It is time for a revolution.
We need to stop buying flat-pack furniture, however appealing it appears and cheap the price tag. We all know it looks great when it is first put together, but in no time at all it starts to pick up knocks and scratches it finds difficult to absorb. It doesn’t grow more attractive with age. It doesn’t pick up a patina, just dirt. If you ever need to dismantle it, you really discover its weakness.
Although you can take it apart, it wasn’t actually designed to be. Re-erected it stands slightly disheveled counting on your sympathy rather than fondness. It is at that moment that you realise: it can perhaps be moved one more time and you will be parting company. This is not going to be hanging around for generations.
What can we replace it with?
Antique and vintage stores are full of well-made pieces that have lasted many decades and will continue to last. Pieces to suit every budget. But you can also get an artisan to make you just what you need. You would be surprised how similar your needs are to that of your future generations. A piece of furniture that lasts 20 times as long as a flat-pack solution saves our planet.
If a table you sit at to eat costs less than the meal you are enjoying, it really should raise our suspicions. Deep down we know it is too good to be true, that there is a catch. Why do we accept this? Real furniture is made with biomaterials that last and, after centuries when they are worn out, can return to the earth.
A non-violent revolution and all we need to do to start this is to walk away. We can start today. If we stop buying this rubbish, the factories will stop making it.
What flat pack lacks, is soul.