Modern vs Antique Furniture
Many of our pieces are inspired by antique furniture styles, and even specially aged to look closer to the real thing. We don’t pretend otherwise, but with our obvious love for traditional styles and long-lasting furniture, why do we encourage you to buy new from us instead of going for genuine antiques?
There are a lot of reasons to buy modern furniture compared to antiques, and it’s not just because of price, though that is a large part of it. Read on to see why you should be looking at new furniture for at least some, if not all, your interior decorating.
Availability, Choice & Convenience
Availability is a big issue with antiques. When you’re choosing your antique furniture, you can’t be too fussy about what you get. You have to pick from what’s available, and that can be somewhat limited. If you go in with a certain piece in or style in mind, you’ll spend a lot of time searching, and if you find it at an auction house you’ll be competing for it too.
With modern furniture, there are more options available in any style you’re looking for, and modern means availability isn’t too limited. Even better, finding what you’re looking for is much easier when you can browse online, look through catalogues and choose from multiple ranges.
If what you’re looking for is specifically an antique, you’ll even be able to find a reproduction most of the time, or someone can make you a reproduction for a lower price than the original. Unless authenticity is your primary concern, reproductions and inspired styles are much easier to come by.
Modern Construction
Antiques, by their nature, are sturdy pieces. They’ve proven they can withstand the ravages of time, and if you take care of them they’ll last at least a lifetime more. That’s as long as you get them in good condition and make sure to take care of them.
All of that is also true of well-made modern furniture, though, and perhaps even more so. When we design a new piece of furniture, we take cues from the masterworks of old but also mix in newer production techniques to improve upon them. Improvements to furniture design didn’t end 100 years ago, and nor do we ignore the lessons from our past.
It’s certainly true that modern, mass-produced furniture won’t last as long as an antique, but higher end furniture is just as good as it always has been. Well-made modern furniture will last just as long as an antique piece, or longer.
Modern Convenience
The lessons of modern design don’t just make modern furniture sturdier, but also take into account modern lifestyles. When designers were creating their pieces 100 years ago, they weren’t making them for modern sized people, or modern space constraints. They certainly weren’t thinking about modern lifestyle elements like televisions and Xboxes. Trying to make an antique fit a modern home sometimes means reconstruction, which can ruin the piece, and sometimes can’t even be done at all.
Even when a modern piece is created to look like an antique, it’s designed for modern homes. That means holes for cables to pass through, with dimensions that are more appropriate for modern living spaces and modern sized people. Altering your furniture further, if necessary, also doesn’t carry the connotations of damage that it would for an antique, so you can rest easy knowing that your furniture is 100% right for your home and your lifestyle.
Price
Price is, of course, still a major factor in considering whether to buy antique or new furniture. Antiques are limited, and always incredibly high value. Even the best produced modern furniture can be made faster, by a larger workforce, so there’s more of it around and it’s much more affordable. That’s before even considering the potential price of refurbishing a damaged antique.
Ongoing costs of modern furniture are cheaper too. Antiques require specific, more expensive insurance, and are costlier to care for overall. The fact that antiques don’t devalue as time goes on is just as true of well-made modern furniture, so resale isn’t an issue either.
Unless you’re really bent on acquiring a specific and authentic antique, it’s always better to buy new. Newer furniture is better for you, better for your home and better for your wallet, while still offering the same level of quality in design and manufacture.
Looking for modern furniture inspired by antique designs? We have a few ranges you might want to look at:
