Furniture Warehouse Buying Guide
Sleep tight… We spend, on average, one third of our lives asleep. A good night’s sleep is essential for a good day ahead. An uncomfortable bed, particularly one over 10 years old, is bad for your health. It won’t give you the support you need and can cause numerous aches and pains. That means a disturbed night, and a bad start to the day.…don’t let the bugs bite An old bed will be home to thousands of dust mites who live off your dead skin cells. They are likely to trigger or worsen allergies. A second-hand bed or a new mattress on an old base can lead to health and back problems.
Consider too that a person loses up to a quarter of a litre of perspiration every night, which is absorbed into the mattress, and a new bed has never been more appealing or affordable: over a 10 year life span, a new bed can improve the quality of your life for as little as 10p a night.
If you are buying a bed for you and your partner, make sure both of you try it, especially if you are different sizes and weights. Lie on your back and slip your hand between the base of your spine and the mattress. If this is difficult, the mattress may be too soft. If it moves too easily then the mattress may be too hard. Ideally you should be able to move your hand with little resistance. Once you have established the type of mattress you like, lie on the bed as you would normally. Remember a mattress should support all parts of your body including your hips and shoulders. Take your time and try more than one bed in the showroom to ensure you make the right choice. This is vital as we are unable to refund or exchange mattresses and divan sets.
Buying Guide to Bedroom furniture.
- Bedsteads are normally slightly wider and longer than the standard size mattresses that fit them. Make sure you have enough room to walk round the bedstead easily.
- Wardrobes are large items of furniture. Many are made to come apart for easy access. Please ask our bedding specialist for advice if you have little room to manoeuvre
- Care for wooden bedroom furniture in the same way as dining room furniture.
Buying Guide for Upholstery
Make yourself comfortable. When buying a new sofa you look for 4 things: style, comfort, quality and value for money. You’ll find them all at The Furniture Warehouse. Buying a sofa is a big decision and our sales team will be happy to help. With their extensive product knowledge, they can tell you what is under the covers, and how each sofa will cope with the demands of your home. We also recommend our 5 year furniture protection programme Guardsman, which covers things like spills, rips, tears and burns.
Our sales team will be happy to guide you and demonstrate the products on display in our showroom. This simple guide will help you understand they key things to look for.
Frame: Frames have to be tough, strong and durable to cope with demands of everyday life. Made from a combination of timber and man made substrates, different shaped frames give structure and style to the furniture.
Support: Not all sofas have traditional springs. A seating platform may be constructed of highly durable synthetic strips known as webbing or include serpentine or zigzag springs, suspended front to back across the frame. Depending on the gauge and tension of the wire used, serpentine springs can offer a whole spectrum of comfort levels. Where greater support is required, a sprung edge, or sprung front rail may be used. It softens the impact you feel when first sitting down, because you don’t sit directly on the hard frame. This also gives greater durability to the suite. Webbing and springs are also found in the upright back sections of sofas and chairs. These systems form the basis of, and work with, the next layer you will find in your sofa - the fillings.
Foam: Foam seats tend to give the firmest feel and the most resilient look. They are generally more uniform in appearance. Foam cushions give good support and recover well after they are sat on. The denser the foam, the firmer the level of comfort. Manufacturers of traditional furniture prefer to use foam interiors.
Fibre: a man-made synthetic interior usually encased in ‘ticking’, a down-proof cover that prevents small particles escaping. The comfort level is usually medium to soft, depending on the volume to weight ratio of the filling. These cushions must be plumped daily to keep their shape and comfort.
Feathers: a soft, luxurious option, these cushions require rather more care than fibre or foam to maintain their looks. When used or handled they rustle as the feathers move around in their down-proof cover. These cushions must be plumped daily to keep their shape and comfort. Our suppliers often use a mix of fillings to give a different feel to their furniture. You may find foam cushions with a fibre wrap, or feather cushions with a foam core. Make sure you try them all out before making your choice. If you really love the look of that feather-filled suite but are allergic to them, don’t despair. Our sales team will do everything they can to find an alternative filling for you.
Buying Guide For Leather
Leather (hide): One of the oldest natural materials known to man, leather is synonymous with quality and the finer things in life. Only leather upholstery can claim to improve with time, developing a character all of its own. Leather wears in, fabric wears out. Improved processing methods and increased demand for leather products means leather is no longer an expensive option. The Furniture Warehouse offers some top quality suites at extraordinarily low prices. Each hide is unique and there are several methods of leather production process to create different looks. We have trained leather specialists in every store who will explain the different finishes:
Corrected grain: Most commonly used in upholstery, the top layer of the hide is buffed off to reduce imperfections. Colour is applied to the surface, and a roller embosses a grain-like pattern on top of it. Suites in corrected grain leather are easy to recognise because of their even colour and matt finish. Particularly durable, this hide is easy to care for, and excellent for a family environment.
Semi-analine: The production process for this leather often involves more than one colour. The hides have been through-dyed. The resulting leather is very soft to handle. It is not unusual to have a sheen or gloss to it, and customers should be aware there will be some shade variations between the panels used to make an item of furniture. Semi-analine can bring a real sumptuous feel to your furniture.
Analine: This is leather in its most natural state with little or no surface-coating to hide the natural features of the hide. You see all of the unique characteristics that are the hallmarks of this natural product. It is very soft to the touch.
Natural leathers: These include Nubuck suede, oiled and waxed finishes. We also offer a range of hand finished hides which look aged or distressed to create a fashionably casual appearance.
Natural characteristics such as scars, shade variations and blemishes are what makes real leather a unique, natural and discerning option.
Buying Guide for Dining and Bedroom Furniture
Dining and bedroom furniture bring style and practicality to your home. Whether it’s a dining set with matching sideboard, an entertainment or display unit, an ornate bedstead or occasional table, it is an important purchase.When it comes to choice, we can suit almost every taste and style. Our range includes cabinets in wood, metal, glass and even stone.
Generally, two types of wood are used in cabinet making:
- Softwood from quick growing conifers such as pine. These woods are more susceptible to bruising and marking than hard woods.
- Hardwood from slow growing deciduous trees including oak, ash, maple and teak. These timbers are much denser and have superb grains and lines when made into furniture.
Typical species of tree used to make furniture:
Acacia: a durable hard wood from fast growing trees from the Far East and South America. The thin grain, the flame design and varied colour shades give furniture made from it a warm appearance.
Ash: With a strong grain, this durable hardwood is usually light in weight and colour. It has good flexibility for making tables and chairs.
Beech: A cabinet maker’s favourite for making chairs, its benign grain makes it easy to stain or paint. The colour of this medium hardwood ranges from very pale brown to a dark reddish brown.
Birch: With a close grain that varies from straight lines to swirls, this durable hardwood is flexible and often used to imitate other timbers in restorations.
Cedar: An unusual timber to be used in furniture. Technically a softwood, but more durable than pine, this timber lends itself to darker or wenge finishes.
Cherry: A durable hardwood often used as a veneer because it is expensive to produce. Its characteristic red colour often deepens to a richer shade in time. The grain may be enhanced by dark speckles of sap.
Oak: A classic wood, usually with a tight grain. There are two main groups; red oak and white oak. White oak is considered superior as its grain has a finer texture. All oak lends itself to the French polisher’s art, accepting a huge spectrum of stains, finishes and colours. Previously used mainly in traditional farmhouse style furniture, many designers are now using oak in cutting edge furniture designs.
Mahogany: Sir Walter Raleigh imported this wood to England, having used it to repair the decks of his ship. During an on board visit Queen Elizabeth I remarked on its beauty. Raleigh immediately ordered the deck to be removed and made into a table for her. Later admirers included Sheraton, Chippendale and Hepplewhite. A tropical hardwood found across the globe, mahogany has a reddish patina and elaborate grain.
Maple: Mainly used as a veneer, maple is a hardwood with a light swirling grain. Sometimes ‘sugaring’, an accumulation of sap in the tree’s fibres, creates darker lines. The highly decorative bird’s-eye maple is produced when grown buds form on the tree’s bark but do not penetrate it. When sawn, this produces a grain that resembles ‘watered silk’. This is also used as a veneer.
Pine: Several varieties of this fast growing softwood, including Scots pine, Douglas fir and Norway spruce, supply the furniture industry. The trees’ sources of origin will dictate rich variation of colours from pale cream through to a red brown. Pine has a close grain caused by the short growing seasons high in the northern hemisphere, and will feature knots, marking the point on a tree trunk where a branch or side shoot once grew America also produces pine timber from their native species. Called pitch pine, it has a more open grain than its European counterpart.
Sheesham: A particularly durable foliage wood which has long been desirable in our interiors. In particular, the thin grain, the flame design and the varied colour shades provide furniture with a sound and warm appearance.
Teak: This dense tropical hardwood is found mainly in the Far East and tends to be used in outdoor furniture. It ranges from golden yellow to dark brown in colour.
Walnut: Grown across the world, the wood from each producing country has its own peculiarities. American walnut has a distinctive black grain and is often known as ‘black walnut’. Wood from Italy is similar. English walnut has strong dark streaks; it is extremely rare and usually only found in antique furniture. French and Turkish walnuts have highly figured grains and are commonly used as veneers. ‘Burl’ describes wood cut from an overgrown knot or outgrowth from the tree’s trunk. This striking effect is mainly used as a decorative veneer.
Buying Guide to Understanding furniture terms
Breadboard ends: A method of construction often seen on table tops. A board or piece of wood is fixed at right angles to a series of timber lengths. This helps to control movement within the wood by restricting its natural tendency to twist and warp.
Butt joint: One of the simplest ways to join two pieces of wood. This joint is usually held in place by a small corner block or piece of dowel.
Classic Chinese joinery: Usually seen on solid wood items, these traditional techniques hold furniture together without metal pins, nails or screws. Typical joining methods are mortise and tenon, and tongue and groove.
Dovetail joint: The classic way to make a join, with interlocking sections resembling the tails of a line of birds. Most commonly found on drawer fronts.
Finger joint: Another joint often found in drawers. Small ‘fingers’ or slots are cut into interlinking pieces of wood to ‘lock’ them together.
Grain: The pattern or direction of the fibrous tissue in wood. It generally marks the end of a year’s growth.
Knot: Indicated by an oval shaped darker area in the timber, this is the point at which either a branch or side shoot grew out of the main tree trunk. It is a natural characteristic of wood.
Laminate: A man-made product produced by bonding layers of wood to another material (again often wood based such as MDF, see below.).
MDF: Made by compressing wood fibres, resin and wax under high pressure into panels. This resilient man-made product provides a stable and highly durable base for plywood, particle board and solid timber.
Mitre: A joint made by cutting a 45 degree angle along the end grain of 2 pieces of wood before fixing them together. Most often used on table tops, or in making the frame of a piece of furniture.
Mortise and tenon: Used on chairs and table legs, a router tool cuts a cavity in one piece of wood and a corresponding protrusion is inserted in it. This forms a very strong joint.
Particle board: Used to give furniture structure, this man-made product is produced by compressing wood fragments (like shavings and chips) together with resin.
Peg detailing: Fixing wood together by literally placing ‘a square peg in a round hole’
Plantation grown: Usually refers to tropical hardwoods where the timber is grown for harvest and replanted.
Plywood: A number of layers of wood (usually three or five) are glued together. The grain in each successive layer is joined at right angles for greater strength and flexibility.
Recycled or reclaimed timber: Timber from old buildings or furniture made into something new.
Solid wood construction: Furniture made from solid wood.
Veneer: A decorative, highly skilled finish where thin layers of wood are overlaid on the surface of a piece of furniture. Some of the finest furniture has intricate veneers cut from many different timbers.
Buying Guide to Different wood finishes.
Bleaching: The colour of any type of wood is lightened.
Distressing: The cabinet maker uses various tools to create dents, scratches and even fake worm holes to give a new piece of furniture an aged and used look.
Stain: Natural or synthetic dye is used to colour wood and bring out its best features. Stains may be water, spirit or oil based.
Wash: A paint effect on wooden furniture.
Wenge: Wood that has been stained and finished in a very dark colour, often contrasted with a pale finish for a dramatic look.Top Coat Finishes.
Lacquer: A clear, durable, easy care finish that brings out the beauty of the wood in a matt or a gloss finish.
Oiled: A traditional and natural finish that requires repeated applications over time. It causes the wood to harden giving it greater durability and enhances the beauty of the wood grain.
Polyurethane: A transparent plastic coating which protects against general wear and tear. Easy to maintain.
Varnish: A resinous solution with pigments added to produce a coloured opaque waterproof finish. It is very tough and durable.
Wax: Another traditional and natural finish requiring repeated applications to enhance the beauty of the grain. Used on bare or stained wood, a wax finish often covers a lacquer finish for the perfect combination of feel and practicality.
Buying Guide to Metal, Glass and Stone.
These include extending and static dining tables in metal and glass with a choice of leather or fabric chairs. We also have metal and/or glass shelving units, and a wide range of small occasional tables and bedsteads. There are many different finishes and colours in our metals and all glass used in our furniture meets with British Safety Standards BS6202.Stone the stone furniture range includes large and small dining tables, occasional tables, stone topped sideboards and consoles. Stone finishes include travertine, marble and granite. No two pieces of stone are ever the same. Colour and shade variations are only natural, as are tiny holes or blemishes in the stone surface. A neutral filler is often used to get a smooth finish and disguise marks.
Buying Guide for Sofabeds
Family gatherings, parties, special occasions… all times when you can end up with more guests than you have beds for. That’s why you need a sofabed. The Furniture Warehouse has a wide range of stylish sofabeds, either stand alone or as part of a range along side standard sofas and chairs. Our sofa beds range from a single bunk bed width 75 cm (2’6”) up to king size 150 cm (5’0). So you can make the most of whatever space you have available. As with everything in our upholstery range, all our sofa beds have a 1 year quality guarantee. We also recommend our 5 year furniture protection programme, Guardsman. This covers you against accidental damage including spills, rips, tears and burns.
Is it for a child’s room? As children grow up, they like to personalise their own space. For teenagers, a small sofa or chair bed for their bedroom can make it more of a living space. And inviting a friend for a sleepover is hassle free. A full sized sofabed with arms won’t fit through every bedroom or stairway. So at The Furniture Warehouse you can buy a sofa with removable arms - much easier to manoeuvre in tight spaces. Some models have no arms at all. The largest of these opens out to nearly the same width as a standard double bed, comfortably sleeping two. If the space you have is only big enough for a chair, chair beds open into a single bed. At the other extreme, you might consider a sofa bed equivalent to a king size bed. Make sure you have up to 230cm (7’) from the back of the sofa to open the bed out fully, although some models may be shorter.
When used as a bed, the type of sleeping surface will depend upon the sofabed mechanism. Some beds pull out from the bottom of the sofa or chair like a series of trays. When fully extended the foam seating cushions fold down into the ‘mattress’ with a handy small mid-section where you can store a set of sheets. The ‘bed’ is quite close to the floor and will feel quite firm. Some have a metal frame that unfolds to the same height as the seating platform. A mattress is supported either on a canvas-like base or by a series of beech slats to let air circulate freely around it. These sofa beds give the closest feel to a normal bed. A sofa bed is for occasional use rather than permanent sleeping. Sofabed mattresses, therefore, are either foam or sprung, up to a depth of 10 cm (4”). We recommend you visit our showroom to see which ones you like the best. Remember, all will feel firmer than a normal bed. We also sell mattress toppers which can be used to soften the effect for an even more comfortable night’s sleep.