Valentine’s Day seems to be gradually turning February into a whole month of love and romance.
What’s this got to do with furniture? Well, we just thought this might be the perfect time to talk about a very specific piece of furniture – the loveseat.
It certainly has its own charm, although it loses some of its magic if you think of it as being a sofa with two seats.
But don’t worry, we’ll get some of the magic back when we look at its history, since one of the stories says that the loveseat was born out of the need for private conversations between couples in an era that didn’t allow them to touch each other; in fact, it seems that some of the earlier models had a slight distance between the seats.
Although, it’s true, there is another version of the story that tells us how this piece of furniture first made its debut towards the end of the 17th century and it was meant to suit the very voluminous dresses of women in those days. It was only in the next two centuries, when the women’s garments decreased in volume, that the loveseat gradually became a space for couple’s private conversations.
What is a fact agreed upon by all is that the first models were made out of hardwood and they were not nearly as comfortable as they are today. Luckily, fashion and times refined them and today we can find a wide array of models, some still with a wooden frame, but more and more with a metal one and in pretty much any variety of upholstery, in any style and color and fitting every budget.
However, refining them wasn’t an ongoing process, because the loveseat’s popularity was quite inconsistent. In Victorian times it was a symbol of the elites in Great Britain and you would only find it in the upper classes’ homes. Then, towards the end of the 19th century and the Industrial Revolution, it became the piece of the working class, especially since it was small enough to fit the very limited spaces of their homes. Almost half a century into the future they regained their popularity and the 1940s brought them back to the center of attention and gave them back their romantic edge, by placing them in boudoirs. The end of the 20th century hid them again, but today the loveseat seems to be on a rising trend once more.
How do you feel about the loveseat and what kind of space do you think fits it best?
