Mismatched furniture spells end for three piece suites

IT WAS once a staple in living rooms but now the three piece suite has died a death as John Lewis has revealed it is no longer selling them ready made.

The department store stopped selling traditional matching one, two and three seater chair sets two years ago, and now only makes them bespoke and upon a customer’s request.

Just 2 per cent of searches on the John Lewis website are for three piece suites, it said, as living rooms are increasingly dominated by mismatched furniture.

The store’s move comes after the Office for National Statistics announced on Monday that it had removed three piece suites from the basket of goods that it uses to measure price inflation.

John Lewis said people decorating their living rooms were no longer playing it safe by opting for muted tones, and are instead choosing bold colours such as mustard yellow, which is now the store’s best selling sofa colour.

Johnathan Marsh, partner and home buying director, said: “When it comes to decorating our living rooms around half of shoppers (48 per cent) who are planning to redecorate this year expect to be bolder in their choices.

“Over the past year nearly one third of customers have bought brass, copper, velvet or marble items for their living rooms, and pink is replacing grey as the new neutral colour. Demand for three piece suites has all but disappeared and been replaced by statement sofas and accent chairs which enable us to express our personal styles.”