Insight Report: investment furniture and design pieces
In our new series of insight reports, you can expect our findings from the worlds of design, architecture, interiors, housing and more in long-form industry analysis, quotes from those in the know and our tips on how to stay ahead of the curve.
For the first of these reports, we’re turning our attention to an increasing tendency to see homeware, furniture and luxury design pieces not just as pretty things to fill your home with, but investment-worthy objects that retain – and often strengthen – their aesthetic and monetary value.
According to a new report, the global luxury furniture market was valued at around US$25 billion last year, with a predicted annual growth rate of 3.8% over the next five years, reaching a value of US$31 billion by 2024. Such numbers are hard to digest, and vary depending on who they’re coming from, but one thing is clear: people are spending more money on higher-quality pieces, and look set to continue to do so.
At The Modern House, we’ve long advocated the idea that investing in a home – that principal place of refuge, shelter, family, living, and more – of architectural and design integrity brings with it emotional, wellbeing and often monetary advantages. It would naturally follow, therefore, that the things we fill those homes with, for instance furniture, with its functional, tactile and potentially beautiful properties, which we engage with on a daily basis, carries with it the same advantages.
‘But what exactly is ‘luxury furniture?’’ we hear you ask. Well, the report defines it as: ‘movable pieces of furniture made by skilled craftsmen using the best quality material and designed with zero margin for error.’ In other words, well-designed, expertly-made pieces that are intended to last.
The reasons for the growth in the luxury furniture market are myriad, but notably include increasing design literacy and brand awareness thanks, in no small part, to social media; the impact of online retailing on how we consider and shop for products, and an increasing consumer awareness of the environmental consequences of buying cheaper, lower-quality wares with shorter useable lives, which often end up in landfill.
As the demand for luxury design has increased, so to has the destinations from which to acquire it, with big players in the international art market launching dedicated departments. In 2016, the online antique retailer 1stdibs launched their first-ever contemporary catalogue, which accounted for 15% of furniture sales a year later. Likewise, in October 2018, Sotheby’s launched a luxury design arm, ‘Home’, ‘an online consignment marketplace specialising in vintage and antique furniture, decorative objects and accessories.’ Add to this a proliferation in design galleries, homeware stores and furniture retailers, often with e-commerce platforms, and it seems like there have never been more places at which to invest in your interior.
Ok, so people are spending more on luxury furniture, but what exactly are they buying, and who were the tastemakers? Upon its contemporary category launch, 1stdibs’ Introspective online magazine cited the pioneering work of galleries like Themes & Variations and David Gill, both established in London in the early to mid-1980s, as ‘the earliest champions of fine design’. As they explain, ‘These were daring acts, as period furniture and decorative antiques were the prevailing taste in what was then still quite a provincial city. Although Gill slanted his program toward such early masters as Jean-Michel Frank, Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann and Eileen Gray, he spiced it with members of the definition-blurring vanguard, like Donald Judd, Grayson Perry and Garouste & Bonetti.’
Since their disruptive formative years, Themes & Variations and David Gill have both established reputations as leading purveyors of modern and contemporary design and proved to be harbingers for subsequent retailers and commercial galleries in London like Viaduct, Mint and Twentytwentyone, to name a few.
In more recent years, high-end homeware and design have found new advocates in the likes of 20th-century furniture specialists Béton Brut and The Peanut Vendor, British craft gallery The New Craftsmen, hip ‘concept’ store Monologue, and an increasing number of retailers championing international wares, like Native & Co’s roster of artisanal makers from Japan and Taiwan.
At these retailers you’ll find pieces ranging from entry-level home accessories to bespoke, made-to-order furniture you might have to save a while for. But, as Alex Eagle, of the eponymous fashion-meets-homeware store, explained when we visited her at home, “The good thing about being into homeware is that you can get quite a bit for your money, especially if you’re collecting vintage pieces like glassware or silver beakers. And, obviously Donald Judd or Jean Prouvé furniture is wildly expensive, but it’s an investment, you get pleasure out of it every day and it’s not going to suddenly not fit you.”
This touches on an important consideration when committing to spending more on higher-quality pieces and resonates with homebuying too: that, yes, of course you want to be assured that your investment will increase in value over time, but that as it does, it’s yours to be used and enjoyed. The table we eat over, the sofa we commune around or the chairs we sit at become the familiar instruments with which we play out our most intimate, personal and memorable aspects of our lives, so the lesson is not to revere them, but to live with them instead.
Equally, however, there is a growing section of high-end design becoming less discernible as utilitarian furniture, and appearing something closer to art. “I believe in living with design in a very casual, everyday way. Design has a functional element to it, of course,” says Nathalie Assi of SEEDS Gallery, which she runs from her west London home with the intention of showing luxury design in a domestic setting, outside the confines of a white-box gallery. “But pieces can also be appreciated for their true beauty and be more assimilated to sculptural objects. Design can come close to art in that it can make you dream, open doors, stimulate creativity and change the way you look at things. It can make you ask questions, rather than just be functional.”
Elevating design pieces in such a way, in which their functional capacity – if indeed they even have one – is rendered secondary or even obsolete in light of their aesthetic and sculptural qualities, puts the upper echelons of design into the art market, where designers’ names hold currency, provenance matters and trends can see pieces dramatically increase in value seemingly overnight.
“When you start collecting a certain level of design from established names, you’re definitely entering the art market,” says Sophie Pearce of Béton Brut, a specialist dealer of fine design from the 20th century. “Value can fluctuate so quickly. Take the Mario Bellini ‘Camaleonda’ sofa. It’s one of my favourite sofas but I almost cannot buy it anymore. In three years, its value has increased sixfold and is still rising.
“If a particular piece hits the zeitgeist, there can literally be a run on it. Another example is the Paolo Piva ‘Alanda’ coffee table, which went berserk. I don’t think you can necessarily predict it – I would wholly advocate ignoring trends. Just follow your instinct and buy what you love,” Sophie explains.
It’s sage advice, to buy pieces that you’re instinctively drawn to because it means, at the very least, you’ll assemble an interior that resonates with your aesthetic sensibilities. But what if you want to play it safer? “If I had to choose, there are some designers whose work feels more stable, humble even – they increase in value but they don’t fluctuate madly with fashion. I would say [Alvar] Aalto is one of those examples, as his work is pared-back and simple, while still having his own brand of organic form.”
Ultimately, the things you put inside your home should fit your purposes, whether that’s to express your love of Po-Mo flamboyance, to live simply with timeless furniture that you’ll be able to give your grandchildren, or to secure a healthy return on a high-end, art-like investment piece. Just make sure that what you live with everyday holds more than monetary value to you. “I think people are realising that meaning is what matters,” reflects Natalie Assi, “In design terms that means finding connections with objects, people, the past and present.” Now that’s an idea that sits comfortably with us.
Our top tips for investing in timeless design
For the first timer
60 stool by Alvar Aalto, Artek, £190
Functionalism is distilled to its purest expression in Aalto’s iconic stackable three-legged stool, made of birch ply. The signs of wear and use these pick up over time only makes them more beautiful.
Akari 1N lamp by Isamu Noguchi, Vitra, £219
Japanese-American designer Isamu Noguchi’s ‘light sculptures’, made from bamboo and traditional washi paper in Gifu prefecture, Japan, come in many forms but the ‘1N’ is one of the most enduring symbols of 20th-century lighting design.
Next steps
Wassily Chair by Marcel Breuer, Knoll, £1,500
Forget the Eames Lounger, this chair, which was first designed nearly 100 years ago, can you believe, is the chair of the 20th century, encapsulating the pioneering tenets of Modernism with enduring relevance. You can’t go wrong.
Rocking Chair by Muller van Severn, Valerie Objects, £2,900
A design classic of the future, Fien Muller and Hannes Van Severen’s stripped-down, minimal take on the rocking chair was a stand-out piece of their 2013 debut solo show thanks to its honest form, bold colourways and sculpture-like presence.
Splurging
Daybed by Donald Judd, Donald Judd Furniture, from approx £9,000
The holy grail of art as furniture, Judd’s boxy, orthogonal daybed is the culmination of the artist and designer’s interest in form, dimensions, material and construction in a single piece.
Mobile Chandelier 4 by Michael Anastassiades, £16,500
It’s safe to say that the delicate, sculptural work of lighting mastermind Michael Anastassiades will endure long after the first bulb change.
Extra reading
You might find the report on the luxury furniture industry we mentioned worth its hefty price tag. If not, our friend Tom Morris’ musings on why uncomfortable-looking furniture has become so attractive is worth the subscription to the FT. If you’re wondering when your pre-modern antique pieces are going to return to fashion, this piece in the New York Times tracks the rise and continuing dominance of the current zeitgeist for modern and contemporary furniture – short answer, it’s here to stay.
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