The Original Sofa Company, a North East furniture crafting house with a reputation for producing some of the world's finest Chesterfields, is opening its first London showroom in Chelsea.
The business is the only crafting house in Britain to produce top of the range artisan sofas and chairs entirely using 19th century hand-crafted methods and materials. Its new showroom on Lower Sloane Street will be nestled in amongst some of the world’s finest brands including Harrods, Prada and the famous Saatchi Gallery.
The small crafting house has countless International VIP clients, including Harry Potter star Jason Isaacs, Gladiator actress Connie Nielson and director Will Butler Sloss. It has created bespoke pieces for the castle of a Saudi oil baron, Harvard University's staff faculty and the Urban Retreat at Harrods, as well as making the famous gold leather sofa for Alan Carr's Chatty Man.
"The new showroom is incredibly exciting," said company director David Robinson. "Everybody knows Lower Sloane Street and its association with luxury and for us, it’s a home from home. Once the London showroom is established, we will be looking at New York and Beijing next."
The Original Sofa Company's methods are very labour intensive - one Chesterfield can take up to 13 working days to create and can cost up to £15,000. Sofas are made using old fashioned hammer and tack construction methods with traditional eight point hand tied loose coil springs. The filling is coconut hair and horse tail, which retains resistance with a lambswool lining. Only the top 1% of the world's finest leather from Britain, Italy and Scandinavia is used, before a highly skilled hand dyeing process finishes the furniture to the client's exact colour specifications.
As well as leather, the company also has access to a wide variety of quality designer fabrics such as Porter & Harding, Missoni, Colefax & Fowler, J Brown, Jim Dickens and lambswool from Harrisons of Saville Row.
“There’s nothing like what we do already out there,” says David. “We don't believe in mass production. Our products are quite literally crafted on a personal level for our clients. We want our furniture going through Christie's doors in 50 to 80 years time, as these legacy pieces will be the antiques of the future."
The company’s crafting house and second showroom will remain at Team Valley, Gateshead.
