FIF Blog
FIF Blog
mobile logo A Brief History of the Recliner: From 1928 La-Z-Boy to UK Living Rooms

furniture history Tag

A Brief History of the Recliner: From 1928 La-Z-Boy to UK Living Rooms
September 15, 2026

A Brief History of the Recliner: From 1928 La-Z-Boy to UK Living Rooms

Furniture in Fashion traces the recliner from mechanism to living room fixture, beginning with the La-Z-Boy company's own account dating its first reclining wood slat chair to 1928 in Michigan. Our conclusion is that the format's development in Britain has been driven by one constraint: space behind the chair. Traditional actions pivot the backrest rearwards as the footrest rises, demanding clearance that compact rooms with chimney breasts, bay windows and door swings cannot spare. Wall hugger designs, which move the seat forward on a track as the back tilts, are what brought the recliner into terraced houses and flats. We also separate powered recliners, which need a socket and a safe cable route, from riser recliners, which are assistive rather than lounge seating and carry different sizing requirements. The practical advice is to measure the extended footprint, not the closed one, and to measure reclining sofas per seat rather than as a whole....

Continue Reading
A Brief History of Bench Dining: From Medieval Halls to Modern Kitchens
September 15, 2026

A Brief History of Bench Dining: From Medieval Halls to Modern Kitchens

Furniture in Fashion's 2026 editorial traces bench dining from the medieval English hall, where diners sat on long forms at a trestle board and only the head of the household had a chair, through its retreat into farmhouses, refectories and inns as separate dining rooms and matching chair sets became marks of status, to its return in today's open plan kitchen diners. The argument is that the original logic never stopped applying. A bench needs no clearance behind it, saving the 75 cm to 100 cm a pulled out chair demands, and it tucks fully under the table when a meal ends. Capacity is governed by shoulder width rather than chair width, so 55 cm to 60 cm per adult and 40 cm to 45 cm per child means a bench seats more people per metre of table. The report sets out seat heights, depths and underframe checks, and recommends pairing a bench on the constrained side with chairs on the open side....

Continue Reading
A Brief History of the Dining Table: From Trestle Boards to Extending Tables
September 14, 2026

A Brief History of the Dining Table: From Trestle Boards to Extending Tables

The dining table has always followed the floor plan rather than fashion, and in this 2026 report UK furniture retailer Furniture in Fashion traces that sequence from the medieval trestle board to the modern extending table. The earliest arrangement was designed to disappear, because a single hall had to serve every domestic function. Fixed tables became possible only once houses contained rooms set aside for dining, which also produced the sideboard as a companion piece. Gateleg and drop leaf designs answered the same question the trestle had, in a form that could stay in the room, and today's extending mechanisms redirect that movement horizontally. Now the open plan kitchen diner has returned the table to a multi purpose room, reviving the original problem in modern dress. The report sets out seating capacity by table length, the 60cm per place setting rule and the circulation clearances that decide what actually fits....

Continue Reading
A Brief History of the Armchair: From Wingbacks to the Mid-Century Lounge Chair
September 14, 2026

A Brief History of the Armchair: From Wingbacks to the Mid-Century Lounge Chair

Every major armchair design in British homes answered a heating problem, a posture problem or a space problem. Our history reads the form in that order: the wingback enclosed a sitter against draughts and held the radiant heat of an open fire, the club chair lowered and raked the seat for lingering rather than upright attention, and the mid century lounge chair stripped away mass because post war rooms were smaller and needed to feel lighter. The report traces seat height falling steadily across the period as sitting posture reclined, explains why raising a frame on legs makes a modest room read as larger, and notes why mid century proportions remain the easiest to carry up a narrow British staircase. It compares wingback, club, mid century, tub and reclining forms by footprint, seat character and the room conditions each suits, with walkway clearances for each. Choose by the job the chair must do, not by period style....

Continue Reading
A Brief History of the Bookcase: From Monastery Presses to Flat-Pack
September 14, 2026

A Brief History of the Bookcase: From Monastery Presses to Flat-Pack

The bookcase began as architecture rather than furniture, and Furniture in Fashion traces how it became the object we recognise. Medieval monastic libraries kept manuscripts in closed presses or chained to sloped desks because security, not access, was the governing requirement, and books were not shelved spine outward at all. Every subsequent change follows a change in the economics of books: printing multiplied them and pushed shelving onto walls, upright storage in long rows made spine lettering necessary, glazed doors answered the real problem of dust and light damage to bindings, and flat pack manufacturing turned a joinery commission into a commodity. The report also explains the structural consequences that still matter, including why the back panel of a knock down bookcase is load bearing in practice, and why unsupported shelf span rather than styling determines whether shelves sag under hardbacks....

Continue Reading
A Brief History of the Dressing Table: From Toilette to Vanity
September 14, 2026

A Brief History of the Dressing Table: From Toilette to Vanity

The dressing table is the only bedroom piece designed around a seated person looking at themselves, and that single requirement has governed its dimensions for three centuries. Furniture in Fashion traces the form from the toilette, a plain table dressed with a floor length cloth and a portable mirror, through the integration of fixed mirror glass that produced the knee space and flanking drawer stacks still used today, to the arrival of the plumbed bathroom that stripped out the washing function. The report explains why fitted bedroom furniture displaced the freestanding piece, and why the current return is driven by lighting quality and dual use as a desk rather than by storage. It sets out the working dimensions that have not changed, including surface height, knee clearance, stool height and mirror centre height, and why a side window beats every lamp arrangement. Guidance covers siting the table, choosing a stool and planning the mirror....

Continue Reading
A Brief History of the Marble Table: From Roman Villas to UK Dining Rooms
September 14, 2026

A Brief History of the Marble Table: From Roman Villas to UK Dining Rooms

The marble table entered domestic life as a practical object rather than a luxury one, chosen in Roman villas because stone stayed cool, resisted fire and did not warp. Our history traces the form from the cartibulum standing in the Roman atrium, through its long absence from British homes, to its eighteenth century return as the console and side table brought back by Grand Tour travellers. The marble dining table as a mainstream British object is far more recent, made possible by thin slab cutting, resin backing and engineered bases that carry stone on steel or timber rather than on stone. The report explains why marble etches rather than stains, why weight and stair access matter more than floor loading in terraced houses and flats, and how sintered stone now occupies much of the visual territory marble once held alone. It includes a sizing table matching table dimensions to seating capacity and room size....

Continue Reading
Why Is It Called a Coffee Table? Etymology and the Disputed 1920 Origin Story
September 14, 2026

Why Is It Called a Coffee Table? Etymology and the Disputed 1920 Origin Story

The coffee table takes its name from the social ritual it was made to serve rather than from any single designer or dated moment of invention, and the widely repeated claim that the piece was created in 1920 does not stand up to scrutiny when it is traced back to its sources. In this report we set out why the name attached itself to a low table at all, how it separated from the older tea table and the occasional table, and why the 1920 story keeps circulating despite the absence of verifiable documentation behind it. We then turn to the part that matters in practice for British households: how the coffee table earns its place in small terraced sitting rooms and open plan kitchen diners, what heights and clearances make it comfortable to use alongside a sofa, and how surface material changes the way it behaves in a busy family room....

Continue Reading
A Brief History of the Mattress: From Straw to Memory Foam
September 14, 2026

A Brief History of the Mattress: From Straw to Memory Foam

The history of the mattress is a history of standardisation rather than comfort invention, according to new analysis published by UK furniture retailer Furniture in Fashion. The report traces the sleeping surface from filled straw and wool sacks, through tufting and the coil spring, to the pocket sprung, latex and memory foam constructions that dominate British bedrooms today, and argues that the decisive change was structural: the moment a mattress stopped being a bag of filling and became an engineered unit with a fixed depth, a top and a bottom. The analysis sets out the standard UK mattress sizes alongside suggested minimum room dimensions, explains why UK sizing does not translate to European or United States conventions, and warns that growing mattress depth now collides regularly with older British staircases, low headboards and standard fitted bedding sizes. It also sets out standard UK mattress sizes and the room clearances each one realistically needs around it....

Continue Reading
The Cheval Mirror: A History From 18th-Century Dressing Rooms to Today
September 13, 2026

The Cheval Mirror: A History From 18th-Century Dressing Rooms to Today

The cheval mirror exists because of a manufacturing breakthrough rather than a change in taste, and our 2026 history traces the form from Georgian dressing rooms to contemporary rented flats. Large plate glass became available in the later eighteenth century, allowing a mirror to reflect a whole standing figure for the first time, but a glass of that size was too heavy to hang, so it was mounted in a freestanding frame that could carry its weight and tilt on trunnions. Cheval is French for horse and describes that supporting frame, a term Sheraton's Cabinet Dictionary of 1803 records in English as the horse dressing glass. Liebig's silvering process of 1835 and Victorian mechanised production moved the piece from dressing room to ordinary bedroom. Furniture in Fashion explains why the design has never needed revision, and sets out the glass heights, footprints and viewing distances that make one work....

Continue Reading