Everyone has heard the term “contemporary” but many people are still unsure what it means when it is used to describe furniture design. What it refers to are furniture designs that were created in the second half of the 20th century. It was during the time after WW2 that contemporary furniture design took root.
This was the beginning of the baby boomer era when many new families were starting up after the war. During the 60s the advent of the space age gave many designers inspiration and their designs reflect this. It was during the seventies that the bean bag chair made its debut and it worked well for that point in time. The sixties brought us the water bed and the lava lamp and they have both gone in and out of style since then.
As new materials have been developed they have also found their way into contemporary furniture design and the 1950s were the first time that plastics began to make their way into furniture. It was during the 80s that rattan made its return and it is still being used today in contemporary furniture design.
Now in this day and age, there is so much that designers have to select from when creating their furniture designs and many are welding the old with the new. Materials such as polished marble or granite for table tops that have their origins in ancient times are being used in conjunction with more modern materials for contemporary furniture that blends the old with the new.
Mission influences are again making their way into modern contemporary designs also. If you are thinking of furnishing your home or office with contemporary furniture then you may want to invest a little time in research before you make your final purchases.
The interest in contemporary living room furniture is growing higher these days because of the great advantages they have over conventional living room furniture. The first advantage is the modern design they have. Having modern design furniture for your living room will make a great difference in how your living room looks. If you are renovating your home and decided to go for contemporary living room furniture then you will see a great difference in your home’s style.
The second advantage of contemporary living room furniture is that they are usually designed from the ground up to be highly efficient giving better use of space for smaller living rooms. You can usually find contemporary living room furniture with several storage compartments and this helps solve the problem of items scattered everywhere.
The third important feature of contemporary living room furniture is its sturdiness. Some of the companies working in the field of contemporary living room furniture are offering high-performance furniture units that are made of the finest quality materials. This means that if you are buying contemporary living room furniture then you should be investing in a piece of furniture that will last for a very long time in your living room.
The only thing you have left to do is find a reputable contemporary living room furniture dealer or seller. Most local retailers are a hassle to deal with, and due to the increased delivery prices usually end up costing an arm and a leg. Luckily, there is a solution. You can deal with Living Contemporary and get all your contemporary living room furniture at the best prices on the market and it’s shipped directly to your door.
Living contemporary operates online, so they have no showroom cost, agent cost, or any other expensive costs to add to the actual price of the furniture that they sell. This means that you can get your contemporary living room furniture for the best price in the market and to make it even better, Living Contemporary is willing to match the price if you were able to find the exact item sold in any other place for a price lower than what they offer.
Also, when you buy from Living Contemporary, you will not pay a dime for getting the contemporary living room furniture delivered to your doorstep. Living Contemporary is offering free delivery for all the items they sell and they offer affordable shipping upgrades if you need a helping hand. For example, you can upgrade to a “white glove” delivery service and get all the items you purchase delivered inside to any room in your house, unpacked and assembled.
Buying contemporary furniture follows the same steps as other essential purchases you make in your daily living. You should follow the rules from planning to the actual purchase. If you are having a hard time deciding on the right set of contemporary furniture to purchase, you may want to look into other factors that will make things easier for you.
You are always allowed to ask some questions before the actual buying day for your contemporary furniture pieces. You may raise these concerns to yourself or you may bring them with you as you visit a local furniture shop. If you opt to transact with online service providers, you may utilize the contact us page of the website to send your concerns to the owner.
Questions to ask before purchasing contemporary furniture
Purchasing contemporary furniture can be both hard and easy at the same time. Picking up some items is easier if you have the budget and it will be harder if you don’t. It may also be easier if you have carefully planned the purchase and difficult if you did not follow the rules. Ask the following questions and everything else will be easier.
- Will purchasing one piece be enough to complement the look of your home? You may have come across an advertisement that shows a piece of contemporary furniture that you want to own. Before you jump into the purchase, make sure that buying that single piece of furniture may stand on its own. Simply put, check whether it will make a large difference in your home’s style.
- Will the piece perform its function? Functionality is important in buying a furniture piece. Aside from making it a decorative piece that will attract others who will have an eye on it, you should see to it that contemporary furniture is capable of fulfilling its functions. Make sure that if it is supposed to be a chair, then it should serve that purpose.
- Is the piece rightfully constructed? You may be fascinated by the design of the contemporary furniture you have come across with. This may be the reason why you will order the piece through online stores or have a local furniture shop wrap and deliver the item to your home. This type of buying is wrong. You should always scrutinize whether the piece was made properly. Check the arms, the legs, and other pertinent parts before ordering.
- Will it fit your existing home decors and furniture? If you will buy a single piece of furniture, you should make sure that it blends well with the rest of the other items found in your home. Otherwise, you may just be wasting your money on nothing. In the long run, that piece may just sink inside the crowd, left unnoticed and untouched.
Once you have answered these questions correctly, you are ready to decide whether contemporary furniture is for you or not. Even if you do have the budget to spend for the purchase, make sure that your money is spent wisely. You do not have to rush on the purchase if it is not necessary. Deciding on the right time to buy contemporary furniture should not be overlooked.
Searching for great home furniture can be an exciting time especially if one has just purchased a new home or moving into a new apartment. Going online and visiting furniture sites can be a great way to save some time. For those individuals who enjoy taking the time to search, this can also be a good opportunity to do some catching up with a buddy or a family member.
Furniture shopping can be costly if one did not shop around. Finding the best deals on furnishings for the home can be a lot of fun and especially if one got a great deal. One of the best times to look for great deals is towards the end of each month and especially right after the Christmas holidays. Retailers are always looking to slash prices at this time of year and one can get the deal of the century during this special time.
Items like tables, chairs, or bedroom furnishings can be found on these websites and delivered directly to one’s home if one preferred. Some like to check out what is available online and if some pieces looked some pieces looked interesting one could take a ride down to see if the furnishings are what they were expecting. This would be very effective for the individual who didn’t have a lot of time to physically go to every store available.
A professional decorator can be the answer as well for the individual who doesn’t have the time to dedicate to this project. These individuals have great resources and having discussions on what one can afford and what is expected can be negotiated before placement. This could be the ideal situation for someone who likes to have professionals take care of tasks like this one.
One of the best secrets of making any room spectacular is to have at least one item that stands out. This could be several smaller pieces like a great coffee table and unique lamps. Most professional decorators will tell you that it does not have to be expensive to make the room look great but just something eye-catching and original will do the trick. Some even go to superstores and pick up special pieces to liven up the rooms depending on what the budget would be.
Most retailers have flat rates on smaller items as well as bigger pieces of furniture. This is an ideal situation for someone who is getting massive amounts of furniture at one time. Most individuals like to pick up what they can and have the rest delivered for a flat rate. This can be one of the best ways to save on shipping costs if the retailer is close by.
There are so many different kinds of styles when it comes to furniture that one can have practically anything custom-made. Items like Italian leather couches or designer chairs for the dining room table can come from overseas. These are specially catered to the buyer’s tastes and are carefully detailed to perfection. This is the reason why it takes a longer to receive the product but will generally last a lifetime.
Custom-made home furniture can be a fabulous way to make a room stand out. Adding these kinds of personal touches can enhance a large room and turn a smaller room into a much more admired room. Customers like the idea that their home is personalized to their tastes and won’t see their furnishings everywhere they go.
“Furniture is meant to be used and enjoyed” – Natalie Morales
Furniture is a mass entity given to the most immovable objects with the sole purpose to facilitate human beings in their day-to-day activities. Furniture can be utilized for many purposes. It is used either to hold objects, materials, and masterpieces or to simply store things. These days, furniture is closely associated with a decoration piece. It is interesting to know that in ancient times, each house was equipped with an assortment of stone furniture mainly cupboards, dressers, beds, shelves, stone seats, and limpet tanks. In early modern Europe, furniture of the Middle Age was mostly confined to heavy, oak and ornamented with carved designs. Subsequently, there came an outgrowth of post-modern furniture design. It heralded the return of the diverse shapes and textures.
In today’s era, home furnishings range widely from contemporary leather sectional sofas to ready-to-assemble computer desks, and platform bedroom sets. It is just not restricted to the yesteryear’s sofas, dining tables, and a showcase for pieces of art and craft. It is rightly opined that the human soul is hungry for beauty that we seek everywhere – in landscapes, music, art, furniture, etc.
Over time, the evolution of the internet has opened a whole new world of furniture styles for the comfort of our homes. Out of many websites, exclusively offering a plethora of pieces are the contemporary furniture stores. One can easily browse through and choose the perfect type of modern sofa, trendy TV stands, stylish lounge chairs, inspirational accessories, and contemporary art.
There are sections designated for the type of furniture one needs to house in their area of choice. One can browse through living, dining, bedroom, office, and outdoor sections. Each section offers variety in assortment and also gives a choice to the customers to pick from the wide range of colors, shapes, and chaise positions. The colors are of diverse variety like black faux leather, chocolate faux leather, chrome & glass, natural walnut, white leather, and white faux leather. These colors are diverse and unique in their outlook.
There has been a rise in modern furniture in the current market as well. With the rise in electronic commerce sites, one can choose from a wide range of furnishings. The current modern furniture experiments with vinyl and tubular metals, monochromatic color schemes, integrated modular elements and features curvilinear shapes. The websites especially provide choices among various shapes like kidneys, ellipses, oblongs, S’s, and flares.
Recent years have seen a boom in the development of city center apartments and “loft-style living”. Coupled with this housing phenomenon has been the explosion in the contemporary, modern furniture to create that in vogue, up-to-the-minute stylish look. Not only that an increased number of people are adopting a contemporary style as their chosen design in what would usually be considered a more traditional setting. Mixing vintage with new and introducing an “eclectic style” is the order of the day.
The recent demise in the housing market has fueled the increase in the purchase of contemporary furniture as fewer people are choosing to move house, and instead of spending their surplus cash on restyling their existing homes. Whether they are looking for large pieces of furniture or smaller accessory pieces, people are looking for ways that they can mirror their personalities. Contemporary Italian furniture pieces offer just that opportunity. The lines are clean, sleek, and streamlined. The look is casual, yet attention-grabbing. The colors are bold, edgy, eye-catching, and trendy. The feel is chic, hip, and yet plain dramatic.
Contemporary Italian furniture is different from most other sectors of the market in as much as it can appeal to both sexes. Traditionally, it was women that bought the furniture for the home. But what is apparent is this style is attractive to the “bachelor type”, the single guy about town who has a smart, trendy city center apartment. Men used to linger in the background, lacking confidence in making interior design choices; typically outsourcing the decision-making to their wives and girlfriends. Now the stereotypical 25-35-year-old man is self-educated in what is trendy and what works in their home environment. Let’s face it men have slowly become houseproud.
Spoilt for choice the contemporary sector oozes masculinity, more so than any other sector of the market, without being detrimental to the female population. It is safe to say that there isn’t another sector of the market that addresses the needs of both sexes in such a fulfilling way.
Noticeably, the eruption in the male need, for “must-have” large flat TV screens has helped in the upsurge of living room accessories, whether it’s a trendy entertainment unit, large comfy sofa, or sleek and modern coffee table. The style of development has also helped in embracing the popularity of contemporary Italian furniture. Gone was the layout of individual rooms’ that we’d all grown up with and very quickly we were adapting to the idea of open planning living. Walls were demolished in houses across the country with ease and speed and the birth of contemporary Italian furniture was quickly established.
Will the popularity of this type of furniture continue? I think it’s a given that contemporary furniture is here to stay. This style is now part of our lives and will continue to be so going forward. The market dictates strong growth in this sector over the long term and any product purchased can be considered a sound investment.
So be brave and experiment with strong pieces that suit both your personality and your home.
Arne Jacobsen was a Danish architect and designer who excelled in the Danish Modern style of building. Among his architectural successes, he had many successes in the furniture genre. He made furniture for the Radisson SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen and St. Catherine’s College in Oxford, which he also designed and helped to build on the assumption that he would have a hand in all aspects of its building, down to the fixtures and cutlery used on the premises. His most noted chair designs include the Ant chair, the Model 3107 or Model 7 chair, the Egg chair, and the Swan chair.
In 1952 he designed the Ant chair with an emphasis on the classic modern chair design. It was designed specifically for use in the canteen of the Danish pharmaceutical firm Novo Nordisk. The name was derived from its similarity to the outline of an ant with its head raised. Its design makes it light, stable, and easy to stack. It also minimizes the tangling of the user’s feet. When it was first designed, it only had three legs made of plastic and the seat was made from a form-molded laminated veneer. With its popularity, the plastic legs were replaced with tubular steel legs and a version with four legs was also created.
The Model 3107 chair, also known as the Model 7 chair was designed in 1955. Its design featured a unique technique in which plywood could be bent in two dimensions. Because of its popularity, it is the most copied chair in the world. This chair comes with several of several different undercarriages: both a regular four-legged chair, an office chair with five wheels, and a barstool. It also comes with armrests, an attached writing table, and different forms of upholstering. To some extent, these additions mar the simple aesthetics of the chair, even though they provide practical elements to the piece.
The Egg chair was designed in 1958 and in the typical Jacobsen style which held no fear of pushing a material to its limit and often used entirely new materials to make his designs come true. This chair was featured in “Men in Black” and “Back to the Future II.” This contemporary chair was also designed as a couch, but only a few were produced. The limited production of the Egg couch was due to its being it’s being an exclusive item as well as the difficulty in making it. It also held a design flaw because it was hard to cover with only two cowhides, which is only just possible with the Egg chair.
The Swan chair was designed in 1958. This design was the result of Jacobsen’s search for lightweight, fluid seating which required a minimum of padding. The fluid design had no straight lines, only curves. A molded shell of synthetic material on an aluminum star swivel base completes the design. A layer of cold foam covers the shell and either fabric or leather in a wide range of colors is added. There were also versions of a swan sofa that were designed as well and are still in production.
The Arne Jacobsen chairs are extremely sought after in the contemporary market because they provide fluid lines as well as give a sort of “futuristic” feel to a room. The multiple designs of seating that he made provide something for everyone, no matter their tastes.
It’s true that living in a small apartment or a dorm room can be challenging. Most people aren’t used to living in such a small area, and as a result, it can be quite difficult getting to get used to the low square footage. Luckily, there are ways to make the most of the space you have.
Over the past 7 years, I have been attending my university career and was forced to live in dorm rooms for my first two years, and then in student housing for the remaining five years. I was in a situation where the only living space that I could afford were places that were smaller than what I was used to. To make the most of the space I had, I conducted a bit of research and found a couple of techniques that helped me make the most of the space I had to work with. My first discovery was the use of fold-away desks. The desk that I purchased worked well and definitively helped me conserve the space I was living in. These hideaway desks are easily unfolded and set up. They work the same way a normal desk does, except when you’re done working, you can easily fold it up and stow it away till next time.
The second space-conserving technique that I uncovered, was the use of a folding art stand. I took several art classes that required me to have a functional art stand. Unfortunately, my apartment was too small to have a proper art set up. Using this hideaway art stand gave me the freedom to work on my art at home, but then allowed me to fold it up and store it under the bed until the next time I needed to work with it. Without this special stand, I wouldn’t have been able to work from home.
These are just two examples of space-saving furniture that allowed me to work from home, even though my living quarters were very restricting. I suggest that anyone in a similar situation, conduct a little research on space-saving techniques before they give up on their current apartment to move into a new one.
If you’re looking for new apartment furnishings that are both stylish and reasonably priced, you’ve come to the right place. David Phillips offers a superior level of service and value for money to every customer that you simply cannot find on the High Street. As well as offering you huge savings on all of our furniture packages, we also deliver, assemble and install all of the furnishings to your apartment on a next-day-delivery basis.
Getting apartment furnishing right can be a difficult job, particularly if you’re on a tight budget. By choosing one of our furniture packages, you won’t have to worry about any extra costs or even assembly once it arrives. Let us take the strain out of furnishing your apartment and choose between packages to suit every budget from our Design Classics Package to our Student Package.
If you can’t see the apartment furnishings you’re looking for in any of our existing bundles or want to mix and match products from across the range, we can also create bespoke furniture packages. We can even arrange to rent out brand new furniture packages to all of our customers. We have even chosen perfect accessories for all of our beautiful ranges for you and we even have choices of prints, rugs, and cand cushions; you’ll even find matching throws in our online store. Our property services also include refurbishment services, building work, and floor and window treatments. In fact, given our extensive range of capabilities, it’s no wonder we’re becoming a force to be reckoned with.
However you choose to go about furnishing your apartment, David Phillips the fastest-growing furniture packages retailer has all the answers in one place. Order a catalog to see what we can do for your property.