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Times-Advocate, 1986-09-24, Page 7HOME Is YQU SIGNATURE. r. i iH \NrV� 1•N.� NATIOAL FURNITURE SALE 1'I : `, t I b l'/Ht, Contemporary, functional dining suite notable for its rich lacquer, elegant styling, and sturdiness. (Courtesy Gervais Industries Inc.) Getting Ready to Buy Furniture Buying furniture can be tun and personally rewarding, inr- stead of being frustrating and exasperating. All you need to do is become a furniture detective, looking for as many facts as possible before mak- ing your purchase. When it comes time to replace your sofa or buy the din- mgroom group you've always wanted your first course of action should be to give it serious thought. You are mak- ing an investment in your lifestyle, so impulse or desperation could lead to an expensive mistake. Keep in mind furniture will usually outlast other major purchases. It can, and should, also be part of an overall design statement. Furniture requires visual coexistence with everything else in your home, including other furniture. You need the facts to help you make an intelligent buying decision. One of the best ways of compiling these is evaluating your lifestyle and special needs. Then go window-shopping at reputable home furnishings stores and ask questions. First, however, decide what you need to know. . Ask yourself how you and those around you live. Do you live formally or casually? How do you use what you have now? Some of the impor- tant considerations are children, pets, degree of entertaining, and how you view the collective lifestyle of your household. With children, their age can determine the type of fur- niture you'll seek. What's the sense of becoming frustrated over formal furniture with a toddler running all over the place? Buy something prac- tical. Pets, regardless of how disciplined they are, can pose problems for furniture. Analyze their lifestyle, too. Do they roam freely in your home or are they confined to a specific area? If you entertain guests, your furniture needs are different from households preferring less frequent social activities. How .you entertain also -has a bearing on furniture. Your style, whether it's formal din- ners, intimate cocktail parties or big blowouts should be considered. Thinking about all these fac- tors is necessary. Getting ready to buy furniture is real- ly fun when you are prepared. For instance, if you want a new sofa, the first thing you must do is size up the area where it will be located. Take the proper measurements and keep a record of them. Better yet, measure the dimensions of all the rooms in your hothe and roughly sketch your ex- isting floor plan, or the ar- rangment of furniture, in a notebook. Having these facts handy can be valuable if you spot a special buy and are re- quired to make a quick decision. How much money can you af- ford to spend? If you need basic necessities, then buy them first.. Make a plan of purchase for' every room, listing the necessities. Furniture is expensive, so buying on whim or without a plan can be costly. That' why budeting is so important -- you will want to get the most value for every dollar spent. When you decide how much you can afford, you must weigh some facts. Better fur- niture costs more and lasts longer, making it a better investment. Use this simple formula for determining value: take the initial price and add the cost of maintenance and divide by period of use. That means an expensive piece of furniture that will last decades, even a lifetime, becomes better value than the bargain that will wear out faster and have to be replaced. Keep in mind that bargains, if chosen wisely, can provide good value. But ask tough questions about durability and construction before buy- ing. And just because a piece Limeis•Advocate. September24. 1966 Page 7 Exeter Stores Participate in Nation-WideFurniture. Sale Country Furniture.: Not a Style, But an Attitude Wh an referring to home fur- nishings, people often misinterpret the term "coun- try" to mean a certain, iden- tifiable visual style -- • like Queen Anne or Louis XIV. Even more often, they make the mistake of equating "country" with colonial. While there are, indeed, some general characteristics that . can be found in much of what we call country furniture, the term really connotes an at- titude towards the use of the furnishings -- what they are for, rather than what . they are. Furniture styles, per se, are usually tied to a particular historical, era or geographic area, such as Victorian or Early American, each of which is distinguished by in- herent shapes, methods of construction and embellishments. Country fur- nishings cannot be pinned down so easily. Rather, they are much more eclectic, bor- rowing from whatever styles suit their function. The subtle- ty of line pf traditional and modern styles is equally ap- plicable in country pieces. In fact, the integration of a variety of features is in part what makes up the spirit of "country". Country furniture is designed and built to be us- ed for everyday living and en- joyment. Most of us can recall a family (perhaps our own) who kept plastic or cloth drop - sheets over the living room furniture and removed them only on rare occasions to im- press special guests or relatives. That attitude is precisely antithetical to that of country furniture, which is attractive, but informal, and is intended to -create a feeling of warmth, - cosiness and ge- nuine relaxation in a room. The growth in Popularity of country furniture is really a reflection of changing lifestyles. Often, people whose tastes in furnishings are rooted in traditional or con- temporary styles find changes in their lifestyles -- getting married, having children, etc. -- render many of their glamorous or delicate furniture pieces impractial. They need more utilitarian pieces to meet the needs of their new everyday lifestyle, but wish to maintain some of . the aesthetic appeal of the style that pleases them. That's where country fur- nishings come into the pic- ture, because they can pro- vide both. Semantics aside, country fur - Cabinets and drawers reflecting a proud, unique style of design. (Courtesy R.S. Furniture Inc.) ` of furniture is on sale, you should avoid buying it only on price if the style and other features are less than you desired. Keep your notebook handy when you go into a furniture store. When you work with a salesperson, ask him or her all the questions you can and record the angwers. Be open with the salesperson, saying you are fact-finding and need assistance. Trusting your memory in a furniture store is dangerous. The color you thought you recalled could actually clash with the fabric of the new sofa you are planning for your liv- ing room. So bring a sample of the carpet, paint, wallpaper and other fabric, to make sure you reduce the margin for error. You should visit more than one store. If possible, com- pare prices, styles and selec- tion at a large speciality store, a department store, and a full -line furniture store. Working with at least three stores, you should get a good sense of what is available and what it will cost you. While you're in these stores, the fur- niture environment will trig- ger ideas about decor and in- terior -design. Let your mind wander and fantasize, seeking ideas you can use in your home. Most people can create their own confortable interiors without hiring a designer. To help you, most larger stores will provide professional design assistance, usually without charge or at nominal cost. Remember that whatever your wants, the final choice must be satisfying to you per- sonally. Your task is not to furnish according to conven- tion, but according to 1ifetstyle. niture might be described as what most of us would choose for our family room. The family room is a relatively re- cent innovation in living space, but has become the modern-day urban analogy to. the rural country kitchen— it's the centre of household and family activity. Unlike the "rec" rooms of a former generation, which were or- dinarily furnished with a hodgepodge of hand-me-down pieces that might otherwise have been used to furnish a cottage,, family rooms are bright, pleasant places, able to withstand the rigors of wear and tear from real, everyday living, yet with suf- ficient elegance for less fre- quent but more formal entertaining. Plaids and subtle dot and floral patterns are examples of fabrics characteristically associated with country upholstery. They combine the elegance of traditional pat- terns with the benefit of camouflage for the spills, stains and general wear of daily use by a family. Exposed wood, usually oak, pine, maple or ash, is another common element of country design. It, too, adds to the warmth and charm of the country genre. In addition to its practical benefits, the country style is also very adaptable for room designing -- neither antiques nor ultra -modern pieces look out of place in a country room setting. In fact, the lack of a rigidly consistent theme or style within a country room is what contributes much of the casual comfort of its am- bience. The eclectic freedom of design that country offers makes a room less formal, visually, and in effect en- courages people to relax naturally when they enter it. Some contemporary furniture pieces may become the classics of tomorrow. But • others will go the way of rox- otone coffee tables and shag carpets. Country furniture, on the other hand, is conser- vative by design. The lack of extremes will stay in style vir- tually forever. Country furniture is furniture for the 80's. It delivers a wonderful blend of the new in a very practical form. It. allows people a free hand in expressing their own per- sonalities when appointing a room, because of its infor- mality. It makes a room look good, but it also makes a room feel good. And its durability makes it ideal for real living and playing by adults and children alike. Veneers vs Solid Woods Most wooden furniture features veneer construction, in which the outermost, decorative layer is premium woo8, and usually one of five plys that make up a "sand- wich" of wood. A core layer, which is usually inexpensive lumber, is bonded to other layers of varying quality, whose grains are at right angles " to each other for greater strength. Veneers are necessary in many applications. A veneer can prevent warping and splitting. Some flat surfaces must bear tremendous amount of stress, one of the chief reasons for the widespread use of stronger veneers. Less expensive furniture usually contains a mixture of woods which are used for legs and exposed frames, while better -quality furniture features veneers all of the same species, so that the grain of all exposed wood of a particular piece of furniture is matched. Worries about peeling are un- necessary in better quality furniture, since high-intensity adhesives are used to keep the layers bonded permanently. A veneer log can produce literally thousands of feet of "face veneer" whose value and quality is determined by the workmanship and type of wood. Most veneer consists of thin sheets of wood measuring 1.5 mm in thickness, prior to modern, more efficient cut- ting methods, veneers were twice as thick. A precision process called rotary cutting is widely used; in which the veneer is peeled from a rotating log against a knife, in one continuous layer. In addi- tion to rotary cutting, other procedures produce veneers which can vary the grain pat- tern and enhance the aesthetic quality. Gliders, motion sofas, and love seats reflect the continuing innova- tion in the motion furniture industry. (Courtesy El Ran Furniture Ltd.) Check the following pages for Values Fine Furniture and. Flooring 467 Main St. Exeter 235-0173 a, s. Isapper Ieocicey 355 Main St., Exeter 235-1990 Furniture Ltd.