Furnishing your B&B with good quality, hard-wearing antique furniture needn’t cost a fortune explains Sarah Worrall from Tomlinsons
Hidden away just off the A1 near York, Tomlinsons Antiques is a veritable Aladdin’s cave for B&B proprietors. With more than 5,000 items in furniture in stock at any one time and more than 2,000 new items delivered each month, it is the perfect place to visit if you are looking for a low cost, stress free way to furnish your property.
Tomlinsons has become Europe’s largest antique and fine furniture warehouse and with both restored and unrestored antiques on offer, all types of furniture imaginable are available. From Georgian through to Art Deco, every taste is catered for. And the volume of antiques passing through the warehouse means that certain items are of fantastic value, particularly the unrestored pieces.
The breadth of stock means that Tomlinsons sells a large amount of furniture to small hotels and B&B’s. The practical, hardwearing and well-constructed nature of the furniture appeals to B&B proprietors who are looking for good quality furniture that is ideal for guests to handle every day. The huge variety of furniture also offers customers the opportunity to create whatever look they want - be it period or simply ‘country’.
1920s to 1930s unrestored bedroom furniture is particularly popular as it is often in great condition and will fit into most rooms. It also has enough storage for a short stay and looks attractive. A three-door wardrobe in walnut for example, can be as little as £200 or a six-seater oak dining table can be bought for as little as £100 – prices that you would struggle to match on the high street!
For more period establishments, furniture from earlier eras might be more appropriate. Tomlinsons sells unrestored Georgian furniture for up to a fifth of the price of "perfect" restored Georgian pieces. For example, a Georgian unrestored bureau can cost as little as £400 while Victorian Scots chests in solid mahogany start from under £300.
If customers require a specific piece of unrestored furniture, Tomlinsons will not hesitate to go out and track it down. Email alerts are sent out as soon as a piece comes in that Tomlinsons think may fit a customer’s requirements. For those buying from further afield, Tomlinsons can also arrange delivery anywhere around the UK. They also have the capacity to store items on behalf of a customer until enough has been bought to make the cost of a delivery viable. One B&B owner from Scotland recently spent several weeks sourcing furniture from Tomlinsons to fill his B&B but was able to store the goods in the warehouse until the very last item had been found to save on delivery costs.
However, Tomlinsons is not just about antiques. By applying knowledge of antique style and furniture-making gained over many years, it manufactures a comprehensive range of fine quality reproduction furniture at very competitive prices, offering you the period look at a price that won’t break the bank.
A recently launched addition to the range is a series of four beautiful handcrafted sofas and chairs that are reminiscent of a time when Britain was synonymous with true craftsmanship. Each sofa is hand-built and tailored to individual needs using only the finest natural materials such as horsehair and duck down and all are guaranteed for 15 years.
So not only will you get an ‘antique’ sofa of the highest quality, tailored to your needs, but also one that really does offer exceptional value for money.
For further details on the upholstery range or antiques and traditional furniture visit www.antique-furniture.co.uk or call 01423 358833 |
