with a large collection of stone furniture including cupboards, beds, and shelves.

Ancient Egyptian Furniture

The Ancient Egyptian people were notoriously rich and extravagant. They often lived in large houses with many rooms that were extravagantly decorated with brightly coloured tiles and painted floors however they would be sparsely furnished. Their furniture would be made from wood and consisted of items people still buy for the home today including beds, chairs and tables, even though they were rarely used, as the Ancient Egyptians would prefer to sit or squat on the floor.

The less rich would live in simple mud huts, sit on brickwork benches, sleep on mattresses stuffed with straw and use chests made of reed for storage

The Ancient Egyptians used headrests instead of pillows. These would also be made of wood and had a great symbolic significance for the Egyptian people. They would decorate the headrests with images of gods so as to protect them during sleep from evil forces.

Ancient Greek Furniture

Ancient Greek people preferred to lie down to eat rather than sit. They would have a large sofa called a “Kline” which was made from wooden legs and strecthed fabric and was for sleeping aswell as eating. They would only use tables for one purpose and that was for food and drink. Drinking tables would be low to the ground with three legs rather than four and often made of wood although some were marble or bronze.

The early kinds of ancient Greek furniture were predominantly influenced by Egyptian furniture. Often square, rigid and unflattering. However, as the Ancient Greeks developed their own style, furniture became more curved. The Ancient Greeks are probably responsible for chairs as we know them today. The “Klismos” was developed in the 5th century. It was the Klismos’ smooth flowing curves that inspired furniture production through the middle ages.

Images from: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Check Back Soon for “A Brief History of Furniture Part Two: Roman Furniture, Saxon Furniture and The Middle Ages”
& “A Brief History of Furniture Part Three: 16th-20th Century Furniture”.

Living Room Furniture

The Nottingham living room range display a fantastic variety of furniture and accessories to help inject some personality into your living room. Choose from an extensive selection of oak bookcases, TV cabinets and console tables ideal for your living room. Our selection of elegant glass and oak display cabinets include glass shelving and interior lighting, making the most of your ornaments and most treasured possessions. The Nottingham oak living room furniture is finished with a collection of other simple and practical items including; coffee table, lamp table, HiFi cabinet, CD and DVD unit, nest of tables or wall mirror.

Dining Room Furniture

The dining room collection displays an impressive assortment of dining room furniture designed to accommodate for both small and large dining rooms no matter how many guests you are entertaining. The Oak Round Dining Table is the perfect size to cater for a small family without taking up too much space in your kitchen or dining room, whilst the oak small and large dining tables, can cater for larger families. For those of you who often entertain but have a smaller space to work with our oak extending dining tables are perfect, available with a choice of either 4, 6 or 8 stylish leather dining chairs, the perfect dining room accessory for entertaining and socialising with your dinner guests.

Customise any of the Nottingham oak dining tables with a choice of 3 dining chairs. Our slatted back dining chair has a comfortable cream seat pad which complements the natural oak finish of the chair giving you an elegant yet homely feel. Or, alternatively choose the Nottingham Oak Upholstered Dining Chair which is finished in a soft touch faux leather in a choice of either black, brown or ivory. For something a bit different, our Upholstered ‘Patch’ Dining Chair is unique, upholstered in a beautiful brown faux leather with decorative square stitch design, stunning next to any of the oak dining tables.

The oak furniture dining range is finished with a selection of fashionable sideboards in a variety of sizes to suit any home. Finished with chic subtle silver metal handles, these sideboards are the perfect solution for storage in your dining room.

The Nottingham oak furniture collection gives you plenty of choice for furnishing your home; its simple, yet modern style matched with beautiful warm oak, makes it not only practical but lends it a timeless look that will be loved and enjoyed by everyone year after year.

View the Nottingham oak collection here.

With all of these decisions to be made it can be easy to forget one very important detail. Will my new divan bed fit up the stairs? This issue is ever increasing with the more development people undertake in their homes. Quite often its the 3rd floor extension or basement extensions which can cause a problem, even though divan bases usually come in two parts quite often this will still cause a problem for larger divans (5ft king size or 6ft super king size divans). Extensions built in homes usually have restrictions in which they have to work within, hence the space will be smaller than a regular size bedroom, entry into these extensions can also be tricky and the sizes of bedrooms along with obstructions like eave’s or narrow staircases can make entry near impossible.

Well what’s the solution I hear you ask? Its quite simple, divan bed bases can be split into 4 parts rather than 2. This allows each individual piece to be carried up separately (easier to carry) and then effectively built on site within the bedroom. Each piece is connected with linking bars (this keeps the divan bases in place).

Thats all very well, but what about the mattress, i hear you ask. We have experienced a few situations where the thickness of the mattress combined with the large surface area means that squeezing it up the stairs, round the corner and through the narrow door entrance can also a problem. Well zip and linking mattresses are the solution, this effectively allows you to get the mattress split in half for easier access into your property and then zipped back up to rejoin them. See the illustrated example below for more information.

For more information please telephone us and we can help you make the right decision when purchasing your divan bed.

Historically, day beds have been used over the years in many different contexts and situations. Seen as everyday furniture items by the chinese (they did not distinguish between furniture you sleep and sit on.) and used in medieval times as pieces of furniture which were easily transported from one place to another due to their lighter weight.

Nowadays, a daybed commonly have high backs and sides with a lower front, often left, giving the appearance of a sofa as illustrated below. Daybeds with trundles are now more popular than ever and can even be purchased with valances hiding the trundle bed underneath the day bed.

Tempered glass is often referred to as safety glass, whilst not completely shatter proof, it is much stronger than standard glass, able to withstand more pressure and less likely to break. The tempered glass on glass dining tables is achieved by using a certain heating and cooling technique, treated with chemicals, this enables the glass to obtain its extra strength.

When tempered glass does break, it does so in a different way to normal glass. Rather than break into large shards of glass with dangerously pointed edges, it breaks into smaller round pieces of glass, which is obviously safer for your family, especially young children who may be tempted to pick bits of glass up.

As you can see tempered glass is imperative when purchasing glass dining tables and other glass dining room furniture, it is also required by UK law, so dont make a purchase without checking first!

Whether you realise it or not (and lets face it most people will not even check) when purchasing your furniture online you will often not even have spared a thought about how it will arrive on the day of your delivery.

Questions you should be asking your retailer before placing your order should be:

• Is my new furniture ready assembled?
• Will this ready assembled furniture fit in my home?
• If part assembled or flat pack, how many pieces will this come in and what sort of assembly is required (quite often for ease of transport and entrance into your home, items will be split into 2 or 3 pieces, assembling them should be very easy, but you should ask the question.

Benefits of buying ready assembled furniture

No DIY required – If you are not good at DIY and know that you will end up employing a local handy man to do it at an extra cost then this is an obvious situation where ready assembled furniture would be an advantage.

Parts sometimes missing – We’ve all experienced it, you go to that well known high street furniture store where all furniture items require home assembly and parts are missing. This then often involves 2 or 3 trips back to the shop getting the right pieces, before eventually either resolving the problem or giving up and taking it back!

Safety Concerns – With bigger furniture items such as wardrobes or bedroom chests, if you fail to build it properly, this can be a major safety concern. Quite often you finish building your furniture and there are screws, nuts and bolts left over, this begs the question where are these supposed to go? Never compromise on safety.

Benefits of purchasing flat packed furniture

Easily Transportable - Flat pack furniture is much easier to transport than ready assembled furniture, this especially advantageous if your taking the items home with you as it will enable you to fit items in your car or a small van.

Home Access - There is nothing worse than ordering your furniture, waiting upto 4 weeks for delivery, then the delivery drivers arrive and it doesn’t fit in your front door. With this in mind, flat pack furniture takes away that worry and allows easy access into your home.

Buzz of DIY - For some, the buzz of building your own furniture gives you a certain satisfaction, if your handy at DIY and like building your own things then buying furniture flatpack will feed your DIY habits.

How were helping our customers

With all the above in mind and now you’ve hopefully chosen between ready assembled furniture or flatpack furniture, we are helping you locate this information on our furniture product pages within the website.

Look out for the various logo’s on our product pages which will help you identify which pieces of furniture are ready assembled and which require home assembly (flat pack).

There are a couple of things to consider when buying a piece of wood furniture. Your choice will ultimately depend on these two things. What you need and what your budget is.

Is your wooden furniture for indoors or outdoors?
Wooden furniture has many different type of finishes, which makes some perfect for inside your home or office and other ideal for outdoors. Outdoor wooden furniture will generally have a stronger, weather resistant finish. This way, even when exposed to the sun and rain, it should still last. Although you should always avoid exposing your wooden furniture to direct sunlight as this can cause discolouration and cracking of the wood. You should also remember that knots in your wooden furniture are completely natural and should not be considered a defect.

Do you need the furniture for home or the office?
This has more to do with the overall setting of the location. Usually, your office furniture will look very different from your home furniture.
Wooden furniture for your home doesn’t need to be as formal looking as you would find in an office. Your home should be a relaxed environment and there is a wealth of wooden furniture made in all kinds of odd shapes and sizes! You can easily find comfortable wooden beds, dining table and chairs and other home furnishings to suit any style of home decor.
It is important to remember when choosing wooden furniture you keep in mind the size of the area you are buying the furniture for and any theme in your home. Your choice should compliment this. Sometimes, a piece of stylish wooden furniture may look perfect when standing alone in a store front or pictured perfectly in a design setting online. Then it arrives on your doorstep and it turns out to be a wrong fit. So be sure to consider carefully how a piece of wooden furniture will fit into your home before making a buying decision.
Wood furniture made for a working environment will usually look more formal. It is also stronger and expected to last longer. Imagine you need to buy office chairs for your study. Observe furniture in other offices. People will often choose a good strong wood such as oak or teak for their office furniture. This is perfect for shelves, tables or any other furniture which are meant to hold strong items such as books for a long period of time.

What about your budget?
If you find that you are on a tight budget when furnishing your home with wooden furniture you may have to consider which type of wood to buy. Different types of wood affect the retail price of the furniture. Mahogany, walnut, cherry wood and oak are all examples of fine wood, and furniture made from these will cost more. Pine furniture is a softer wood that is available more readily so will naturally cost less.

Remember: All wooden furniture will benefit from a very small amount of maintenance to keep it in a good condition. If this is not done, the wood may become dry and lose its natural colour. Any spills should be wiped up immediately with a damp cloth and you should never put hot cups or plates directly onto wooden surfaces.

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Originally when first introduced in to the UK in the 1800′s, the ottoman was mainly used as a central seating piece. Quite often tall and circular in shape, adorned with cushions which was common amongst upper middle class society in Europe. It wasnt until much later on that variations in the ‘ottoman’ design then started to appear.

Now smaller in size and used more as a bedroom accessory rather than the focal point of a bedroom, the ottoman’s (or blanket box) versatility is displayed in a variety of different finishes, shapes and sizes and has taken on designs similar to the footstool and window bedroom chairs.

With safety now becoming paramount, many ottomans and blanket boxes now come with safety hinges, a useful and safe addition. This allows children to take full advantage of a safe, fun childrens toybox, allowing for easy storage of their toys.

There are 3 main different types of bedside tables. Each bedside table has a slightly different use but ultimately they all provide the same functions; something to put by the side of your bed which enables extra storage or a bedside table can be used to place those items you wish to keep close to you whilst in bed (e.g alarm clock, bedside lamp etc)

We have categorised the 3 types of bedside tables as follows (see illustration below):

Bedside Chests

Bedside chests, usually include 2 or 3 drawers, typically they are used for people who require extra storage for their underwear, remote controls for the tv, watches etc. Usually used by the sort of people who hate clutter and just like to ‘put everything away’.

Bedside Cabinets

Bedside cabinets perform a slightly different use to bedside chests. Usually bedside cabinets come with a cabinet and then drawer above this. The advantage of purchasing a bedside cabinet is that it leaves room for storing larger items at the bottom and then extra storage in the drawer above this.

Nightstands

Nightstands are different from the above two, usually nightstands focus more on look and style than they do on storage. Although many nightstands will include an element of storage, their main function is just to provide a stand which you can use to put an alarm clock or bedside lamp.

For a more detailed explanation of bedside tables see our bedside table buying guide.

Crafted from solid pine, this bedroom furniture collection allows installation in almost any bedroom with its easy home self assembly guide.

Choose from a range of bedroom furniture items including bedside chest, chest of drawers, blanket box, bed frame and wardrobes.