Country Furniture Online

We are all used to living at an incredibly fast pace as a rule.  When there are not lockdown restrictions in place to combat viruses and other pandemics of course.  Most families still tend to follow the regular 5 day week with 2 family days off together and on those 2 special days there’s the shopping, cleaning and hobbies to fit in!  One of the benefits of an almost country living is the chance to really take in the beauty of the local surroundings, be that farm land or hills and dales, whilst still having the avantage of a local market town for the supplies and social life.  When we look at the hundreds of escaping to countryside programmes on the well known tv series, the majority of candidates are looking for a ‘country cottage with character’.  They usually demand a fantastic sized kitchen – normally anything less than the footprint of a small bungalow will be considered far too small – the host of the show has to drag the expectations back down to reality – the secret being in the name – country cottage!

We we live is alwas going to be dictated to a certain extent by our family needs rather than desires.  It’s one thing to be able to find that absolutely perfect property out in the middle of nowhere.  Maybe a stone pile surrounded by hills and trees and very little else.  Apparently hat is the dream of thousands of people in this country.  However, as I know very well, it’s a major undrtaking actually moving out to the sticks.  You soon realise that when you first run out of milk or eggs.  You also realise that not evey company is prepared to deliver out to the further reaches of  your county.  Also, there are the small matter of utility services too – I do know a couple of invested every penny they had to buy a stone conversion in a very secluded spot – only to realise the shortcomings when heating the place.  They had no gas in the area so it was only electricity or oil.  Fortunately, oil has been quite cheap lately and they have an early warning system to alert them to the need for more to be ordered.  It runs the boiler very efficiently.

Ahh well, this is the time of  year when we are bombarded with adverts for furniture and bedding sales.  Christmas and the New Year period has historically been the time for all the major companies to offload their stock in readiness for the new season designs.  However, with so much more money floating about, families using credit far more than before, they are introducing new designs more often throughout the year.  This has in some way brought many families to the point of wanting to actually stop the merry go round, constantly changing fads and fashions and to actually look out for and cherish real furniture and to surround themselves with quality pieces they can hand on down their own generations.  I love looking through local county magazines – they highlight the joys of country living, showing areas for walking out and really enjoying what life can offer.  They also show very beautiful houses that have stood for many years and are filled with antiques and quality furnishings.   Leaving the quick throw-away cheaply made stuff behind, there is a move back to wanting solid oak and other wood – some antique sale rooms and suppliers can’t keep up with demand, which is fantastic.   Heritage homes help to foster this trend.  Appreciation for real quality.  At last!

Even modern homes feature in lists of heritage properties to visit, along side the established  historic houses.  Our coutry is blessed with thousands of fantastic houses and halls that are open to the public.  For a very modest fee we can wander around – sometimes, and infinitely preferable,  with a guide.  These folk are experts at explaining various aspects about the property  and can bring to life that odd looking tapestry up in the Green Bedroom, or the rather awkward looking portrait in the small Hall .  . . .     I have visited many such houses and as I help out by volunteering at a medium aged Hall, I now like to visit the more modern places just to bring myself up to date with what can be done to save them for the nation also.  The architecture can sometimes jar on the senses but in every case, there is something very special or maybe even unique about the properties which have earmarked them for national interest.  I’m personaly very grateful that we have such august heritage institutions – without them we would probably have no such properties to visit.

The one thing that stands out in heritage properties must be an elegant stair case.  I volunteer at one such property as a room steward and there is half a very ornate stair case going up from the side entrance of the house.  Strangely, the property was never designed to have the main staircase visible from the great hall.  Unlike so many big houses featured in romantic films or ‘upstairs-downstairs life’ serials that grab our attention now.  No, this house always had this spectaular self supporting canilever staircase up to the guest bedrooms but there isn’t another one coming down the other side.  There is a downward staircase but it is pretty plain and just functional.   At the top of the show stopping stairs, there are beautiful pieces of furniture just within sight.  A bureau and very antique chairs.   The whole scene is almost a setting from a tv drams.  We don’t have glorious stair cases in modern houses.  They seem to have been dispensed with and in fact, some modest homes are now installing small lifts from lounge to bedroom, so as not to have to worry about stairs at all.  A death knell sounding for the humble stair case!