What is your favourite piece of furniture in your listing?

[Jenny]

Hello everyone!

I know how much time and effort you all put into your listings, carefully choosing and maintaining the furniture and decor that you hope will delight your guests.

It must be so exciting to create a space to be enjoyed by other people! 

I’d love to know what your favourite piece of furniture from your listing is!

Do you have a favourite sofa, discovered in a vintage store, or have you perhaps recycled a lamp you saved from a house clearance?  Maybe you’ve invested in something brand new, just for the guest experience?

Please let us know in the comments about your most coveted piece of furniture used in your listing!

[Helen427]

@Gillian166 

Do you have a photo of the old Vintage Wardrobe?

I would like to see what it looks like, maybe you could put it in one of your other rooms and repurpose it that way.

[Helen427]

My favorite piece of furniture is a tricky one to decide as I have several that are always a hit with my visitors.

The 1970's Danish style genuine wooden arm chairs that have wooden rods inserted in them to hold them together that I've recently had repaired and have old fashioned Boucle coverings on the squabs that I inherited a number of years ago from a now deceased elderly lady, a Rocking chair and the ones that seems to hit the spot, the wooden Tiered Pot Plant stands are used for a Coffee/ Book and Phone stand that slots nicely along the bed as it's a narrower room.

I've one in the Living room which also gets great use.

How about you @Jenny @Sybe 

@Gillian166, I love the idea of a brighter Chandelier - light colours can make a huge difference.

Perhaps scout around for a Stand alone plug in the wall Upright Light/ Lamp stand to add to the ambiance in your home.

@Solveig0 @Solveig13 @Solveig9 @Denmark0 @Furnished-Finds0 @Furniture0 @Comfy7 @Chairin0 @Rocki-And-Tom0 

[Jenny]

These sound gorgeous, @Helen427! Do you have any photos you can share?

I don't currently host (hopefully in the future when I have more space!) but I do have a favourite piece of furniture, though I'm not sure I could let it out of my own home! 

It's a small table, vintage (though I'm not sure of the year), and it's painted in deep red and what used to be white circus stripes.  It has a brass handle and adornments on the feet.  It has one deep drawer in the front.  My friend bought it for me for my 40th birthday last year!  It once belonged to a lady who loved to knit, and who kept her knitting in the drawer,  that's all the history I know.  I love to imagine it once graced a showman's caravan or home.

[Sybe]

@Helen427 @Jenny Ever since I moved to London I've only lived in places for max 1 year, and most of them were already furnished so I don't have a lot of furniture myself. I now have a place where we're planning to stay longer so I've finally been able to purchase some things but I think my most favourite piece of furniture has to be my mattress haha! It's the first time ever that I really took the time to find a mattress that fits my needs, and it's pure bliss to sleep comfortably after almost 5 years.

I did recently buy a TV stand that I'm very fond of. It's got dark wood surfaces and a black metal skeleton, a kind of mix between mine and my parent's taste.

[Solveig0]

Yeah, @Helen427  Danish wooden furniture is a classic!

I'm in Denmark and going after a British country style in my airbnb! Muted colors and heavy gold frames. 

One of the problems we have with the classic Danish furniture here in Denmark is that it is very often burglarized, often on order. If you have pictures of these in your listing you run a high risk of becoming the next burglary victim. We don't have any - neither in our listing nor in our home. We just have old - non-classic - danish furniture - that nevertheless has value and family history. 

Like the bed my girls sleep in, it was made by my great-great-grandfather, I slept in it as a kid, and so did every generation before me. It's not danish though, it's a Norwegian "skyvseng" (pull apart bed, it pulls out sideways so that it can become wider. 

[Helen427]

That's quite incredible about Danish furniture and been burgled, @Solveig0  what is it with people?

From time to time people who have had Danish furniture here have sold it in Estate Sales - I'm shocking for collecting Auction Catalogues to flick through as don't have time to go to auctions - that may be a blessing!

I'm sure @Huma0 magazine collection is bigger than mine.

Maybe we should have a topic about magazine collections  😉

What a delightful heritage and tradition to pass on the bed the girls sleep in.

It's a testament to great woodmanship and craftmanship.

[Huma0]

@Helen427 

I have no idea how large your magazine collection is, but you are probably right that mine is bigger. It's kind of insane. I do have to have a cull every now and then, which really hurts, but needs must.

When my listing photos were taken, I had just had a friend of mine make the bookshelves in the living room (you can see the masking tape as I was still painting them), hence why they are mostly empty. I specifically got her to make a lot of them the right height for housing magazines and they are absolutely jam packed now. 

Meanwhile, I have stacks of old magazines (from my teenage years) at my mum's house. Every now and again, she brings the subject up and I say, "No, don't throw those away! They're valuable," and it's true that some of them probably are, but it's a bit shameful that as a middle aged woman with a big house, I am still leaving all that round at my mum's!

In the guest bedrooms, I usually leave a small stack of magazines. These will be in the guest's language if I have them (I try to pick up a few on my work trips), otherwise travel related stuff like Conde Nast Traveller and that sort of thing. 

Yep, I'm pretty addicted.

[Debra300]

@Jenny,

I don't have a favorite piece of furniture, but Keep Cool says that his favorite are a pair of Italian leather Chesterfield chairs that are in one of our guest suites. 

[Jenny]

I absolutely love those chairs @Debra300 - they are gorgeous!

[Huma0]

@Jenny 

I suspect you started this thread to stop @Gillian166 and I constantly going off topic and discussing furniture on other threads. I admit it. We are GUILTY.

It's hard for me to pinpoint one favourite piece of furniture. I'm a bit obsessed with furniture and have many pieces that I love (especially if I got them for a bargain).

I have upcycled quite a few inexpensive vintage pieces and this probably remains my favourite one of those to date as it was cheap as chips and I think I turned it into a one of a kind affair. I like it anyway!

However, if I had to stake a guess at which item of furniture guests most admire, it would be the gilt, king sized bed in one of the guest rooms that has a very tall headboard with padded silk upholstery (fancy looking, but also quite comfortable and practical when sitting up in bed). People seem to be a bit wowed by this. It's not antique, not even vintage, but reproduction. Usually these beds are really expensive. I'm not saying that I didn't blow my (very tight) budget when I bought it, but I got it for around 1/5th of retail price, so I was quite pleased with that 🙂 

I always think it's better to hunt around/sometimes invest in something special that you are going to keep for years and years and years, rather than some cheap, generic, flat pack high street furniture (that is if you are not moving rentals every year). My own bed was made to measure by craftspeople in Pakistan. My parents got it made for me when I was 14 or 15, which was centuries ago, and I imagine it will be passed down for generations.

[Gillian166]

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haha, you are possibly correct @Huma0 ! 

I agree with you, my fave pieces are often the ones i got as a bargain.  Although lately i've been buying upcycled furniture too, and letting someone else do the hard work. Recently got a new kitchen hutch for our cottage, it was only $250, and i know that the paint cost alone would have been $100, plus the handles and labour....  it's one of my faves because I didn't have to do any work, I didn't even fetch it or lift it into place (loving it that my kids are now actually useful in this regard) but it was also painted in the perfect sage green colour. (my colours for the cottage are sage green and soft pink). We really needed a few original pieces in this cottage to offset the ikea, and this just appeared when I needed it. 

[Huma0]

@Gillian166 

The hutch looks really lovely. I can't see the detail from the photo, but it looks like whoever up cycled it did a good job. Since I discovered chalk paint, I actually enjoy painting furniture as you usually don't need to do any stripping or sanding (although you do have to wax and buff it which is a bit boring). I seriously thought about up cycling and selling furniture as a side job, but never had the time and then sold my car so don't have the necessary transportation anymore. However, I know that painting a large piece like this is really time consuming, so I understand why you let someone else do it!! 

[Gillian166]

@Huma0  I got into chalk paint years ago but I dispute that you don't need to pre-sand. I can show you 2 items of furniture that have stains leeching through after a few years. Now there is mineral paint (or whatever it's called around the world) that is also formulated just for furniture. It's not as matte (which is what i love about chalk paint) but you don't need to wax afterwards. we didn't post-treat the black hutch, i figure it's easier to just do regular touch ups with black paint. I'll see how i feel about it in a few months! 

My daughter and I are also considering doing furniture upcycling, but really there's not much money it in. By the time you've fetched the piece, spent 2 days on the restoration, paint costs, hardware, tools... you're earning about $2/hr from the profit. So it's really a labour of love as a "business". If we were able to sell pieces for proper money, then it might be worth it. I still can't fathom how people will pay more for a flat pack mass produced coffee table/desk/wardrobe/etc, than a beautiful old restored piece. This is why I currently haunt FB marketplace, anything under $300 that has been properly restored with a quality paint job and modern new hardware, is a bargain. 

[Huma0]

@Gillian166 

Yes, the bleeding through can be an issue with furniture that has a very dark finish, e.g. the faux mahogany type. Most of the stuff I have chalk painted has been a lighter wood and I've had no bleed through. I did, however, paint a nest of faux mahogany tables a few years ago and there has also not been any bleed through.

To be on the safe side though, you can always use a special primer-sealer (I read that Zinsser make the best ones for this) before chalk painting, which is a lot less fuss than sanding/stripping in my opinion. I don't mind doing a light sanding, but stripping furniture is a pain in the backside. I have sometimes stripped and restrained the top of a sideboard and painted the rest, as I quite like that look, but that would always be my least favourite part and I couldn't wait to get past that and start the painting!

Re up cycling furniture as a business, I think it probably depends on the location and the market there. If it was something I was seriously considering, I would do a lot more research on that and the different outlets for selling.

People in London can pay a lot for vintage furniture. I saw a stall in Greenwich market selling painted furniture for some pretty hefty prices and pieces also going for quite a bit on Ebay (not just in London) as long as the seller started the bids very low. I saw some listings on Etsy where the prices were very high and pieces were selling. They had been done to a very high standard with a lot of detail and people seemed prepared to pay for that. One of the things that put me off is that you have to include postage at a fixed price, and I know that the costs for this can really vary depending on where it's going. It's not going to cost the same to send a piece of furniture to a buyer in London as it is to Edinburgh!

It's crucial of course to buy the pieces for a very low price to start with and I've always been good at finding bargains, but it's not really feasible without a car and I also don't have the space to store/work on the pieces. I do love the idea though. I really had to stop myself yesterday from picking up a sold wood coffee table that some neighbours had chucked out. Some pretty wealthy people live in that apartment building (I can tell from the cars parked outside) and they keep throwing perfectly good, quite expensive furniture out! Last time, I picked up a card table, but I still haven't finished painting it 😞

[Gillian166]

@Huma0  omg, i would just die if i saw quality furniture, in London!!! being thrown away. at least here in australia 1) you know it's <200 years old to start with, haha and 2) depending on the city, probably <20years, which is considered "old" (especially on the Gold Coast, where i currently am, ick, and a big reason why i can't stay here)

We have the luxury of having plenty of space to store and work on furniture. half the time we just prop it up on the lawn somewhere, but we also have 18 stables with no horses (long story, but horse tenants are the WORST, possibly why airbnb has been a dream for us once we stopped renting to crazy horse people, we are currently wooing a whisky maker to rent the stables to use as his barrel storage) and when i was there f/t 5 years ago i turned one into a spray booth and upcycled a bunch of furniture for our house. 

and @Jenny  we are loving this thread where we can ramble ON/off topic. thanks!