Buying your apartment or villa is only the first step: once you have the keys, you have to fill it with something. Furniture is often an afterthought, but it is a vitally important tool that adds not only an emotional value to your home but a financial one too. To use an old cliché, ‘it turns a house into a home’ and allows you to put your own stamp on the property to make it truly yours. It goes without saying that the furniture chosen for the property should have some sort of resemblance to the value of the property. The more prestigious the property, the more it deserves an interior that reflects the financial and emotional value to its new owner. With the resurgence of the Dubai property market, more people are asking about the type of furniture they should fill their home with. For the properties at the higher end of the scale, such as in South Delhi, Gurugram apartments, there is an increasing desire for branded furniture.
So what is branded furniture? Simply put, it is furniture made by well-known and highly-regarded design company made from the highest standard of material available in designs that are unique and often recognisable. It goes without say that this furniture is at the top-end of the price range. But what value is there in paying such high money for a branded piece of furniture? Some of the most prominent names in furniture have a long history of designing and producing furniture, meaning that these pieces have in some cases gone through decades of fine tuning to their current catalogue of products. Some of the modern furniture brands today are using the same styles that came from the 1940s birth of modern design; there is timelessness in some of the furniture pieces from this era and they will undoubtedly remain in fashion for many years to come.
When you are paying high value money for a piece of furniture, there is also a certain level of workmanship that you can expect to be put into it. Whilst all furniture is made with a certain degree of technology, most pieces will have extensive care and attention paid to it by a human being. This can be seen in the immense fine-detail that you will find in each piece, whether it is the stitching in the cushions for a sofa or the carvings in the headboard of a bed. When timber is being used to assemble the furniture, the subtle variations in colour and texture that occur in wood should not be frowned upon, but rather celebrated as it makes each piece of furniture unique in their own special way. The quality of these products not only has a physical dimension to it but aesthetically too. Whether it is a sofa, bed, chair or table, you should expect to get many years of serviceout of it as the material used will be of a high standard and it should be pleased to see it every time you walk into the room. They do not necessarily have to have a ‘wow’ factor, but at the least draw your admiration for many years. It is not always necessary to use a branded piece of furniture for every part of the house, as in some cases it just takes one piece to become the feature of the room. For instance, in a living area you can put more towards the highest quality sofa, and make sure that the rest of the pieces complement each other and that everything flows. Not only is this method a little easier on the wallet, but this method will make the pieces stand-out more and become more recognisable. Of course, there is also the ‘show-off’ element with having high-end furniture in your home. If your guests have a trained eye in brands, they will undoubtedly notice the signature designs of these pieces. Many high-end furniture brands have several aspects to their business such as clothes and perfumes, and a certain ‘brand association’ can push people towards maintaining their presence in their home because they feel it represents them in a certain way. However, there are other options available. Perhaps spending 2Lacs on a sofa is not quite for you, in which case there are many medium-range furniture companies that carry similar designs and quality which are more competitively priced. A bit of research is recommended to find out where the furniture is made and what materials are used, but you may just find that some of them are made in the same factories as the high-end ones. Ultimately the decision lies with the owner of the property who will be paying for this. There are many factors to consider such as how long they plan owning the property, what will it will be used for and the style they are trying to achieve. The value of branded furniture can be seen in the value and design of the furniture, but the ultimate decision should always be based on the budget before the property is even bought.
