Furniture Interior Design Rugs

What makes some companies different from others? Today we want to feature American Leather furniture. We have been offering American Leather for many years here at Townhouse Galleries and we are still very excited about it! We feel they offer some of the best leather and fabric sofas, chairs, sleeper sofas, and media room furniture on the market today.  One of the things that sets them above the rest is their commitment to the environment. They were a founding member of the Sustainable Furniture council, a non-profit organization created to promote sustainable practices in the furniture industry. Important distinguishing features about their furniture are:

All the wood used in their frames is harvested from sustainable forest. They recycle over two million pounds of leftover wood and are able to use recycled and scrap hardwood to repurpose the wood.  This is not used in the frames, but shows a commitment to the waste generated in the manufacturing process. The glues are chemical-free, water-based binders that doesn't contain or release volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Their leather is dyed using water-based solvents and pigments offering 35 environmentally friendly leathers made through natural, chrome free, chemical free processes. The cushions include soy-based foam, which is fully recyclable and available in a wide assortment of firmness and densities. (The foam is also free of CFCs)!

The American Leather factory is committed to conservation. They use automatic light shut-offs, encourage recycling and a focus on environmentally conscious decisions by all their employees... The furniture is made in Dallas, Texas. This means that the products don't travel across an ocean to arrive to you. They come to you faster and with a much smaller carbon footprint than imported goods. So go ahead and feel good about your next leather purchase here at Townhouse Galleries. Like we keep saying... we want you to have the highest quality furniture available to you! Right here in Huntsville and Decatur, AL. 

 Is this heat getting to you all? It has been so hard to keep our buildings and homes cool with all these high heat index days! Did you know that the South accounts for 44 percent of the nation’s energy use! What an opportunity for all of us to adopt energy efficiency! I was reading a blog yesterday about energy in the southeast and I want to share a quote from Dr. Marilyn Brown, an internationally recognized leader in the analysis and interpretation of energy futures in the U.S, “ to move energy efficiency from its current lowly status as a personal virtue to the transformational powerhouse I know it to be, we need to raise our expectations much higher. This begins by changing our goal from showing that we can do “something” on energy efficiency toward a goal of doing “everything” that is both technically possible and economically cost-effective to advance energy efficiency into every facet of our lives”.  It is up to all of us to make the best decisions when it comes to energy. Have a home energy audit done at your house and see where you could make a difference! Here at Townhouse Galleries we offset some of our own energy use by participating in TVA’s Green Power Switch Program. We believe in clean sources of energy and have implemented energy saving technologies where we can.

One overlooked relationship to energy is the amount of energy that goes into a making piece of furniture. Do you ever pause to think of the energy cycle of your purchases? Many pieces of furniture travel great distances and require a tremendous amount of fossil fuels to reach your homes and our showroom.  It is refreshing to see consumer dollars go to support companies that strive to shorten the energy cycle and use renewable sources of energy and supplies. Simply Amish furniture is about as green as your can get when it comes to furniture. Stickley Furniture is another great story of a company committed to Sustainability. The lines we carry that I’m most impressed with to date are Hickory Chair, American Leather, Stressless, Stickley and Simply Amish. More and more companies are joining the cause and making furniture sustainably.  We would like to think that we are Huntsville and Decatur’s best source for sustainable furniture (let us know what you think). The story is changing and we are excited about it. If this is of interest to you, be sure to ask our designers to help you choose furniture from companies that are going the extra mile right now and you can always count on all of our quality furniture lasting for years to come. Which keeps you, your bank account, and our landfills happy!

What is a sgabello?  Its name sounds like a disease, but it is actually an Italian name for a stool.  A sgabello was a common piece of furniture during the Renaissance (1400-1600) in cities in Italy, France, and the Netherlands.  Typically, the stools had small seats and three legs.  They were uncomfortable, and used for short periods of sitting.  Discomfort did not make them unimportant.  Because they were easy to move, they were often the most common type of chair in a home.  And since they were the most common, they ended up being some of the most ornamented pieces of furniture from the period.

Contrary to what we might think, even the most architecturally impressive Renaissance palaces were sparsely furnished.  Wood was expensive, and so was furniture.  Fine furniture was therefore always crafted for beauty as much as utility.  It was a way to show off  your means with a quality investment. 

One of the wealthiest families of the Italian city of Florence was the Strozzi.  They built a huge palace in the city that is still visible today.  Built in elegant rows of pillow-like stone, the building towers over its neighbors, and leaves a lasting impression on tourists that pass by it.  Filippo Strozzi (1428-1491) built the palace, and hosted a lavish ceremony when he laid the first stone.  At the ceremony he provided stools for guests, and one of these sgabellos survives. 

Now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Strozzi’s sgabello gives us a snapshot of fine furniture and design five hundred years ago.  The sgabello rests of three legs, has an octagonal seat like a stop sign, and a high, narrow, back.  On top of the back is a round carved medallion that bears the Strozzi’s coat of arms.  It is made of walnut and maple, and inlaid with ebony and fruitwood.  Parts of the chair bore gold leaf and red paint.  This unique piece was the sort of furnishing that made the palaces of Renaissance Italy such marvels.

The next time you pull up a barstool, know that what you are sitting in has a long and illustrious history.