News

Despite leaving behind the ‘annus horribilis’ that was 2020, 2021 also looks set to be a challenging year. The dream that all our freedoms and ‘normal’ ways of living would miraculously return, is unfortunately, for a while at least, set to remain a dream. This painful fact therefore means that our homes will continue to be our sanctuaries where we do pretty much all of our living. Remember the Mars Bar advert from the 1970s and 1980s (some readers might?!) advocating the importance of ‘Work, Rest and Play’? This mantra encapsulates perfectly what our homes need to be geared up to accommodate.

Here at Nathan we love Christmas… although we are more Julie Andrews than Julie Goodyear (aka Bet Lynch), adoring the simplicity of ‘Bright copper kettles and warm woollen mittens’ and ‘Brown paper packages tied up with string’ than anything too garish, plastic or disposable.

“Using natural products from your garden or foraged on a walk in your Christmas decorations is a great way of continuing the age old tradition of bringing the beauty of the outdoors, inside. It is also eco-friendly and utterly on point style wise,” explains Victoria Alderson, Nathan’s Interior Stylist.

Tectona Grandis, otherwise known as teak is a prized hardwood deciduous tree naturally found in the Tropics. It is has also become synonymous with the Nathan brand and its legacy of progressive yet elegant furniture design.

Moulded plastics and plywood, tubular steel and light wood veneers are indicative of the mid-century furniture movement, which at the time of course, had no such label. Back in the 1950s the looks which were proliferating the furniture stores and magazines were simply considered to be new, innovative and by definition, ‘modern’. The stiff backed, dark woods and heavy formality of the preceding era’s styles were pushed aside in favour of the experimental designs and shapes that harnessed the new technologies and materials developed during the war. Not only did furniture become sleek and elegant, but better still, it became functional. Chairs and sofas were (finally!) transformed into items you could relax and lounge on, and the new democratic modular mix and match ranges of furniture freed up the consumer from buying things in matching ‘suites’. Now furniture could be re-arranged, interchanged or even folded or stacked away… Such changes to how people thought about and used furniture was absolutely revolutionary, so much so that some of the best designs from the era remain relevant and highly sought after to this day.

Social media has literally lifted the net curtain on other people’s homes, giving us a colour popping ‘shop’ window into how the other half live… and here at Nathan, we love it!

But creating your own Insta ready home comes with a caution, one which design visionary, the late Sir Terence Conran, perfectly understood. Despite making great design accessible to the majority, through famously pioneering flat pack furniture and introducing the duvet to a befuddled UK, he also in his later years campaigned tirelessly to protect British design by asking for it to be put on a parity with art, literature and music which is protected for 70 years after its creator’s death.

Nathan has been awarded a Design Guild Mark by The Worshipful Company of Furniture Makers which recognises the finest designers in the country.

Nicholas Radford, Chairman of the Nathan Furniture Group, has successfully completed a charity bike ride in which he raised more than £6,000

Nicholas Radford, Chairman of the Nathan Furniture Group, is taking part in a charity bicycle ride on 11-16 September, from London to Bordeaux.

Nathan Furniture has launched an original design from its archives to celebrate its centenary this year.

Nathan Furniture has made significant brand investment, with new products and the launch of its 100 year anniversary.