A potted history of home furniture

Furniture has been around for as long as humans havefurniture is another story. Essentially early man would
been around. As far as the animal kingdom goes wecarry his dining room furniture with him and set up his
are the only species who adorn their homes withtable and chairs wherever he managed to catch a
furniture. That's not to say the Mr Caveman on returnbuffalo. This use of portable dining room furniture was
from a successful hunting trip with his son didn't relaxa most excellent choice for early man as they were
upon a fine buffalo leather skin sofa in his living roompredominantly nomadic so having your furniture with
with a fresh cup of nettle tea on the coffee table ofyou was paramount. In terms of dining room furniture
course. There is evidence that early man made anwe assume it was mostly cutlery in flint form and a
attempt at at least decorating his home. This, in theskin to sit on but very soon as man settled in each
early days, was mostly confined to rubbing muckycontinent and they socialised around the fire in the
hand prints on the walls and scratching animal shapeslounge there must have come a time when dining
onto the living room wall. Early mans flock wallpaper ifroom furniture was needed. The multi functional leather
you will. In the absence of Laurence Llewelyn Bowensofas come beds come carpet then transformed into
or Linda Barker, early man shrugged the need to adorndining room chairs too, without doubt. Soon they would
his home in the fineries of MDF board furniture andhave been sat about the dining room chomping into
rather begin the process of creating a comfortabletheir daily catches wondering if there was a need for
home for his family that was centered about thean entertainment unit or in fact what one actually was!
fireplace in a very practical solution to bring the livingAs man became increasingly lazy he invented all types
room, dining room and bedroom into the single abodeof furniture to make his laziness even more lazy. Long
solving many issues we seem to have made worsebefore the use of transport or appliances early man
these days. Sociability for one was at it's height in ourwould have created wood furniture to make relaxing
early ancestry. Granted, you were likely to be stabbedat home better. It wasn't long, in geological terms at
wandering accidentally onto your neighbours gardenleast, that early man began to separate the rooms and
but let's face facts that was replaced by shooting inthis gave rise to the living room, dining room and
the Americas and is still sadly a popular pastime.bedrooms that we know today. In the Iron Ages great
What could be more social than gathering around thehalls where the norm. Rather than natural caves our
fire pit after a hard day hunting? The living room ofancestors started to build caves from dung, mud and
early man was an all in one affair not dissimilar to thetwigs. Think DIY SOS. Much the same format was
bedsit accept with many more creature comforts. Therequired. A central fire with sofas around it and toward
bedroom for example was also part of the living roomthe edges the bedroom furniture was placed. Again
and although bedroom furniture was hit and miss it hadhighly social but not very private. The great halls where
one feature handed down through the eons, the bed.more likely to be dining rooms for feasting and general
The bed is perhaps the centre of all bedrooms and asgatherings like council meetings for example only more
far as the bedroom furniture goes is paramount to getorganised.
the right blend of style with comfort. Our early manThe early dark ages started to see furniture take
would have likely stuffed an old skin with heather andshape. Our friends in the Iron Age kept their furniture
grass to fashion a comfortable bed. This bedroomrelatively basic but the advent of the Dark Ages saw
furniture was also Living room furniture as it's likelystyle being brought into the design of home furniture.
they made comfy leather sofas too. So early manRooms where also starting to be divided as mankind
began the furniture revolution through necessity ratherrealised the trouble of bringing the in-laws in for
than fashion and although the early formation of theChristmas. The need to be private increased and gave
continents was yet to be realised there's almost norise to the bedroom and of course bedroom furniture. It
doubt they had individual tribal styles akin to the Frenchwasn't until relatively later that the dining room started
style furniture, Indian, Italian styles and doubtlessto take shape and soon after that specialist dining
something on offer from IKEA too although unlikely asroom furniture styles began to arrive.
we believe even IKEA aren't that old!dining room