Here’s How to Know When to Go with Specialty Furniture

*Featured post made possible by Jenna S

Here’s How to Know When to Go with Specialty Furniture

Picking the right furniture for your family is a tough job. It can be further complicated by having family members with special needs. Because we are all individuals, everyone in the family has different desires. Tall bar stools don’t work well for the vertically challenged. A low couch doesn’t work for a person with long legs.

You also have to consider fabrics. There is no accounting for allergies. That one chair that everybody loves may be an itch factory for the youngest kid–you know, the one who also hates broccoli.

And the furniture is more than chairs and couches. There are tables, beds, shelves, appliances, and accessories. The job of getting it all right for everyone in the home is truly monumental.

Some of the challenges have to do with the following differences represented in a family:
• Size
• Weight
• Maturity
• Intelligence
• Dexterity
• Health

There is also social consciousness. Some will have a problem with furniture made from leather. With so many competing interests, it is a wonder that any home gets any furniture that everyone loves.

Because there are always special needs and special interests in play, it is hard to know when to go with specialty furniture. Here are a few tips on when to go with something out of the ordinary:

Make Health the Priority

All else being equal, if someone in the house is allergic to something you really like, you have to give it up and go with that which is healthy for everyone.

Rather than an allergy, it might be something like aching knees and back. In that case, depending on how many people in the house have that special need, you may need one or two Perfect Sleep Lift Chairs.

Depending on the infirmity, there is almost always a piece of furniture designed to help alleviate it. And it is usually available for every room in the house.

So whether it is a raised toilet seat or a chair with extra lumbar support, always get the furniture that addresses the specific health needs of your family.

Choose Function over Form

Other considerations aside, if you can’t use it, don’t buy it. If what you need is a standing desk, don’t get one that cannot be used that way.

Often the choice of Mac vs. PC comes down to the dictates of your company or school. If you require software or websites that only run on PCs, you need a PC. If you have to run Final Cut, you need a Mac. Your desires and aesthetic preferences hardly matter in such circumstances.

The same is true for furniture. If one of your kids is particularly tall, they need a bed that accommodates their length. Sometimes the more utilitarian furniture is not the most aesthetically pleasing.

But those are the times when you have to remind yourself why you are buying furniture in the first place. When form becomes more important than function, nobody wins. A special utility should always beat common beauty.

Listen to the Architecture

A specialty space will tell you when you need a piece of specialty furniture to fill it. A particularly tall ceiling might call for a tall plant.

A lo and sloping ceiling will call for something different. The size and shape of a space will be the final decision for what size and shape piece of furniture will occupy it.

But it is not just about size and shape. A classic home with a classical room will cry out for a classical chair. There are some spots that will only be happy with a wing-back chair.

A Victorian couch is the right choice for a Victorian home. While an ultra-contemporary home will require at least one piece of ultra-contemporary furniture.

You wouldn’t put office furniture in a place dedicated to being a haunted house. You would furnish a log cabin in the woods differently than you would furnish a Manhattan apartment. So let the architecture tell you what you need. Special architecture requires special furniture.

You need specialty furniture when you have special health needs, special use cases, and special architecture. Because we are all special in some way, every household should have at least one piece of furniture unique to its occupants.