oh i remember that article..there was a discussion here about it. i don't recall the name of the thread. i just remember it being long and quite interesting

young generation wants any furniture lol. i'm not young generation-and i'm still craigslisting and etsying and whatnot half of the house, to afford to furnish nicely at all

so i don't know what they mean by "brown furniture". brown furniture is as popular as ever. from what i see. they might have meant certain styles rather than color.

Yes they are mostly talking about well-crafted furniture with a fine stained finish on it, when they say "brown furniture".

They certainly seem to like the transitional crap made out of rubberwood or something with that dark sprayed brown finish on it that you can scratch off with your fingernail. That also has brown microfiber or brown bycast spray painted leather on it.

I think it mostly refers to mass produced mahogany and cherry finish colonial revival furniture. Queen Anne end tables and the like. My twenty something daughters call it Grandma furniture.

Apparently the currently popular chocolate and espresso stained furniture is a better kind of brown furniture. I know, it makes no sense.

I think it's okay if people want to decorate their homes in a style different from their parents and grand parents.

I think IdaClaire nailed it. It's a term of abuse for anything that doesn't look like this:

Yeah, the worm will turn.

I dont see colonial revival coming back, but I do see wood making a reappearance soon.

It is a term also used for antique English furniture, usually mahogany - even walnut. Apparently the young prefer disposable Wayfair garbage to something of real value and beauty.

well, to be completely fair-something of real value and beauty requires a lot of money to buy, or a lot of time to invest in finding it second hand

if somebody gives it as a gift-i imagine most young people will be happy to have it. they might feel though their other belongings are not up to par with it..and then again it takes either money or time to source and purchase such belongings. some vintage and antiques are easier to incorporate when you have modest means; some are harder.

i also think that while young you're bound to make some mistakes. i did pretty well; yet i do remember couple purchases i regretted afterwards.

finally, this is a very fast-paced society..in many ways, including shopping. i don't know whether you realize but shopping is very convenient here. the stores are always open, the returns are-relatively-very easy, the choice is huge. i can argue it's seemingly huge; yet it's huge nevertheless. so in the same way that it's psychologically easier to spend 5 old twenty dollar bills than a brand-new one hundred one, it probably registers as easier to just quickly buy a thing, and then another thing, and then another thing...than spend on that one good thing that will last much longer, but costs like these several items together. you have this unsupported by reality impression that you've spent less.

well, and even more finally lol-there will always be people who care more about what they bring into their home, and there will be people that don't care. or they don't care just yet. or they care but in a different way. it doesn't always depend on age.

we gave my MIL two shower curtains for her rental-DH insisted on giving her some horrible 20 years old plastic thing-y, that once upon a time hang in his dorms. and without any relation to the towels I bought etc(I did buy the towels in colors I knew she likes a lot). and I found something that goes well with the rest of the bathroom, and is fabric, with nice detailing, etc. well we ended putting up both -his as a liner so she can see it when she showers, and be all sentimental about her son's shower curtain, and mine as the decorative one.

well guess what, she took mine off. why? it's too nice to be used, it's just a bathroom. i'm perplexed-it's just a shower curtain, after all. not a fur coat or something.

she likes nice things, but some, she just hesitates to use exactly for the reason it's nice. maybe it feels too frivolous to her, I don't know.

Here in the UK the thing about 'brown' furniture has been going in for ages. Ida-Claire is spot on imho. I think it's partly because of the trend towards shabby chic/painted/upcycling older pieces and also as a result of the swing towards mid century stuff that the younger generations don't see as hideous in the way those that were brought up around them might! I don't think it refers to all brown species per se. For example, English Georgian (and older!) plus Arts & Crafts, Nouveau and Deco has all held its value to a greater or lesser degree and there will always be collectors for those genres, whereas 'granny' furniture such as some of our parents had, has declined in popularity. DH and I have loads of Arts & Crafts oak pieces as well as a few bits of mahogany. We've noticed a slight decline in value over the past ten years.

I'm 49 and my parents were married about fifteen years before they had me in their late thirties. Their style was for good quality, but mass produced cottage-y style twee looking furniture.....hideous! Although they also had some G-plan which would now be considered trendy. Sadly by the time they passed away in 2014/15 in their eighties all that was left was the fugly dark brown cottage-y stuff. DS took some of it away to upcycle, some he kept, most he resold. It went for £££! He's 27 and he and his GF have eclectic tastes - mixing mid century with genuine antiques and some newer pieces......

Raphaella x

Okay, now I get it. We have a Facebook yard sale page where people are forever selling old dressers and desks that they have painted to make it trendy. I suppose they are camouflaging brown furniture. Always makes me a little sad to see a well made piece that has been turned robin's egg blue with scuff marks on it. I bet their kids will want nothing to do with that one day!

It sounds as if it has more to do with the style of the furniture than the color. It's a sad commentary on our society of poor quality disposable stuff. Maybe this beautiful brown furniture will languish in a thrift shop or used furniture store for a decade or more and be discovered by another generation

I happen to love Grandma furniture and I am not super old. In fact, I have my grandma's furniture! I also love modern and midcentury.

Classic styles will continue to be cherished. Remember when we "antiqued" furniture in the late 60s, early 70s (blue, red, green) -- it was our way of taking care of "brown" furniture. I imagine a lot of really good pieces got painted . . . as they are now!

I noticed that I love mid-century modern(since it's my childhood..no, I'm not that old, it's more like we were 10-20 years behind), but strongly dislike everything psychedelic and futuristic-and that's already the time of my early youth. we never had it at home, but I dislike it even seeing it the stores(after we moved-and found out sometimes stores actually sell stuff lol) . maybe because a childhood is a time of wonder, and the early youth is a time of rebellion..:)

i don't love everything mid-century though; i love brown wood. precisely that. and i don't like plastic that much, however iconic it might be.

my Grandma was great in decorating, and I quite admire her, and remember our home very fondly (we lived all together, and she naturally considered herself being the one who knows best. actually I didn't even realize other people in our family might have a say in how their home looks too. I for sure didn't think even in that direction. luckily she did everything in a way that made it for a nice comfortable home.). I'd say she's an inspiration to me. Make no mistake: I didn't want to be like her. Almost prayed lol. but to no avail-in some ways I'm exactly like her. I try to be less controlling(and thus keep my mouth shut about trying the third shower curtain for my MIL))), and I have many more opportunities and exposure to different things that she ever had. But otherwise whatever I try to recreate, time after time it's a home of my childhood, in many ways. Not literally so of course-I lived in totally different cultures, climates, traveled a lot, it can't but influence you and inspire you and add to what you want to express about you and your life. But the feel I'm after it's that exact feel I remember as a young girl.

dedtired, rest assured-that's a lot of people, like me myself, that shop for furniture on Craigslist, and Etsy, and vintage stores, and flea markets..besides saving money component, there's a component of composing a story..something that makes that piece all more wonderful to you, gives it another meaning, another context. In that context, you are the keeper, the host, the one who takes care. These are just things-but they carry a great deal of memories, and there's something very alive about them. They have an ability to tell stories about us, as much as we can tell stories about them. Only they will probably stay in this world for longer.

I wonder why some of you get so angry that there are people out there that don't share your taste. Just because I don't want your dark brown Queen Anne style dining room furniture or Sheraton secretary doesn't mean my reclaimed wood farmhouse table and Breuer chairs are garbage or lack real value.

Also, I highly doubt that true antiques and family heirlooms are going unwanted to the thrift store. When my parents offered me the Jacobean style gate leg table that belonged to my great great grandmother, darn tooting I took that. Even though it doesn't go with the rest of my furniture or my condo.

I'm sure that most of the furniture my generation is refusing is the stuff their parents spent a lot on new- reproductions and revival styles. My parents never went in for the Queen Anne or colonial styles. More into Stickley and mission style pieces and if they wanted me to take them, I doubt I would. They're not actual Stickley, but that 'built by the Amish' stuff, so I doubt they'll be worth a lot long term. They also wouldn't fit in my condo, being scaled for my parents expansive house. Mission style would probably do okay with my loft style condo, but if they went in for the very formal stuff, it just wouldn't work. Even so, Mission style just isn't my thing. Why should I force myself to live with something that isn't my taste, just because my mom doesn't want to feel bad about sinking all that money into furniture.

Another thought why people might be painting some wood furniture. They get scared to put color on their walls. They get scared to buy anything but the most neutral of colors- brown and gray. They end up looking at a vast sea of brown- accessible beige walls, brown leather sofa and chairs, then all this brown in the way of tables, desks, etc. it seems maybe a little less scary to paint an old desk that someone gave you than pick out a robin egg blue sofa or paint the walls something cheerful.

Martha Scott, I forgot about the antiquing craze. I did it to a chest of drawers (aka chester drawers) and a small bookcase. The chest was flimsy to beging with, so no loss there. The bookcase was cute and sturdy but in need of a new finish. In fact, I still have the bookcase but repainted it. Remember how we used to spatter stain on the painted furniture to make it look old? Horrible. When we bought this house the ancient kitchen cabinets had been antiqued blue. Later I antiqued the yellow and then painted them white. All three were kind of gross. Thank heavens I fianlly had the entire kitchen torn out and remodeled. My mother has some beautiful pieces (wood) that I would love to have but I have no space for them. There is one table I will take, for sure, and it is wood!

sloedjinn,

I don't think that people are angry that particular styles are getting rejected, at least that's not what I am thinking about.

When I was in my twenties and early thirties I was not much interested in my parents furniture for myself either. But I took some old pieces, and I trash picked some pieces and I bought a few new pieces.

For me the issue is more about wastefulness to some extent. I realize there has been cheap furniture around since the industrial revolution. But in this last generation there has really been a shift to where almost anything is considered disposable. I live in a city with two international universities and a number of internationally known hospitals, so there are a lot of students and medical residents and such in and out.

There seems to be two general groups, one that move in to an apartment or house with what is obviously a mixed bag of their parents' old furniture and some new things, and those who move in and then a store furniture truck pulls up, or they have a rental truck full of IKEA and it goes into the apartment or house.

A couple years later, or maybe only a year later if they move apartments the furniture that is only a few years old is mostly abandoned curbside, because it's cheaper to leave it, lose a security deposit for cleanout and start over somewhere else. And most of it isn't worth moving honestly.

I rented out the house I live in to three women just out of college when I first bought it. Everything was new. They never even cut the tags off the upholstered furniture. And when they moved out, they took some of it, they gave some if it away and they abandoned some of it. They abandoned TVs, vacuum cleaners, dishes and other small items and appliances as well. And about 20 trash bags full of clothes. I am not exaggerating because someone came along and tore open every bag and trash picked, and we went through an entire box of bags getting it back together so we would not get fined. And I see this sort of thing all over the neighborhood.

A lot of the parents' old brown furniture does not get left behind because it's not going to fall apart if you move it. If it does get left behind someone usually picks it from the curb, it's not left for the trash.

I like some painted furniture too by the way. some pieces do look amazing painted or lacquered..have some refurbished, a bit funky stuff myself. I like many things..

I didn't have a chance to really inherit things..we moved a lot, almost everything stayed behind. My mom has a dining set, a pendant, a couple paintings, some dishes..that's all she could take when we moved. And I live over the ocean from my Mom. she already wants to give me some dishes-but how exactly I'll take them lol? BTW MIL also wants to bring her dishes, from her home country, and also to give them to us-that's really too complicated to handle. And as much as I can be crazy about dishes-it's pretty small house we have I must say. I mean in terms of storing the dishes.

But I understand them. I'd want exactly the same-to give my stuff to people I love. It is very natural. We put more value into things..it's attributed, symbolic value sometimes, yet we're eager for it not to fade away.

I read an article not a long ago..it was a very good one. It was a history of a certain very wealthy family-and the history of their collections, rather famous now. The article is an exploration of how and why the collection came to life, why the owner was obsessed with it..what is the motive behind many collections...how they reflect the complicated lives of their owners..what these people try to save and possess and control and why..and the bitter truth of fine things outliving us, when we literally..go with the wind.

There's no one left from the family. Everybody perished. Their world ceased to exist. Completely and utterly so.

The collection is all that stayed

so maybe that indescribably rich but very poor and heartbroken patriarch that collected obsessively, was onto something...he felt all his control over life was illusion, with all his legendary wealth. the only real control was over the things. and the things controlled him, in return.

he did gift them all to the country where he lived and which he loved, in the end. they constitute the whole museum..

these very fine things, hundreds of them, and two modest memorial plaques-that's what left of people.

so i think that's why people get upset. it's not about difference in tastes. it's about the feeling that you can be useful yet, you have what to give, what to share..that your fleeting life is still burning embers, not ashes..

sloedjinn I loved your post..thank you for giving me an opportunity to recall that article, and reflect on it again.

April, are you talking about Nissim de Camondo collection?

yes, exactly so, writersblock. I found it in a magazine while in the doctor's office. I'm not subscribed to it, and actually never read this magazine before..it's "Town and Country". I must say I was impressed by several other essays as well..doesn't happen too often with magazines lately.

Yes, that's a beautiful but heart-rendingly sad house. Town and Country was always known for the quality of their writing.

Ded, when we were breaking up my parents' house, we had several of the folks from Freeman's come out to have a look. My parents bedroom furniture was an antique mahogany set-very large, beautifully carved, two dressers, desk and chair, dressing table, bench for the dressing table, two flat top canopy beds that had to be cut down a bit to fit in the house since ceilings were less than 10 feet, high boy, and low boy. None of us had space for all the pieces and we really felt they should stay together. The mahogany of that period (Victorian) was often finished with a dark finish. The gentlemen from Freeman's called it "brown furniture" and said no one was buying it then.

It is furniture like this, 150.00 on CL, table and 5 chairs.

Or this set for 300.00

nosoccermom, we found something very similar for my MIL..also Craigslist..same(or almost) table, but four chairs, less elaborate. she was the one who chose this set, together with us, and was very happy to get it. she loves it. actually i quite like it too. i'd reupholster the chairs if I got this set from somebody as a gift. I probably wouldn't choose it-I like my craigslisted dining set more..:) but if inherited-I'd use it. I'd reupholster with florals because I love florals too much..and I'd make the florals different too as much as know myself. either in color or in pattern. it wouldn't feel stuffy at all. that's a great set. if the chairs are comfortable of course. chairs are very personal thing to choose. we for example are mostly not tall, in my family, so we look pretty funny when we sit on chairs with high back:)

I immediately thought of the Nissim de Camondo museum in Paris. It's one of my favorites and such terrible tragedy befell that family. I loved that one gets to see everything - kitchens below stairs etc. The butler's pantry with the amazing collection of Meissen was drool worthy.

If in Paris, put this on your " must see" list.

Cyn, I am stunned. You would think with all the gigantic old homes in this area that someone would have jumped at the chance to have that set. What did you finally do with it?

My mom's furniture is made by Baker and other high end manufacturers. It is not dark, but more a medium color. Wonder what will become of it.

I have a John Widdicombe bedroom set. I have seen the exact same set for sale at Stenella for thousands. I guess I better not count my chickens, all things considered.

Nosoccer, I see what you mean.

Each generation has had it's "cheap" furniture. I think the oak of the turn of the century was "cheap" furniture (compared to the mahogany and walnut of the more wealthy). In our day, first there was the "plastic" Mediterrian and then the fiberboard and laminated furniture that IMO is truly get you by because you need it but throw it away when you don't.

Martha

Freeman's has an auction catalogue up right now with some 19th c. pieces --nothing too remarkable--at rock bottom prices. I was at one auction where things like gateleg tables would not get $50.

I have a bed by Baker furniture..Barbara Barry for Baker furniture to be exact. this one, I bought new, it was a floor model, so one third of the price. It's amazing. The mover guy who put it apart and then back together, asked me what is that bed..he told me that of all the beds he ever moved, this one is the best made, with such smart details and construction he never yet saw before. It was interesting to hear about the quality from the totally different point of view..the technical one.

Anglophilia, I've been to Paris twice, and I never heard about the museum until the last week when I stumbled upon the article. I hope to go there if I'm ever lucky to be to Paris again. My DD gave me a book as a gift, several years ago-a guide to Paris for art and design lovers, with all the places you might miss otherwise if you don't know about them. I've read it-but of course I didn't remember specific places, hoping that I'll reference it again if I'm to make it one day. DD dreams to go with me..she doesn't know to what an awful extent I forgot all my French..:)

We must be very rich that those pieces like nosoccermom posted go begging.

DD dreams to go with me..she doesn't know to what an awful extent I forgot all my French..

Don't worry about that. These days, unless you stray far out of the touristy areas the hard part is finding anyone who will let you try out your French. :)

Another lesser known Paris museum is the Jacquemart Andre. It, too, was a private home - far more grand than the Nissim de Carmondo. The building is spectacular. The dining room in the house was painted by Tiepolo. We had lunch there and it was delicious.