'Brown' Furniture

[PistachioTiramisu]

I was reading an article today which stated that 'people nowadays don't want brown furniture'. This has both surprised and saddened me. I'm thinking of families who have owned beautiful antiques which they hoped to pass down to their children, with the children turning up their noses at it in favour of some flatpack rubbish from Ikea or worse!

Why don't people want 'brown' furniture any more - some of it is so beautifully crafted - it's a shame it's just going to be thrown away or sold for a song!

They just paint it dont they

No news. Fashion isn't the same for a 100 years.

A lot of oldfashion furnitures are way too big for many small houses today. It's also an issue.

If you bought poor people’s brown furniture in the 1950s, it’ll still be poor people’s brown furniture now. Brown, dark, outdated, and sometimes with woodworm. They weren’t all buying G-Plan on HP back in the day.

What old brown furniture do you own, OP?

Because totally new furniture is now affordable and it's a bit like clothing, things that look new and fresh are more appealing.

As the cost of living gets worse it's possible more people will be drawn back to choosing well made older furniture, if the only version of the fresh new looking furniture they can afford is really rubbish stuff that looks cheap and falls apart.

Who cares if it's "sold for a song"? Furniture isn't sentient, you know.

It’s sad, but I like it because I have bought some gorgeous things for very cheap. A yew cabinet, a 100yr old oak armoire hand carved in art deco style, etc. I have recently discovered my 1960s minimalist style teak dining chairs are having a come back and are valued at £450 per chair! They were literally tossed in a skip and I rescued them.

Doesn't feel like something to get worked up about to me, if I'm honest.

It's usually cyclical. It'll likely come back in eventually - in 20yrs time I'll probably be able to sell my parents' Edwardian mahogany sideboard for a fortune. People didn't want mid-century stuff for ages and it's insanely popular now.

It’s not fashionable at the moment. It will come back but fashion cycles in furniture are thankfully longer than in clothing.

They definitely do. Im 31 and my house is full of dark brown furniture from the 1890s down to the 1980s. I get most of it second hand and bring it up to condition myself.

It’s saved me a fortune… I have solid wood furniture with each piece costing £20-80 each. That’s it… £60 for a huge Welsh dresser of solid oak, a Jacobean revival writing desk £20, bookshelves that stretch all the way up the wall in solid cherry - free!

It’s amazing what people don’t want that make my house look really cool and will last a lifetime.

That's lovely to hear. My friend also furnished her house with a selection of furniture from the local auction house at really low cost. It's all been polished and cared for and her house looks great.

How wonderful. I think it’s so much more interesting to have so many pieces from different places and times than IKEA and John Lewis

However you do need the space and light for it. I can see why people don’t fill flats with dark furnitures

It will probably come back at some point. 70s style chairs are everywhere at the moment!

My sister in law furnished her victorian house with lots of second hand old furniture, she has so much style and it's gorgeous.

Much nicer than all the instagram beige but it's a talent to put things together the way she has.

I’m just in the process of doing up my living room and have been excitedly searching Facebook marketplace for months for the perfect pieces. I am picking up a coffee table this week that was someone’s late mother’s and is a beautiful walnut wood. I’m also collecting stunning Italian side table that plays music. I’m more excited about their pieces that I ever have been about new furniture!

Personally my home is already quite small and a bit dark in places and lots of brown furniture would make it feel even more so.

I know what you mean, OP. I grew up in a house full of antique brown furniture. When I bought my first house, I furnished it in IKEA flat-pack (partly because my house was very small and the antiques my parents offered me wouldn't have fitted through the front door).

Now my tastes (and my house) have changed and I really love the lustre of polished oak and mahogany, the sense of history behind each piece and the fact that it's usually so well made. I'm gradually replacing my pale flat-pack furniture with brown, and I think my house has far more character as a result. I want to "rescue" everything and I feel quite sad when I see beautiful old mahogany wardrobes on Facebook Marketplace: "Free but must be collected this weekend, otherwise it's going to the tip". All that wood and craftsmanship - it seems such a waste!

I heard only today that fashion is on the turn and brown furniture is becoming more fashionable.

My house is furnished with antique oak and other dark wood furniture. I usually pick them up cheaply in antiques shops and French brocantes. I also inherited pieces that no one else in the family wanted. It works for me but everyone is different.

It’s great news as I can buy pieces I like cheap. My whole Edwardian bedroom suite was just 50 quid. People just have different taste.

Our dining table was made over 100 years ago as a wedding present for DH's grandparents. It's solid and heavy as are the matching chairs. We also have the grandfather clock and the roll top desk with the captains chair - also belonged to DH's grandfather. We have a cupboard made from an old bed by my great grandfather from his late mother's bed for my mother when she passed her 11+.

As a family we like stuff with a story. Our youngest has the 1960's Ercol dining set that belonged to my parents. I hate it but she loves the history of it, knowing that it belonged to G'ma and G'dad.

I have an antique pine dresser in my living room. And a matching-ish end table in the same finish. The dresser was free and I think I paid about £15 for the end table/cabinet. My fire surround has the same finish. Both are solid and a bit worn/scratched, which I think adds to their charm. I’m 37, and grew up in a house with brown furniture (mainly mahogany).

been the same for 30+ years nothing new. Also bulky furniture. My mils antique furniture can’t even be given away, nobody wants it least of all us, our house wouldn’t fit it, suit it and we have plenty of our own furniture

I have loads of brown furniture, from 18th century tables to Victorian chairs. I love it all. Quite a few bits of Victorian pine too. I find that harder to style.

I agree, but most brown furniture is very big and heavy and is too big for many modern homes.
Also fashion is a funny thing in a few years it will probably become popular again

I’ve just bought a new walnut cabinet.