Swedish Biedermeier Sofas – Art, Design and Interior Design Style all rolled into one
When you look at a Swedish antique Biedermeier sofa –What do you see?
The elegant curves of the arms? The carved detailing? The stunning show wood veneers? The lush French polish finishes?
This is of course looking at Swedish Biedermeier sofas only.
See our Biedermeier Sofas here
The Austrian and German Biedermeier styles are much more masculine, blocky looking and muscular so very different to the softer curvy more feminine aspects advocated by Swedish Biedermeier.
The Swedish Biedermeier setting hails from approx 1820 onwards after the ascension to the Swedish throne of a french man of all things!
It is known a Karl Johan style in Sweden named after the Swedish name he took as Kungen.
The Biedermeier sofas tend to be a birch frame with a top grade show wood on top – very often quilted golden birch, cherrywood or flame and quilted mahogany.
The veneers are extremely thin and act as a decorative overlay on the sofa frame. The veneers are brought to life and depth by the french polish.
This can be done in a whole variety of colour tones and it gives such feel and depth to the sofa – its quite amazing.
The seat is most often fully sprung with webbing supporting copper coil springs which give a comfortable and firm sit.
Then on top there will be a stuffed seat usually made out of horsehair altho one very early 1800s Biedermeier sofa we sold was actually stuffed with straw!
When we reupholster we usually add some natural fibre and a layer of Cortel to the top of the seat to give it some extra squoosh.
The back of these biedermeier sofas were originally un upholstered and without a veneer overlay as they were made to sit against the wall but again we can stain the back woods to match the veneer of you want the sofa sitting in the middle of the room and then we also upholster the back to within an inch of the edge so that it looks pretty from all angles.
There is a misconception that antique sofas arent comfy. When we add the extra stuffing they are really good to sit on for long periods unlike modern sofas where the foam used quickly goes saggy and mushy.
Foam is great is you use the really expensive stuff but modern sofas are made as cheaply as possible so the foam is usually poor quality.
We recently renewed a Biedermeier sofa for a client who wanted more of a modern ‘sit’ – so we made an entirely new seat for it from best quality foam and he was very happy.
So now you know what to look for in an antique sofa – get in touch and we can help you find your perfect sofa for life
