Velvet Magazine April 2016

Interiors
Furniture
Myths
Debunked
Budding interior designers... listen up!
This little gem is a bit of a hidden secret which
fortunately happens to be right on our doorstep.
Being from Bury St Edmunds, and thinking I’m pretty much in the know about our local
area, I was surprised to learn that Direct Furniture was far more than just a ‘last chance
to buy’ outlet offering ‘unwanted’ furniture from stores such as Next. I caught up with
owner, Jonathan Carver, to put a few of the myths straight.
Myth 1: Myth 2: Myth 3:
Direct Furniture sells
secondhand, or unwanted,
unbranded furniture.
Wrong! In fact you couldn’t be more
wrong. Direct Furniture stocks a huge
quantity of well known brands, from John
Lewis and Marks & Spencer to Habitat. It
receives an endless amount of stock for a
number of different reasons, from end of
line pieces, pieces which have been used
for display or photoshoot purposes, or
even just cancelled orders.
“We think of it as little bit like a TK Maxx
for furniture! Originally, when we opened
back in 2002, we mainly dealt with Next,
but our stockists have grown considerably
since then. We now stock many wellknown
brands,” says Jonathan.
The products are often
damaged or have design
faults.
Wrong... well, partially. Direct
Furniture does accept faulty items, but
it has a team dedicated to fixing such
items in their warehouse. The majority
of their stock is in immaculate condition,
due to it simply being from last season or
discontinued; however, they do get
occasional items which need a little bit of
TLC. Often this just involves screwing on
a missing handle or perhaps just
re-sanding the wood to remove a minor
scratch. They do, however, undertake
some ‘up-cycling’ and reconfiguring of
certain products which didn’t quite make
the grade.
“Recently we had some lovely industrial
style tables with solid mango wood tops
but unfortunately the matching benches
were made slightly too long, meaning
they didn’t fit under the table. We simply
reconfigured the benches to make them
smaller so they could be tucked away
under the table,” Jonathan explains.
The stock is outdated or
from last season, and it
doesn’t change very often.
Really Wrong. 60% or more of what
they have in store are items they have
sourced from around the world that are
new and available from stock, with new
deliveries arriving every week.
They even get some items before they
make the retailer’s direct website.
“We get lorryloads of new stock every
week! What’s great is that we deal with
so many brands, so we have something
for everyone. We often get test pieces
that don’t always make production.
I always think, you’d pay a fortune for a
one-off piece of bespoke furniture!”
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Velvet Magazine | Apr 2016