Feature furniture – stand out

An important part of our role as interior designers is to furnish the spaces that we are designing. Furniture naturally has a practical role within the home, for example somewhere to sit, sleep or store your belongings. But it also plays an important part in the overall design. Every room needs one piece of furniture that is the ‘conversation piece’ or hero piece, which we will delve into a little deeper in today’s blog. 

 

Bigger is better?

When talking about a hero piece of furniture in a room, one will assume that it needs to be a large or oversized piece of furniture to stand out, but that’s not always the case. A piece can become a feature regardless of its size; it could be the placement, colour/pattern, or simply the style that makes a particular piece stand out from the rest. For example, if you have a contemporary home, including an antique piece can become the hero as it will stand out by being from a completely different era and style. 

When considering scale, oversized is already great, but every piece can’t be oversized in a space, or they would be competing with each other which would interfere with the overall look and feel. Large pieces of furniture work well in small spaces, creating an illusion of space where they may not be much. Smaller pieces of furniture in small spaces tend to look ‘bitty’. A winning combination is creating an elegant mix of large and small pieces that work well together to balance out the overall aesthetic. 

 

Creating a focal point

A really large piece of furniture can become a focal point in a room. Take the beautiful French Armoiré in this blog’s cover image, an example from my own home. I bought this piece many years ago, and was incredibly fortunate that it fitted into the room perfectly; if you look closely you can see that it is incredibly tall and only just fits within the ceiling, and is framed perfectly by windows on either side. This room has changed a lot since I first introduced this wonderful piece into my home but following my own mantra of ‘buy once, buy right’, this timeless example of quality furniture continues to be the feature and talking point of the space, no matter what is going on around it. 

 

Bespoke furniture 

Having the opportunity to create a bespoke piece of furniture for our clients brings so much joy. The console featured in this image was created by Jonathan West for one of our clients, and works as a hero in the entrance space of their home. This console was the first piece that we introduced and then we worked around that. As it warrants such a strong presence, the finer details such as the accompanying lighting to the left is much more delicate in comparison, creating a stunning balance. 

There is a lot of sentiment involved in furniture; its history is important, it has a ‘previous life’ that is enchanting to imagine. The mirror featured above the bespoke console actually belonged to the client’s late father, an antique piece that (once professionally restored), works wonderfully and indulges the importance of furniture and its meaning to a family within the home. 

‘Hero’ pieces

Each room will usually have its stand out ‘hero’ piece of furniture… In a bedroom it’s usually the bedhead, a fabulous fabric is a great way to enhance this and draw the eye to it instantly. In a dining room, the table could be the hero piece, especially if it’s a large table. But in a living space, it could be a smaller item of furniture that’s a talking point. A wall of joinery with mouldings (as seen in the bedroom image above) could be the hero piece (another great example of built-in furniture being a feature of a room). Using different furniture, for example, two different bedside tables could be a feature in itself. Taking the time to be creative and focus on what you would like the main feature of the room to be will really pay off in the long term.

 

Built-in feature furniture

Remembering that not all furniture is stand-alone, we’d like to take a moment to talk about built-in furniture that can become a focal point of a room. This window seat was created for a child’s bedroom and quickly became an important feature piece. Placement of built-in furniture can create a feature, for example, if it is the centre of a room and catches the eye easily, the design or colour that draws in the attention. 

 

 

Feature furniture can be used as a great storage solution to hide the unsightly items

In every home there will always be something that you would rather keep hidden, a prime example being a television. A television is a fixture that you would struggle to find a home without, but of course, doesn’t always work well within the style or aesthetic of the design. Furniture can be cleverly adapted and used to hide elements such as the television, to avoid it becoming an unwanted feature in your lounge, kitchen or bedroom. 

 

If you’re redesigning your home and aren’t sure where to start when it comes to furnishing or creating feature furniture or hero pieces, then please reach out to us, we’d love to hear from you.