Environmental change – pre-loved furniture could be your best option
IN a time when scientists are warning of unprecedented environmental change due to global warming, as a society we are waking up to the small alterations in our day to day lives we can make to stop the damage.
With the effects of plastics and other man made and synthetic substances well documented for their effect on the world’s oceans, and on pollution levels within our homes, a choice to use wooden products where possible is one spoke in a wheel of progress.
More parents are attempting to favour wooden over plastic toys for instance, but also in the home it’s an opportunity to combine creating an individual style of furnishing, while ensuring that your home environment contributes as little impact as possible to environmental change.
Modern mass-produced furniture such as that produced by leading European brands is popular and widely purchased, and lends homes a modern aspect.
As well as creating a certain uniformity of style with other homes around the nation though, a choice to fill our homes with newly produced furniture fuels continuous demand for deforestation, and has further implications in the energy required, and the greenhouse gasses created by production processes.
Some consider antique, or second-hand furniture, to be a niche or specialist market, often assuming in the former case that items come with a high price tag.
In fact, couples furnishing a first home, or families renovating, are often astonished to find that antique furniture can be purchased at auction for a fraction of the price of its modern counterparts.
In addition to its affordability, the furniture offered at auction, from Victorian chests of drawers and Edwardian dressing tables to early twentieth century bureaus and dressers, offers the further appeal of quality and longevity.
“Furniture now is simply not produced in the same way as it was 100 or 200 years ago,” said auctioneer Ryan Beach, of Anthemion Auctions in Cardiff.
Mr Beach continued: “The craftsmanship, weight and quality of the older furniture means it truly does last.
“It also retains its value, where newly-produced furniture does not.”
As well as being environmentally sustainable, and recycling at its very best, buying antique, or pre-loved pieces, also offers a chance to make a home truly individual and create your own unique style, on a very reasonable budget.
Anthemion Auctions’ Christmas general sale, on December 5, offers more than 200 lots of furniture, in all shapes and sizes, and spanning many eras.
This is a lovely time of year to make some beautiful transformations in the home, or indeed to find smaller and unique gifts for family.
The sale also contains paintings, ceramics, glasswares and decorative items, as well as rugs and lighting.
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