Dark wood furniture

[JustJam4Tea]

Newish house. We bought some Victorian dark wood furniture, beautiful chest of drawers with ivory escutcheons, a table with a marble top and a big ornate sideboard. Friends think we are mad.

Is dark furniture dead and buried or are we ahead of the curve?

definitely ahead of the curve - i love dark furniture and measuring now for a new table with DH in our new home. I hate Ikea like furniture

All our furniture is antique dark wood, except beds and sofas and DS’s room (he likes a more modern look). I love it, plus it’s great value compared to even cheap modern furniture and, if you get bored, you can sell it for what you paid for it or even at a profit.

We have lots of dark wood furniture here. DH does a brilliant job with real polish from a tin and a variety of cloths to keep it in good condition. Makes the house smell amazing.

I've had a study for the first time and have been able to decorate it from scratch, so slowly bought bookcases and a desk like this. They're a mixture of ages and styles but I love each one and they work together as a group. So much more interesting than new furniture and a lot less expensive.

I live the mix of old and new. I think all new furniture is boring but I'd probably find a rooom completely full of mahogany quite oppressive. I really like the chest of drawers - I have a couple like that inherited from family. (I've attached a photo of one in my bedroom. I took the photo from lying in bed and it's not fully light yet. )

It’s not very popular right now but the pieces you linked to are nicer than a lot of the brown goods out there, as it’s not fashionable as you can see the cost is low.

However for me, it depends on your house age and style, I think in a period property these pieces can look wonderful, but in a newer property they can be out of place and light draining, it depends on how the rest of the rooms are decorated.

I love brown furniture
It’s not popular now but I reckon it will be again

A friend picked up a Fabulous Victorian sideboard for £25 including delivery. It was from a woman who upcycles furniture but had realised it was too nice to paint. It’s the only old bit of furniture she has in a very new house, but it looks stunning.

@JustJam4Tea

Newish house. We bought some Victorian dark wood furniture, beautiful chest of drawers with ivory escutcheons, a table with a marble top and a big ornate sideboard. Friends think we are mad.

Is dark furniture dead and buried or are we ahead of the curve?

Ahead of the curve. There was an article in the Times recently about a surge of interest in antique hardwood furniture like mahogany. It’s seen as a more ecologically sustainable way of furnishing wealthy young hipsters’ homes as the furniture was built to last and is often hundreds of years old.

I wondered with the dark academia aesthetic trend if it could be due a revival. We have a light back room with lots of windows and have made dark furniture work well. I think it depends on the room.

Definitely ahead of the curve.
You have fantastic taste.

We have a house full of dark brown, mostly mahogany, antique furniture. It is wonderful quality and looks great. It is also far cheaper than the modern equivalent. My chest of drawers is almost identical to the one in the pic you posted. They are lovely pieces!

Do you think stately home owners ever stand wringing their hands over their heirloom mahogany armoires saying, ‘but Geoffrey, should we have gone to Oak Furniture Land for a more contemporary look?’

No.

I think good dark wood old furniture never comes out of fashion, the only thing you need to do is adapting the rest of the house so it doesn’t look like an old people’s home.

DP has his dad’s old grandfathers close in a room painted with FB Down Pipe (dark grey). It looks very trendy.

Clock not close obvs.

I love those, but kind of hoping it doesn't become too popular and put prices up as I'm looking out for something at the moment!

I accept that most dark wood furniture is of good quality. However, I am not a fan of dark wood furniture as I find that it drains light from a room and can look quite dated.
If you are going to use dark wood, It should be in a room with pale walls and flooring.

Ahead of the curve for sure.

I have accidentely ended up with dark wood furniture, but love that is isnt 'on trend'

That said, I have bought a few pieces of MCM stuff which seems to be a thing at the moment

Ahead of the curve I reckon. It’s been out of fashion since the 80s, so surely due a revival. I have loads of it, and got it cheap as chips as “dark” (as the antiques dealers call it) has been so undesirable. I love it.

I’d also love to see a revival of Laura Ashley style ditsy print wallpapers, pink bathrooms and chintz.

Grandmillennial style is a trendy thing in the world of interior design. It's basically young people who are into a modern take on antique/formal/chintzy/wealthy grandmother interiors. Dark wood furniture is a feature.

Please keep quiet about this. Dark wood furniture is so wonderfully cheap now. Let's not go making it fashionable and put the prices up!

I’d like to think those of us who like dark wood will continue to be unfashionable - keeps it nice and cheap. Also means I’m not likely to get sick of my own furniture. Trends always look fresh at the beginning, then get boring and finally sick of seeing it due to saturation of whatever it is on SM, tv, Rightmove, the shops, everywhere.

However, interior trends are now cycling so fast it will surely have its turn. Let me have a few more years before that happens, though, please!

We lived in an old farmhouse with a mix of mismatched old wooden furniture, mainly oak and mahogany that we bought over the years.
When we moved, we wanted a change and spent 2 years doing up our present house, it's modern with lots of glass and very light.
We thought our old furniture would look out of place and planned to replace it with a more modern style. But when we eventually moved into our new house it was lockdown and all the furniture shops were closed so we furnished the house with what we had.
It looks great! Somehow it really works. I suspect modern furniture would have looked too stark and "showhome". As it is the house has a very individual look, each piece is an old friend with its own story. Oh and none of it was flat pack, no allen keys required !

Yes I love that none of it is flat pack, Buying something beautiful, old, that has had a life and history. I love it. Our dining room table was M&S and eye wateringly expensive and was comprehensively trashed by teenage parties etc by the time we sold it on. The extension leaf tool my fingernails off every time I tried to move it. And it took 2 of us to sort it.

Replaced with a Victorian mahogany table that comes apart into 3 tables with the middle bit folding into one table. So can be distributed round room or other rooms as side tables, then put back together to seat 4, 6, 8 or 10 (12 at a push). It’s light enough for one person to sort it. And is lovely wood. I adore it and it was £250.