Fascinating Facts About Furniture
We use furniture every day: in fact, we totally depend on it. Woodworking furniture, custom bedroom furniture, fine furniture and modern furniture: it’s everywhere. We take it for granted, but how much do we actually know about it? If you are curious about furniture, or just appreciate some good trivia, read on for some fascinating facts:
When We Buy
Believe it or not, the most popular times for buying furniture in the United States are Memorial Day and Valentines Day. Memorial Day sales ads are everywhere, so you might have been able to guess that one. But what are people buying on Valentines Day? Apparently nothing says “I love you” like a new couch.
How Much We Buy
Spoiler alert: tons and tons. By June of 2017 Americans had spent, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce, $9.51 billion on furniture and home furnishings. That was up from $9.27 billion the year before, and the Freedonia Group thinks that the demand for will reach $34.9 billion by 2021. There’s got to be a lot of woodworking going on to provide all those chairs.
Speaking of Wood: We Like It
Handmade wood furniture is very popular just now, and that makes sense. What with all the buying and selling, people are looking for something both durable and unique. Woodworking allows for custom made furniture, and 92% of people who buy wood furniture expect it to last them at least 15 years.
We’re Surprisingly Unhappy About Our Choices
With all we’re buying, it’s a bit shocking that a HomeGoods survey found only 20% of people in the United States are actually happy with the home decor they’re living with. Again, that’s where handmade furniture is coming in, as woodworking and custom orders let people make exactly what they want for their space.
We Call Things by Latin Names
Ever wonder how a chair became a chair? The word comes from the Latin cathedra. That’s a combination of the two Latin words for “sit” and “down.” We call a table a table because of Latin, too. Table is from the Latin word tabula: a flat board.
What About the History?
That’s definitely interesting, too. Tables were around for a long time, but not for eating. The Chinese had them, but they used them as art. The Egyptians had them, but only for playing games or holding an object. It was the Greeks who finally realized, “Hey! We can eat off these!” Chairs haven’t been commonly used all that long either, really. It wasn’t until after the 1500s that ordinary people got chairs, rather than stools or benches, to sit on. Before that, chairs were just for the ruling class.
What About the Sofa?
We love our sofas, and those are definitely a more modern invention. Most ancient peoples just sat on benches unless they were wealthy rulers and had chairs. The rich in Rome had something like a couch that they reclined on to eat, but this was really just a bench with cushions on it. Upholstery didn’t appear til late in the 16th century, and the sofa as we know it was the command of Lord Phillip Stanhope of Chesterfield in early eighteenth century. This guy demanded someone design a piece of furniture for a lot of people to sit on together without getting their clothes all wrinkled. This was especially important for women, since fashion dictates of the day required them to wear dresses with scads of material that needed not to be all wadded up.
In a recent survey, nearly 73% of those who responded said that their furniture design reflected their personality. Another 67% felt that you could tell a lot about a person by the furniture they own. Whether you’re looking for sleep modern furniture or woodworking pieces that are more rustic, make sure your furniture is making you happy and saying good things about you.