Bequeathing your flat-packs? I don’t think so!

As the countdown to the keys continues, (lots of moving {and unmoving!} parts; banks, lawyers, paperwork, wires, bank holidays!) I have used the waiting time to feverishly work on designs and create to do lists for the new atelier.

However, I have also done something that most people dread doing and procrastinate on endlessly – and that’s write a will. It’s no easy or pleasant task assessing your own worth and then working out how to distribute your belongings once you’ve shuffled off your mortal coil. Which is probably why, I’m told, such a considerable percentage of Brits die intestate. So there I was grappling around, rooting through drawers and trying to think what exactly constituted my worldly goods and indeed how to bolster my list when I had a moment of insight.

My flagging spirits lifted dramatically when it dawned on me that I could bequeath the pieces of Tree Couture fine furniture that I’d designed and made – solid wood, handcrafted and timeless. Yes I did have items of significant worth – both financially and, dare I be so bold to suggest, even sentimentally. And it got me thinking about an industry report I’d read a few years ago on actual lifespans of furniture in the UK.

Horrifyingly, it revealed that the average lifespan of a piece of furniture in Britain is a paltry seven years!

While obviously acknowledging what a dreadful waste of precious resources this represents - yet another shocking example of the disposable nature of our society – I was grateful and maybe even a little smug in the knowledge that, not only was my own handcrafted furniture sure to outlive me and plenty more generations, but it would keep and very probably gain value and just get better and better aesthetically. As what we flawed human beings and veneered MDF have in common is that we both age rather unfortunately.  Wood, on the other hand, ages beautifully when it’s solid and its patina develops and its real integral depth starts revealing itself.

It can certainly be argued that there’s a place for flat-pack furniture, such as the Ikea and Argos wonders of this modern world. Indeed it provides an affordable fashion-driven alternative to good, solid furniture. But it’s little more than an instant and very short-term fix, as industry statistics reveal that the average longevity of such pieces is just three years. A frightfully false economy as my grandmother would say.

So it is encouraging to see that, with the increase in interest in all things green and sustainable, people are thinking more seriously about furniture as investments, as fabulous functional design-and-craft statements that are not just for Christmas, but for life – and, indeed, beyond!