Know Your Sofas

From the Ancient Greeks to modern times, you cannot refute that furniture has been a major part of human existence even thought we don’t realize it throughout our lives, and just by looking at the sofas throughout the ages, we can see how the style has changed with the times but the function of it has remained the same.

-circa 750 BC. Ancient Greeks enjoyed sofas that had one elevated armrest, very much like a lounge chair. It was a center piece to social atmosphere at the height of the Roman Empire, as more people had increasing time on their hands to “lounge” around and have casual conversations. An interesting thing is that during the Roman times, the sofa was mainly placed in the dining room where 3 of them would be surrounding a low table for relaxed dining.

-circa mid-1700s, during the reign of Louis XVI of France, royalty used very high quality hand carved wood frames for the sofas and tapestry fabric with stuffed cushioning. This is an example of the lavish styles of enjoyment for one that owned a sofa during the colonial and imperial times of the world. These elegant and expensive pieces of furniture for elite society were prominent in rich and powerful countries during those times in England, France, and Russia.

Over the ages, the sofa was enjoyed mostly by royalty and elite society as it was more of a piece of furniture used by people that had time to sit down and relax, and also afford one at the same time. So not until the industrial revolution did the sofa become more of a common piece of furniture in the normal household that we see today.

-1920s. You can notice some resemblance of 1920s furniture from the ancient pieces as it still remained in the super rich and high-society that could still really enjoy a true piece of furnishings for casual relaxing.

-1930s. Through improved industrial manufacturing and hand crafted work, you will notice that 1930s chairs are improving in the fabric and wood accents of the style.

-1940s. Styles almost remained consistent during this time, but more solid colors were beginning to be used as the revolution of design was dawning towards the 1950s as you will see in the upcoming descriptions.

-1950s. Frank Lloyd Wright and Charles and Ray Eames dominated the 50s design landscape of architecture and home furnishings design. This time was the beginning of a revolution where Americans began to look towards the interior and exterior of their homes for upgrading to comfort where design was used to sooth their eyes and spirit. As time progresses the 1950s and their designers had big impacts on the decades to come and up until this day.

-1960s. Suede and other modern fabrics began to kick in for the design and structures of the furnishing pieces during the 1960s, but the designs were very close to the previous decade.

-1970s. For those of you that can remember, leather was the in thing for a lot of things; from pants to jackets, and even to the chairs people sat in. Brown leather and raw metal was a key design change during this decade and the growth in design continues as it cycles back in from the 1980s to now.

-Contemporary styles from the 1980s to current range from a mix of antique styles to very modern with clean and sleek lines. Fabric, wood, metal, leather have been made common in American homes through innovative manufacturing that has maintained quality coupled with lower costs of production where the consumer can enjoy a wide variety of antique, retro, to modern styles in everyday homes.

As you can see many pieces today are based on the styles of the past. Sofas went from a something that you see in royal families to mainstream society pieces to common furnishings of today.

This article was based on resources from Visiondecor furniture, where information is presented in the form of furniture and you can find many items and articles related to home furnishings, such as sofas for the living room.

Eric Lan