Why Antique Furniture?

 Chris Seidl currently works as a blog writer and webmaster for English Classics, purveyor of fine antique furniture. He lives, works, and plays in Atlanta, and can be contacted at webmaster [at] english-classics.net. Here is a piece he has written for AntiuqesAvenue which is all about why you could consider Antique Furniture for your home

Why Antique Furniture?

Antique Bookcase

If you asked yourself, “Why furniture?” two categories of answers would surface: need and desire. Of course, there is a practical need for furniture around the home and office, dating all the way back to when the first person decided it was better to sit on a plank of wood than squat on the floor. But then there are the more complicated “needs” of the mind: desires. Furniture has a way of completing a space, of pulling a collection of rooms together to make a home. Accessories and collectibles have a way of doing this, too, but it is the sustained combination of function and aesthetic pleasure that sets furniture apart as a superior organizer of space. A desk, for instance, serves an obvious and important need, but whether the desk is a gorgeous antique with rich wood and leather, or whether it is simply a hunk of junk with surface area, can make the difference between an inspired workspace and one lacking all creativity and cheer whatsoever.

So now we arrive at the second part of the question: “Why antique?” Everyone probably has their own answer for this, but I’ve found that antiques have several key advantages over contemporary furniture (good reproductions aside). The first is the most obvious: quality. In general, antiques hail from a time before quality became expendable, when furniture was carefully made to not only endure, but to look beautiful. Of course, there must have been droves of shoddy pieces, pumped out by unscrupulous cabinetmakers, but then, most of the furniture belonging to this category has already passed away into the oblivion of scrap and garbage that history forgets. The furniture that remains has withstood the test of time, and so there’s bound to be something good about it.

 Antiques also tend to hold their value. I myself am redecorating around the house, and it makes it much simpler (and easier on the wallet) to sell one piece and use that money to buy another. Over time, too, it makes sense to have your money invested in something that is almost guaranteed to at least retain the same value, especially in today’s market.

 Last but not least, antique furniture organizes space in a way that I have come to believe is healthy for the mind. If the spaces we inhabit affect how we feel, then in some small part, they determine who we are. Consider, for instance, your idea of home: isn’t it more in the mind that in one place? It is the feelings and memories with which we invest a place that makes it home, and furniture goes a long way to creating that ambiance. Antique furniture in particular so often represents the ideal synthesis of nature and craft—carved wood being the perfect example—and I believe it is this combination that we look for in our homes. When we surround ourselves with the crafted beauty that only antiques can provide, it tends to affect us in a way that makes us happier people, and in the end, that’s what furniture should do.