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All About Tables For Your Home From IronFire

Posted on 30th January 202224th January 2022 by Andrew Knight

30
Jan

The Best Tables for Your Home

No matter which room of your home you are currently in, I can pretty much guarantee that it will contain a table. A dining table in your kitchen or dining room. A coffee table or side table in your living room. A console table in your bedroom as a dressing table or in your hallway for storage or display. And in your bathroom? Well, maybe that’s pushing my “tables for your home, for every room of your house” theory a little bit too far!

If you’re looking to update, replace, or simply need a table for any use or any room of your home then Ironfire can help. We design, build and deliver custom made tables from our Wiltshire workshop directly to your home.

There’s a huge selection of colours and sizes in our range. We also keep our prices affordable and only sell directly from our online furniture store. Dining room tables, Coffee tables, Console tables, Bistro tables and Garden tables.

We can happily fill any room of your home with our furniture! The flexibility of our tabletops means that we are a truly unique furniture company. All wood used to make our tabletops comes from British sustainable forests. That, along with the strong steel frames means that they will last for years without further impacting the environment.

We’re on-hand to answer any design or delivery questions that you may have. We take a real pride in our furniture and we enjoy engaging with our customers. We carefully manufacture Ironfire and hope you will enjoy what we do.

Bistro Table ?

Bistro tables and pedestal tables may not be the first type of table that you think of when online furniture shopping for a garden table or dining table. They are however one of our best-kept secrets. If your kitchen, dining room or patio is just that bit too small for one of our dining tables, a bistro table could be the ideal solution.

Ironfire industrial bistro tables are custom made to order in any of the finishes that we have available in our online furniture shop. A rust finish for a real industrial effect; a rustic oak which looks great against the black steel frame or one of our 24 standard colours which can all be viewed on our product pages.

If none of our standard finishes are to your liking, just visit our RAL colour chart which features over 200 additional colours which we can make your Ironfire tabletop in. We’re sure that there will be at least one that matches what you are looking for, and apologies in advance if we have made the decision difficult for you! Our square bistro tables are available in 3 sizes – 75cm x 75cm; 75cm x 100cm and 100cm x100cm.

Let us know at time of purchase if you are going to be using your bistro table inside or outside, and we can ensure that we apply the correct lacquer to it. And for that extra peace of mind, our inside tables have the option of a glass top while our outside tables can have a made to measure cover. Little touches, but ones that matter.

Coffee Tables for your home ?

The centre-piece of living room furniture. The partner to your sofa. The topping for your rug. A coffee table is essential for bringing focus to your living room; bringing all of the living room furniture together.

Not just for aesthetic purposes, a coffee table also gives you somewhere to rest your feet, your mug and to hide your half-made jigsaw puzzle and half-read book under.

Ironfire industrial style coffee tables are custom made to order. Rectangular coffee tables and square coffee tables that are available in 21 sizes to suit small living rooms or larger living rooms – the general rule of thumb when sizing one up is to make sure that you can walk all around it.

Ironfire wooden coffee tables are made using locally sourced wood from renewable forests. The Douglas fir we use with durable and UV stable coatings ensures that our coffee tables will last for years.

Because we sell direct only, our coffee tables makes your money go that extra mile. So we are better for both your pocket and the environment.

Console tables for your home ?

The Ironfire console table: a narrow table available in lots of lengths and with endless uses both inside and outside. And why shouldn’t practical not also be pretty? Small enough to live at the bottom of the stairs as a hallway table. Slim enough to line the wall as part of your living room furniture collection. Our modern console tables make a gorgeous dressing table and garden storage and display of plants.

The smallest of our console tables can be used as a side table or bedside table. With a top and bottom shelf there is plenty of room for your bedside lamp and other essentials.

If that’s too small a size for you, we have 21 sizes of our industrial style console table for you to choose from. Big room, little room – there will be one for your needs. If that isn’t choice enough for you, we offer a rust or oak finish for the tops of your console table. If you want a more rustic look, we have sustainable wooden tops in 24 standard colours. Still not enough choice? We have a RAL colour page with 200 other colours ways to suit all tastes and interiors. Which one will you choose?

Dining Tables for your home?

Made with a strong steel frame and attractive wooden table top. Ironfire contemporary industrial dining tables could be the missing piece in your dining room. Multiple sizes are available whether you’re looking for a 4 or a 12 seater table.

Hot cup proof and sturdy enough to last for years, our dining room tables are a long lasting and worthy investment. Partner them with our dining chairs or benches for a complete dining room furniture solution.

The beauty of Ironfire dining tables is in the adaptability of the table tops themselves. We offer a rust finish which is stunning in its originality. An oak finish for a more classic look. A variety of 24 standard finishes with a burnt wood and coloured effect to stand out. If that’s not enough, choose from many other colours.

Years down the line if you want to update your table, just let us know. We’ll create another new top for you while maintaining the original steel frame. A table top choice that is absolutely second to none.

Garden Tables ?

Are you bored of standard teak garden tables, or painted garden furniture that needs painting every Spring when you pull it out of storage? Ironfire garden furniture can change all of that!

All of the tables on our online furniture store can be used both inside and outside. Bistro tables for a small patio table or maybe Console tables for storage or display of plants. Dining tables for larger patio areas and bigger groups of people. Even our coffee tables are ideal for an outside veranda or seating area.

All tables can be finished with a lacquer ensuring longevity outside, meaning you don’t have to worry about storage of them. Our made to measure covers can be selected as an option when you order your table. They make sure that your garden tables are even more protected against any weather blown at them.

Select a tabletop finish for a colour pop in your garden to give a colourful contrast to your patio plants. You can then pair with our garden chairs (which have waterproof cushions) or benches. Then maybe add planters and firepits to create a real Ironfire feel for your garden.

Final Verdict

So, however you are looking to add to your current furniture collection look no further than Ironfire furniture. Affordable, attractive and long-lasting, we make sure that our tables will not only stand the test of time but also complement your interior. It’s the Ironfire way.

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Hygge & Lagom Furniture, Why can’t we be both!

Posted on 29th January 202223rd January 2022 by Andrew Knight

29
Jan

2016 was Hygge, 2017 was Lagom…the influence of Nordic trends has made a massive impact on consumers and social media users and their ways of life – what they buy, where they buy it and in fact if they decide to buy it at all.

The theory behind trend of Hygge & Lagom

In the Oxford dictionary as “a quality of cosiness and comfortable conviviality that engenders a feeling of contentment or well-being (regarded a a defining characteristic of Danish culture)” is a warming sentiment. The Danish are considered to be some of the happiest people in the world and to be hyggeligt is to recognise and enjoy the present. Whether this is alone or with friends (or strangers if that makes you happy!), it is imperative that at that moment in time you feel contented and comfortable. The appreciation of this can be as simple as lighting a favourite candle to create ambience, or enjoying a social event – involving simple rituals in your life that take you away from the dullness of the everyday slog and give you a ready brek type internal glow.

Hygge Furniture

Hygge was a huge influence in 2016, but then in 2017 the Swedes took over the English obsession with Nordic phrases with Lagom. In contrast to Hygge which involves adding elements to your life to make you comfortable, Lagom is about concentrating on the essentials and paring back your life – putting balance and moderation into everything that you do. “Not too little, not too much, just enough” is one of the best ways to apply Lagom; and it is about life as a whole. Unfussy, sustainable and confident; living the Lagom way of life means having only what you need and appreciating what you have.

There seems to be a belief that you can have a Hygge life, or you can have a Lagom life, but you can’t have both. Surely though, with these lifestyle trends, both of which advocate feelings of happiness in your surroundings, appreciation and contentedness, why not take the best elements of both and apply them to your lifestyle in a way that makes you happy?

Lagom Furniture

If Lagom is a way of life – using sustainable products and being frugal – then let us live this functional way of life and pepper it with Hygge moments to maintain a feeling of satisfaction when the minimalist living is getting too much (or not as the minimalist case may be)! Being very British and definitely not Scandinavian (apart from our website guru who is part Nordic and helps us pronounce “Hygge”), at IronFire we think that the best approach is to embrace your favourite principles of each to help you live a contented life that benefits both your happiness, and that of the people and planet around you.

But what is next? With 2022 fast approaching, is another Nordic lifestyle trend on the pared back but cosy horizon? A feeling that you have no intentions of going out but are instead going to stay at home and get drunk in your underwear anyone? This is the definition of the Finnish word “Kalsarikännit”. We’re hoping that as we indulge more in it, it gets easier to say. Sounds to us like a great lifestyle trend and one that will be very popular (just make sure you recycle your bottles, wear underwear that is made of natural fibres and light a candle to make sure that you maintain Hygge and Lagom while doing it).

So at IronFire, how do we use these trends – all of which we admire – in the production of our furniture? We use sustainable sources and local products in the manufacture of our tables and chairs, and guarantee longevity so that constant replacement is not an issue. Wood warm finishes in natural colours; tables that people just want to gather around, and our great prices and customer service that give you a feeling of comfort while purchasing and using our furniture. And our staff? We’re just over here indulging in Kalsarikännit while you decide which of our tabletops you want…..

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Industrial Fast Furniture

Posted on 27th January 202223rd January 2022 by Andrew Knight

27
Jan

What is Fast Furniture?

Recent research shows that millenials prefer to spend their money on experiences rather than investing it back into anything but essentials for their homes; and other constraints can often mean that the money to invest in furniture is just not available.

Due to this, people are looking to mass-produced furniture that is first and foremost cheap and functional. If you are looking for a quick fix, fundamentally there is no problem with this. However, the furniture is not built to last. Cracking when being put together, and not withstanding day to day life (especially when there are children involved!) can mean replacing the furniture within two or three years – so altogether a false economy.

To produce furniture at this low cost, wood used is generally not from a sustainable source. Cheap imports from Russian and Eastern European forests are illegally logged meaning the devastation of natural fish and wildlife habitats, and the decline of many varieties of trees including oak, ash and birch. The demand for cheap, Chinese made furniture has started a cycle which is destroying the worlds forests and wildlife at an alarming rate. And surprisingly, a lot of furnitures big players are not impartial to this.

Another way of producing cheap furniture is to get it made by a cheap workforce. Vietnamese and Indian children are often employed on a mass scale to produce the parts for the desks and tables, while earning an absolute pittance. Cheap furniture equals child labour: a good reason to buy British.

Flatpacking the furniture also keeps the price down – it all allows for more economical logistics both from manufacturer to retailer, then from retailer to consumer. Ergo, it’s down to the consumer to put it together; loose dowells, missing screws (or the extra one at the end which causes panic over the one that you forgot) and maybe even divorce, flatpack furniture is by no means a happy experience.

I’m sure you think that the point of this blog post is me telling you to buy expensive furniture. It’s really not. The advice here is to find British made, sustainable goods that can be delivered to your door fully assembled if possible. And this doesn’t always have to be an expensive option. Just well made, good value and environmentally guilt free.

IronFire. Affordable, aspirational and non-divorce causing.

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Dulux Colour of the Year 2022

Posted on 23rd January 202214th January 2022 by Andrew Knight

23
Jan

Heart wood – Dulux’s colour of the year

Described by Dulux as a “warm neutral with a hint of heather”, Heartwood – Dulux’s colour of the year 2022 – has surprised many people with it’s warm dusky hues that are a huge contrast to last years Denim Blue.

It is described by the Duluxe colour and design expert, Rebecca Williamson, as “sitting between a smoky taupe and a warm mauve”, and we really like the shade, seeing it’s understated versatility as something that would suit many environments and complement the IronFire range.

The Dulux team say that people are currently “longing to shut out the outside world, press pause on their lives and spend time relaxing in a soothing space that is uniquely theirs.” The colour is “easy to live with, unfussy in style and depicts that welcome feeling” – this colour sits under their theme of “A welcome home” and makes a home “channel a real sense of calm and warmth”.

We think that this fits in perfectly with the ongoing trends of hygge and Lagom, Danish ideals for a happy life that have really taken off over the past few years. Translator ToveMaren Stakkestad says that “Hygge was never meant to be translated. It was meant to be felt.” and the feeling of Hygge is that of warmth, relaxation and to feel as cosy and as at home as possible, while Lagom is to have just the right amount and a good balance in life.

Heart Wood wall

We think that Heart Wood does all of this; creating a warm and inviting environment in any room to shut yourself away from the cold and hectic outside world.

Complement Heart Wood walls with natural wood and light accessories…and, (shameless plug!), we think Heart Wood in a hallway would look great with one of our Shou Sugi-Ban console tables.

Try these accessories with a Heart Wood wall on a console table in your hallway, all from Avalon Interiors.

Main image from Dulux

Blog Category

Yakisugi Coffee Table in Avalon

Posted on 22nd January 202221st January 2022 by Andrew Knight

Industrial Yakisugi Burnt Wood Coffee Table

Another week for IronFire sees another collaboration with a local firm. This time our Industrial Yakisugi Coffee Table went on an outing to Avalon Interiors in Frome. Yakisugi is an old Japanese tradition of burning wood to protect against boring insects. Of course, Avalon is the home of Sarah Hayford and an Aladdin’s Cave of gorgeous clocks, mirrors and all things interior.

We wanted to get it right. Also it was was the first time we had tried out this finish. So, we took a Coffee Table in it’s standard size (1400×900). The table top was crafted in our works in Wiltshire using the Yakisugi method and our own style of hand finish.

We think that we’re one of the only UK furniture makers using burning on Douglas Fir to decorate tables. Yakisugi is a tradition used to preserve wood from rot and bugs. It also increases the life of wood and, amazingly, it’s fire resistance. At the same time Douglas timber is just about the most rot resistant wood around. Also, our Industrial style rust treated metal frames are weather proof and good for use both indoors and out. And that’s what Ironfire is all about – making things so they can be kept for a very long time and are easily repaired and refreshed.

Avalon Interiors add a special touch

Sarah took our industrial Yakisugi Coffee table with it’s mix of Japan and Wiltshire, and made it something even more beautiful. It really stood out when she placed it amongst the other room settings in her shop.

You’ll find all of the products shown in these photos at Avalon Interiors in the Westway Precinct in Frome, Somerset. Alternatively you can find Sarah via her website.

Our Yakisugi industrial coffee table can be found on our products page. The Yakisugi burnt wood example shown in this pages images can be finished in lots of ways. Please email us or call for more info. We are always pleased to chat

Inset pic of Yakisugi industrial coffee table — IronFire industrial coffee table with a shou sugi-ban finish

Books on an Ironfire low table in Frome Close up of ironfire burnt wood table Ironfire coffee table in Avalon interiors Frome Yakisugi burnt wood coffee table Christmas lights on a burnt wood coffee table

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New Year, New Interior?

Posted on 18th January 201823rd June 2021 by Andrew Knight

Keeping on top of interior trends as they change on a seasonal and monthly basis is almost a full-time job in itself, but also something that gives great ideas and inspiration if decorating or updating decor in your home. Personally, I use a variety of well researched sources (good reason to spend hours on Instagram: I’m working, honestly!) to keep “in the loop” with the upcoming trends; from interior bloggers to online interior magazines, all of which provide great ideas as well as new places to look for products or just to give me serious home envy! (Most of which comes from seeing homes that do not have muddy footprints across the beautifully tiled kitchen floors, chocolate handprints on the Farrow and Ball painted walls or plump, succulent cushions that are placed perfectly on sofas and not being used as pugel sticks in a rework of Gladiators!). Kicking off 2018, some of the trends that I have seen being buzzed about include bright colour palettes (crayoned walls do not count apparently) against a neutral sage (if I squint hard enough, my bright green kitchen walls almost achieve this) and funky doors, both interior and exterior. Three of the trends that I like the most though are… The crush on velvet as an indulgent texture – something that brings full on glamour to even the most neutral of rooms simply by throwing (placing!) in a few cushions or even going as far as a luscious sofa. Have a look at lounje for some great velvet sofas and materials which just ask to be stroked.

Bed end by lounje — Velvet bed end by lounje

Dark, Scandi inspired wood as the movement for natural products heads further away from the light oaks that have been filling homes as standard towards a moodier scheme. Achieve this with IronFire furniture by opting for one of our darker tabletops that have been burnt using our shou sugi-ban technique more than usual. (The beauty being with our tables that when the wooden palette trend inevitably changes again, we can update just the table top for you without having to replace the frame. Clever, no?)

grey — Darker burnt wood options for IronFire tabletops – see more here

Industrial style metallics – rather than the rose gold that has been everywhere recently, these have more of a brushed masculine effect and can be used in accessorising quite affectively, or did I mention that we now do a brushed chrome frame for our tables? Look at us being all 2018! new chrome bracket

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IronFire Furniture on Location

Posted on 1st September 201725th January 2022 by Andrew Knight

01
Sep

We pride ourselves on using stunning images of our industrial IronFire furniture for our website and social media – we want to inspire people with our furniture and provide ideas that are not only aspirational but also achievable.

We quite often get asked how we come up with the images, so here are a few pointers that we always tend to be driven by whether taking images for our Facebook and Instagram; our product pages on our website, or our Houzz and Pinterest accounts.

Talk

Quite often our ideas are bandied about our office as jokes or from things that our staff have seen and noticed from their weekends or even on the drive to work! These start off as “Have you seen…?” or “This would look so cool…” and from there develop into an idea for a shoot. They are not always conventional (putting a coffee table into a tree anyone?) but sometimes from these random conversations, great shoots are produced!

Plan

From these ideas, we plan out the shoot using a moodboard. This will include props that we need, and our aims and targets from the shoot. We make sure that the product in question is always the focus – be it our planter or console table.

Crib Sheet

We have a pre-planned standard photo shoot crib sheet that we take to every shoot with us. It details house angles, house shots and things we need to remember to take with us. We’ve been caught out before coming back from a shoot and saying “We forgot to take X shot” so this makes sure that we come back with everything that we want.

Photographer

We have our own in-house photographer. This is really handy for us, as it means that we can be spontaneous with our shoots (rare sunny day? Camera out!) and that he is fully aware of the IronFire product branding and what we need to achieve from each shoot.

Be flexible

You may have an idea in your head that sounds great in theory, but on the camera screen isn’t really working. If that’s the case, why not turn it into something else? Change the angles, change the props, use the shoot to take advantage of close ups or the product. Our Shou sugi-ban table tops are stunning, and often the focus of a shoot as well as the main piece of IronFire furniture.

There’s no I in team

The photoshoot may be your baby, but sometimes others in your team can look at what you’re doing with fresh eyes and come up with a new angle or way to take a shot. You really have nothing to lose by taking this on-board, and our attitude is that it’s better to come back to the studio with more shots of the industrial iron table or chairs than you need instead of not enough and wishing that you’d taken more!

7. We believe in supporting local businesses (see our other blog posts for examples of these) so find that they are more than happy to let us use their locations to shoot our products in return for mentions on our website and social media accounts. This is a great way of networking and providing leads back for others as well as getting great shots in environments that you may not easily have access to!

Edit

We have people well skilled in Photoshop which enables us to adjust our images to the size and finish that we want. We also make sure that fonts are the same when putting text onto images and resize them all for social media platforms. We like consistency: this is important for our IronFire branding.

Learn from Each Shoot

We value feedback, and analyse each shoot to see what works for us and what doesn’t. The whole team is involved in this (and we have very different ideas on what we like and what we don’t like!) but it’s great to get differing perspectives on our results – and learn and grow from them.

Results

And then all there is left to do is pat each other on the backs when you’ve achieved great images that started off as an idea in someone’s head! Make sure you’re proud of them. We know we are.

Blog Category

Our Console Table Gets The “About The House” Treatment

Posted on 17th August 201725th January 2022 by Andrew Knight

17
Aug

Our Console Table is the IronFire furniture equivalent of the middle child; not always a necessity for a home like the oldest child and our Dining Table, and not the centre of attention like the youngest child and the Ironfire Coffee Table. It does, however, play an important part in the Ironfire furniture family and would be missed if not there.

A Console Table is versatile and can be put into any situation and win – transforming a bleak, blank hallway into an interesting and useful space, or housing your media centre to juxtapose our industrial style with your modern day living.

Slim enough to stand proudly in a narrow hallway or behind a sofa, the extra shelving that it provides can be used not just for storage but also to display attractive and useful ‘things’ to bring the Ironfire Console Table into play as a real eye-catching piece of IronFire furniture.

We are experts in crafting tables, but to really show our Console Table off to it’s full potential, we brought an interiors expert in to showcase it to it’s best. Sarah-Jane Wright runs a full interior design consultancy in Warminster, Wiltshire and it’s from her shop, About The House, that the beautiful items she has dressed our console table with have come from.

For more information about About The House and the interior services that Sarah-Jane offers, please visit aboutthe.house on Instagram, @Aboutthehouse.warminster on Facebook, or call Sarah-Jane on 01985 218882.

IronFire Console Table — IronFire Meets About The House

Blog Category

Sustainably IronFire

Posted on 24th July 201725th January 2022 by Andrew Knight

We know it’s a bit of a cliché and rolled out regularly, but at IronFire we really do believe in caring for the environment and leaving as small a carbon footprint as we possibly can. Many factors come into play when staying on the right side of the environment, and while all of our products are all designed and built in the United Kingdom thus reducing our carbon emissions, one of the most important things to us is the use of sustainable wood in our table tops.

We produce these using Douglas Fir; a strong, British grown tree that has come from a well-managed plantation. The growth of the trees is controlled to ensure minimal disruption to wildlife, and buying from a source like this means that many of the forests in the EU are growing as fast as they are being cut down.

Buying sustainable wood not only helps the environment for generations to come, but also means that you are not aiding the disruption of the forests abroad in places like Brazil. The logging in these countries can not only destroy the forest itself but also the habitats of the wildlife and the indigenous people who make it their home. Illegal wood trading can encourage human rights abuse and leave trees on the endangered list such as certain teaks and mahoganies.

Moving on from trees to something less green and woody, planned obsolescence is the manipulation of the production of an item to give it a limited lifespan. It therefore becomes broken or useless after a short period of time; the idea being that sales will be regenerated when purchasing the said item’s replacement.

The consumer trend for planned obsolescence has caused a rise in the dumping of unwanted, broken products as they break quickly so are replaced due to necessity, or upgraded to the latest model. How many people have a drawer full of old mobile phones or see fly-tipping increasing? I know in the rural area where I live it’s certainly causing a problem with old mattresses, chairs and other unwanted household items piling up on the roadside and in the woods.

While planned obsolescence has it’s place as a consumer model, it is also responsible for global warming and waste as products are mass produced and replaced. Therefore, the longevity of a product is also very relevant to it’s impact on the global environment as a whole.

So what should you look for if you want your furniture to be environmentally friendly? Sustainable wood from FSC approved sources; something that is made and distributed from the country that you live in; and a product that has been made with quality workmanship and materials to ensure that you will not be replacing it on a regular basis are all factors to be taking into consideration.

We like fresh air and we like trees. And we make our products with a craftsmanship that means that they will definitely last longer than your mobile phone! That’s how we strive to be more IronFire.