Dirty Little Secret. It’s been a long and prosperous run for those in the mass marketed furniture world. The sheer volume of home furnishings and decor items regularly introduced to the public is mind boggling. Question is: how the world can this be sustained when new things are being produced at breakneck speed? The answer is: it can’t. Eventually we will run out of resources,….
The furniture industry has become one of the most polluting and environmentally damaging industries: beating out the automobile and clothing industries in the past few years. The industry is already notorious for generating copious amounts of waste, let alone what we as consumers throw away in furnishings favoring the newest goods advertised to us. Did you know that between 8 and 10 million tons of furniture waste end up in landfills every year in Europe alone? United states has an even worse record for discarded items. It is to a point now that we have resorted to using incineration as a way of disposing older furniture, which unfortunately still has a negative impact on the environment as pollutants get released during the process into our air. Sounds pretty grim doesn’t it?
Okay,…well how do we solve this? The answer is: Easy. Buying older pieces of well crafted vintage furniture as well as revamped pieces can help reduce the trash generated daily from our furnishings waste. It may not be so apparent, but furniture styles, i.e. traditional, modern, french, danish, italian, etc; do not change drastically over time. Any experimental furniture concepts happening now are still based off of old designs. Iconic styles like Louis XVI chairs have been in production ever since they first rolled out in the 18th century and are still popular today. So what’s the industry’s trick to keep us buying new? The answer is: Just like in fashion, everything cycles and the emperor is given a new coat; except in the furniture industry, those manufacturers would rather have you throw out your old chair in favor of the “new” version which is really the old version in another color, finish or size.
Furniture manufacturers don’t necessarily promote the idea of repairing good furniture, it’s counterintuitive to their revenue stream. And they don’t offer services where they will gladly revamp an existing piece into a new color or upholster for the very same reason. This is where OMFORME comes in. We know that many of these items have great style with endless potential to become beautiful again if just given the chance. After much, love and hours put into each piece, we offer it to the public at a far lower price point than if those pieces were created from new materials. The consumer’s benefit? Receiving a one of a kind item and a sense of doing good by opting to purchase previously owned merchandise that won’t end up in a graveyard. For most of our customers, that good feeling just can’t be beat.
