Saturday, August 24, 2013

Are Designer Sofas Worth The Additional Cost?

By Frank Field


For many of us it seems like the planet is becoming a lot more costly with every decade. Just one small area adding to this would be the development of the luxury household furniture marketplace, where staple domestic items such as the humble sofa are being transformed as designer sofas, a high-end product, with a increased price ticket to fit. As designer sofas grow to be much more well-liked between the middle classes, it is worth asking whether they are truly worth the further expense.

To put this query into context, a designer sofa tends to be priced between 5x and 10x higher than what most would refer to as a standard design. To justify this price tag, a veritable array of arguments are used ranging from quality to the heritage of the brand. As with all luxury products, retailers place a great deal of importance on creating a narrative or life style behind their brand in an effort to justify the higher cost, so let's analyze a small collection of these arguments in an effort to answer our question.

Heritage is a typical argument, which plays upon a historical trend to highlight the classic nature of the sofa as a item formed from a distinct stylistic culture. The Chesterfield style is an example of a designer sofa sold primarily based around the associations of heritage rather than the specs of the model. Widely accepted to be the enduring English sofa style, the Chesterfield is immediately recognisable for its deep buttoned style, folded arms and use of all-natural leather, all of which were distinctive style innovations at the time.

Look and Feel is a further argument for choosing a designer sofa over a regular model. Contemporary Italian sofas make a specific play for this theme by showing their models in light, roomy showrooms in the style of a modern art gallery. With every element of the sofa design focused with a sharp artistic path, you could argue that the furniture itself has become an artistic piece as opposed to a way of seating the human form. For design purists, the effect of the furniture therefore justifies a higher price level purely around the basis of its visual appeal.

Finally, many argue that designer sofas are basically a lot more genuine as consumer goods than cheaper, mass-produced models. For some, regular sofas are merely reproductions of well-known designs devaluing the involvement of the original designers. This is particularly the case when production itself is contracted out in an effort to reduce the costs. By purchasing a designer sofa, many would argue that you're directly supporting both the designers and also generating demand for high quality manufacturing which tends to be centered in the home market.

These are just three arguments justifying the added expense associated with buying designer sofas. There are lots of other motives to think about selecting designer furniture when it comes to redecorating your living spaces. Ultimately, designer sofas are always going to be far more costly than mass produced models, although it's worth noting that they are becoming much more economical over time. Nonetheless, it's clear that for a lot of people this additional cost is more than justified by the extra rewards of the item.




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