Free local delivery within 50 miles of any store The price promise is for all our products including the famous brands we sell A little interior inspiration this Half Term We like to think that we cater for every home, so that whether you’re a young professional or part of a lively family household, we have furnishings to complement your lifestyle and suit your needs. Fall in Love with up to 50% off It’s the most romantic time of the year and all around us is a sea of hearts, chocolates and flowers.But this Valentine’s Day, why not fall in love with some new furniture or home decor from Alan Ward Eclectic chairs exclusive to Alan Ward Here at Alan Ward, we believe that your interior should help to express your individuality and unique style sensibilities. What our customers say about us...READ TESTIMONIALS HERE > Find your nearest storeVIEW OUR STORES HERE > for our exclusive special offersWe’re so confident that our extensive range of quality furniture represents the very best value for money, that in the unlikely event of finding an identical product elsewhere, we promise to match, or better any deal on a like-for-like basis, at the point of order...even internet offers!
As of this weekend, it is against the law in the UK for furniture dealers to sell replicas of iconic pieces. Say goodbye to cheap imitations of such classics as Arne Jacobsen’s Egg chair, the plastic S chair by Verner Panton, and the Eames range. The copyright rules expire 70 years after the designer’s death, which leaves lovers of midcentury pieces with several decades still to wait for knock-off versions. Buying the authentic pieces themselves – or others from the same era – doesn’t have to cost a fortune, though. Savvy shoppers are rising to the challenge of finding true unadulterated originals at a fraction of the price. has seen a 30 per cent annual increase in the number of active searches specifically for retro furniture. “In the past, many people bought second-hand furniture because it was all they could afford, but now they search for these heritage designers to buy one-of-a-kind, sophisticatedly designed pieces, crafted from high-quality materials, making a good investment for the future.”
The pieces remain affordable, though. A Fifties lounge chair with its original green mottled fabric, which was listed with an estimated price of £20 to £40, sold for just £1. Even after adding the buyer’s premium – usually around 10 to 20 per cent of the hammer price, plus VAT – it’s still a genuine steal. A Danish teak bureau with an estimated price of up to £100 was snapped up for £20, while a classic red leather wingback lounge chair on an aluminium five-star swivel base sold for £30, well below its £80 estimate. These days, most vintage and retro retailers have an online shop as well as (or instead of) a showroom, with new stock posted every day, so you don’t even have to pound the streets to find the perfect addition to your home. Browsing online is a good way to get a feel for prices and quality before parting with your cash. You can also set up alerts to be notified after an auction how much an item eventually sold for. Sandrine Zhang Ferron left investment banking to start Vinterior, a curated online marketplace selling vintage and design furniture, after she spent three months traipsing around shops and scouring eBay and Gumtree to furnish her home.
“The online photographs were really bad, and you had to take a chance with the seller and the real condition of the furniture,” she says. It also frustrated her that the listing rarely included information about the history of the item. Vinterior showcases 6,000 items of stock hand-picked from professional dealers and interior designers who know the provenance of each piece. The details usually include the condition, country of origin, and manufacturer, often with a stamp to prove it. Prices start under £100 and delivery is available worldwide (vinterior.co). The available items change from day to day, but recent stock includes six bar tables by Benchairs of Somerset in beech and Formica, from the Seventies, priced at £75 each, which were previously owned by the Central London Masonic Centre. The website also featured an iconic Nucleus leather armchair on a chrome base, from the Sixties or Seventies, by British manufacturer Tetrad, suppliers to Harrods and Heal’s, for £380.
The chair has recently been reissued by the company in Harris Tweed for around £900. “People are bored by contemporary furniture, where they all end up owning the same thing,” says Zhang Ferron. “Ikea is convenient and fairly priced, but people are looking for craftsmanship, quirky pieces and longevity, regardless of their budget – although, even the wealthy like a bargain.” As well as the design pedigree of these items, they have an added charm from the fact that they have been cared for and preserved by a previous generation. Understated, well-made, practical furniture from brands such as G Plan, Ercol and Parker Knoll can create a statement in any room – and become a family heirloom worthy of being passed on to another generation. This is partly why there has been a rise in interest for pieces of local history, Zhang Ferron adds. “Mid-century furniture from the Fifties, Sixties and Seventies is very popular from Scandinavia, Italy and France – but increasingly buyers are looking for British-made products.”
And if these price tags are still too high? It’s possible to pick up furniture for free via local Freecycle schemes, and charities including the British Heart Foundation will collect unwanted furniture to sell in their shops or eBay pages. Pull up a chair and get started.When you buy a five-figure sofa, you’re buying more than just the down-filled cushions and hand-tied springs. Behind every sofa from high-end companies like B&B Italia and Vitra is a network of high-rent showrooms and warehouses, a big-budget ad campaign and often a big-name designer. Is it any wonder they charge a premium? It is possible, however, to produce a sofa close to the same quality for a fraction of the price, as a handful of direct-to-consumer companies have recently shown. Like the online eyewear retailer, these companies focus on producing a great product at a great price, providing exceptional customer service and cutting middleman costs by doing most of their business online and aggressively marketing themselves through social media.
That translates to higher profits, and it means they are able to control the way their products are presented and sold. But are consumers really willing to buy a big, expensive piece of furniture without seeing it in person? As Sekar Sundararajan, a senior manager and retail strategist at the global management consulting firm Kurt Salmon, pointed out: “Many customers are already used to buying from catalogs without visiting a brick-and-mortar location, so ‘sight unseen’ isn’t really a big deal.” Rob Royer, who founded the company in 2014, spent a year in China to find a factory that met his standards. He also recruited Marta Calle, a former president of Crate & Barrel, to serve as the executive chairwoman and Andy Dunn, the founder of Bonobos, to sit on the board.Prices start at $950 for the Gray sofa, but the showpiece is the Russell, a $3,000 sectional with a forged steel base, a 39-inch-deep seat and large down-fill pillows. Sofas can be customized by size, fabric and other features;
and there is a generous return policy. Send the sofa back any time in the first year, and you’ll get a full refund minus a restocking fee of up to $300; return it in the first 14 days, and there’s no restocking fee. And if you insist on trying before you buy, the company has a showroom in Chicago; another is set to open in New York next year. When the Bryght website first went up in 2013, its “about us” manifesto stated that its sofas were produced at the same factory that made furniture for brands like B&B Italia and Knoll. That piece of information has since disappeared from the site, said Aamir Baig, the company’s chief executive, at the request of the factory’s owners, whose other clients didn’t appreciate the free publicity. Considering that Bryght’s prices range from about $700 for a loveseat to around $3,000 for a leather sectional with a Miesian vibe, that’s understandable. “There’s a leap of faith involved in buying a sofa from a website,” Mr. Baig said.
But the delivery fee is minimal: All orders, regardless of size, are delivered for a flat fee of $49 in the continental United States. As he pointed out, “That’s a strong economic incentive, both for the customer and for us; our sofas have to exceed customer expectations, or we expose ourselves to a lot of risk through returns.” And in the near future, he added, “We’ll have a holograph app that enables customers to see exactly what a Bryght sofa will look like in their living room.” This Los Angeles-based company, founded in 2011, is what’s known as a “manutailer” — it’s a manufacturer and a retailer. Owning your own furniture factory has its advantages. In addition to hands-on quality control, Thrive Furniture has a fast turnaround time: A sofa can be ordered and delivered in as few as five days. The company’s founder, Christopher Laudadio, who also owns Versa Products, a commercial furniture business, stresses the local craftsmanship that goes into the sofas, as well as the locally sourced “eco-friendly” materials.
There is a store in Los Angeles, and for those who would like to see their sofas being made, factory tours can be scheduled. If the sofas made by Joybird, founded in 2014, look a lot like the ones produced by Thrive Furniture, there may be a good reason: The owners are former Thrive employees. (Thrive Furniture filed a lawsuit against Joybird, alleging the owners stole designs, manufacturing plans and money to start their own business; the case was dismissed, but Christopher Laudadio, the founder of Thrive, said he is still pursuing legal action. Joshua Stellin, one of Joybird’s owners, said: “The idea of ’copying’ furniture is silly because nobody has designed a unique sofa in the last 50 years. Everything you see is an old design that has been rescaled and tweaked.”) Like Thrive Furniture, Joybird owns its own factory; the company’s headquarters is in Los Angeles and the factory is in Mexico. Two of the owners, Alex Del Toro and Andres Hinostroza, live in Los Angeles and manage the e-commerce side of the business;
the other two, Christopher Stormer and Mr. Stellin, live in Mexico and oversee production. The company promises a full refund if you return an order of under $7,500 any time in the first year after purchase. It also offers 24/7 customer service, various customization options and step-by-step production updates. A “lifetime warranty” covers the sofas’ frames, springs and backs; the fabric and foam are guaranteed for three years. Joybird doesn’t have a showroom, but a number of small retailers across the country carry its line. TrueModern’s chief executive, Edgar Blazona, is a former Pottery Barn furniture designer, which makes it surprising that the company’s sofas are among the priciest of the lot. They start at about $1,300 for a 70-inch Luna loveseat and go up to around $7,500 for the 170-inch Bump Bump U-shaped sectional. But many models are customizable by the inch, and each one is hand-built within two weeks. Frames are made from kiln-dried alder hardwood, and many of the materials are eco-friendly.