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48 Best furniture stores UK 2023: Soho Home to Simba | British GQ

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48 Best furniture stores UK 2023: Soho Home to Simba | British GQ

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We’ve rounded up the best online furniture stores to upgrade your home with this year, whatever your aesthetic. Consider this your guide to where to buy furniture in 2023

Whether you’re working to kit out a small London flat or a larger home, our interior design choices say a huge amount about what we like and what we’re into, and the furniture stores we shop from, play a huge part in helping us define that. Thankfully, there are now near endless amounts of online furniture stores that cater to different interior design styles and aesthetics, whether you’re after something more sleek and contemporary, or a more traditional, vintage-inspired look. And unlike shopping for furniture in person, where you can only hit up a small number of stores per day, and might find yourself struggling to match up your budget with the pieces you’re really into, shopping online means you can really browse and find a wider range of price points, styles, materials and customisation options,

The choice may be great, but this does leave online shoppers with the challenge of navigating through a near-endless variety of pieces, something that can definitely be a bit overwhelming. To help get you started, we’ve compiled a list of our favourite online furniture stores, with something for every budget and for those looking for all types of design styles. We’ve also included some helpful notes about what kind of furniture each store has on offer, or does best, so whether you’re after a new sofa, an office chair, a bed frame, a bold dining table, or a statement rug or duvet cover, it should be easier to figure out where you should be directing your attention.

Whatever you’re going for, be it a minimal home with marble flooring and contemporary furniture, or a more rustic, farmhouse-style vibe with plenty of wood and soft furnishings, there’s a shop here to cater for it, from the luxury pieces at Soho Home, to our favourite stores for bedroom furniture and garden furniture. Happy shopping!

If there's one thing you can always rely on when visiting a Soho House spot, it's that the interiors always look impeccable. Featuring both the exact pieces you'd find in Soho House outposts around the globe, as well as many unique designs that take inspiration from Soho House interiors, shopping directly from Soho Home is a surefire way to make sure your home is up to scratch. Style and quality don't come in such abundance anywhere else.

While we’d love to live in a world where our entire house could be comprised of luxury pieces, you’re always going to need some affordable basics for your home. Whether you’re after a new bed, some added storage, shelving, or even soft furnishings like rugs and curtains, Wayfair has an expansive collection, working almost as a marketplace for furniture and interior brands. Pad out your staple pieces on a budget, and then invest where it really counts.

When the time comes to look for those more exciting, statement pieces that really elevate your home decor, Oliver Bonas is the place to go. Each piece in its collection is designed to hold plenty of individuality, looking unique, and far more exciting than if you opted for the same flat-packed piece as everyone else. These are items that are made to become a long-lasting part of your own collection, and we're very here for that.

We're partial to many a bedroom furniture store here at GQ, but for the sheer quality of mattresses and furniture, Simba is our deserved champ. Furnishings aside, it's the brand's mattresses that have really earned a place in our hearts and a permanent spot in our bedrooms. In a hybrid style, the mattresses combine both pocket spring and memory foam technology, making them soft and supportive at the same time. Whatever style of sleeper you are, there's a mattress here to suit you, and many a bed frame option that'll keep it looking good in your bedroom at the same time. Shop the full collection at simbasleep.com

For throws, bedding, rugs, and even cushions, there's no question that The White Company is one of the best furniture stores to browse. Designed to find the ultimate balance between softness, quality and really mastering that luxurious, sumptuous feel, The White Company has established a hotel-standard feel that'll keep you coming back time and time again. The duvet sets and bedding never miss, but it's the Seaford rug that has currently captured our attention. Shop the full collection at thewhitecompany.com

Different furniture stores all have different strengths and weaknesses, so if you're looking for a quickfire list of where to start browsing for more specific types of furniture, we've listed our favourite furniture stores and what they're best for below.

When you're shopping for furniture, the sales are really where you want to be directing your attention, especially if you're about to invest in something pricier like a sofa or bed frame. And luckily for you, sale season is well underway. From the best mattress sales at our favourite mattress stores to sofa sales, look no further for peak money-saving opportunities.

Furniture shopping isn't always friendly to your bank balance, naturally, because most pieces you'll be looking for are major investments. The trick? Knowing when the best furniture sales are. Normally, the biggest sale periods for most items tend to fall around the Black Friday, Boxing Day and January sales periods, making that a great time to look out for mattress deals, or to get a good discount on something larger like a dining table. Plenty of brands also regularly have clearance sales towards the end of each season, meaning you can look to invest in garden furniture towards the end of the summer, and might find a better deal on cosier, more homely items as we head into spring.

If you're not quite sure exactly what style of furniture you're after, or just want to browse somewhere with plenty of choices, John Lewis & Partners and Soho Home both have extensive furniture collections with pieces that tap into different aesthetics and suit different budgets. It's also worth taking a look at different furniture stores for different rooms; we'd recommend Simba for bedroom furniture, Soho Home for your dining room and Heal's for the living room. To make sure you know all the best places to shop, we've included a range of stores below that cover just about every style, type, and price point of furniture on the market.

It’s hard to pin down one furniture store as the best overall place to buy the best furniture, as it all depends on your budget, aesthetic, and your preference of design styles. But if we had to choose, we’d say Soho Home is one of the best places for all-round furniture shopping, with good quality pieces that have a luxury feel and are made to last. For bedroom items, Simba and John Lewis can really come through, while Heal’s and Swoon have a beautiful selection of living room pieces and sofas. We’ve gone through all of our favourite stores below, with options for every budget, and covering all personal preferences from industrial and contemporary interiors to more rustic, mid-century, vintage and traditional looks.

While there are plenty of great markets, antique stores and vintage furniture stores in the UK, if you’re after something quite specific or a new piece, shopping for furniture online can often be your best bet. In the UK, there’s now a wide range of retailers available to shop from, and your budget, your personal style preferences, and whether you’re looking for large pieces like bed frames, dining tables and mattresses, or smaller bits like rugs, wall art, and desk lamps, will really determine the best places to shop. We’ve included a comprehensive list of furniture stores below, as well as some detailed insights into what you should look to them for.

Shopping for furniture in person and online both have different benefits and disadvantages. In person, you can personally ‘try on’ the furniture for yourself, meaning you’ll be able to get a good sense of the materials, the quality, the design, and how comfortable it is, all of which can sometimes look different in photos. And if you manage to stumble across a smaller, more vintage store, you might find some really rare and unique bits that you wouldn’t have managed to track down online. The disadvantage, however, is that it’s time-consuming. And chances are, you’ll have to place an order afterwards anyway unless you happen to be able to carry home a dining table with you.

Shopping for furniture online, however, has now become almost the norm. With the ability to shop multiple sites and retailers in one go, you can compare prices, pieces and designs much more easily, meaning you’re more likely to find something that fits most of your criteria. Should you know where to look (a given if you read our guide below), you can also stumble across unique pieces, especially if you take the time to explore vintage sites and second-hand furniture stores. It also takes the stress out of the process, and plenty of online furniture stores now include good trial period options, meaning you can make sure the items fit in your home before you commit.

When you're looking for good furniture stores, there are a few important things to take into account. Furniture should be an investment, so shopping for high-quality pieces that will stand the test of time, rather than just ones that will tap into a year-long trend, is going to mean you get the best value for your money and won't need to redecorate every time the trends change. You'll also want to think about the style of your home and whether it suits more contemporary or traditional designs, as well as whether you're looking for neutral minimalist pieces or more colourful, bold statements. It's also worth considering how sustainably the furniture has been produced and sourced, something you can normally find out quite easily on most websites.

If you've ever seen Friends, you'll certainly know of Pottery Barn from the famous episode where Rachel tries to outfit her and Phoebe's apartment with the brand's furniture. Essentially one of the biggest furniture giants in the United States and North America, Pottery Barn has become one of the leading interior brands, with as much as 16 per cent of US-based online furniture shoppers saying they use the site. However, it sadly isn't as easy to get your hands on Pottery Barn furniture in the UK as it is for Rachel Green to pop into the NYC store and place a handful of orders. Thankfully, however, West Elm has got us somewhat covered. Also owned by Williams Sonoma, West Elm does have a different vibe to Pottery Barn, being a much newer brand and focusing more on contemporary aesthetics and sustainability, rather than the classic styles of Rachel's haunt, but it's the closest you'll find to Pottery Barn's exact furniture on this side of the pond.

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If you’re a fan of the welcoming yet modern design styles of Soho House interiors around the world, you’ll be able to find luxury and handcrafted furniture in a similar vein from Soho Home. The online furniture shop focuses on a combination of both traditional and new designs, with the goal of creating a living space that fits seamlessly with your personal design styles to make you feel both refined and comfortable. If you’re shopping for seating, we’d recommend taking a look at its range of armchairs, including its House Porter chair or the Reya sofa, both clean and modern designs that are perfect for cosy nights in. Shop the full collection at sohohome.com

Best known for its mattresses, Simba is expanding further and further into the furniture world, most recently with the launch of its new bed range. Always at the forefront of design innovation, Simba's bed range was created in an attempt to reinvent the bed base, using a new slat system that works with the whole bed to provide more support for your entire body. It's this kind of ambition that makes it a go-to in our eyes if you're looking to kit out a bedroom, and it's what also makes the company's mattresses so comfortable we can't stop recommending them. Save yourself time and buy your bed frame, mattress, duvet and pillows all in one place. Shop the full collection at simbasleep.com

Particularly good for soft furnishings, The White Company has mastered a relaxed yet elegant look in its collections. To add an extra touch of detail to your bedroom, we'd recommend looking at its Richmond Cotton Bed or its highly practical drinks trolley. Shop the full collection at thewhitecompany.com

Having been around since 1810 you might expect that Heal’s would be all about the traditional, more vintage styles of furniture, but it’s actually the opposite. Always slightly ahead of the curve, Heal’s remains a champion of the contemporary, putting fresh spins on some of those more old-fashioned designs, and aiming to showcase new designers. And in many ways, it’s also a one-stop shop for everything from sofas and large furniture to lighting, accessories and soft furnishings like rugs, throws and duvets. Currently, we’re loving the refreshingly modern Acacia Rug for a bedroom, and the Lars Green Sideboard for a unique entrance hall look. Shop the full collection at heals.com

With 40 years of manufacturing experience, Darlings of Chelsea is focused on maintaining a reputation for producing high quality furniture which can be upheld to the highest standards. But in addition, it also places a key focus on creating unique pieces which are defined and differentiated by their details. Sofa beds and sofas are what we'd come here for first, with every style, colour and design you could imagine available to order, but you'll also find a range of beds, chairs and other exciting pieces available to purchase too. Think chic, classic style, with a fresh contemporary flair. Shop the full collection at darlingsofchelsea.co.uk

Focusing on distributing French artisanal products to customers globally, La Redoute combines home trends with modern style to create unique and innovative furniture. With plenty of designs to choose from, we'd suggest taking a look at its shelving options, such as this vintage Walnut & Steel shelving unit or the Oak coffee tables. Shop the full collection at laredoute.co.uk

Best described as a marketplace for home furnishings, Wayfair is the kind of furniture store that has a bit of everything. Its wares are mostly budget-friendly, although this does vary based on what it is you're looking to buy – you'll find larger furniture pieces like sofas and tables, lighting, garden furniture, and even smaller items like bathroom fixtures and plumbing. Shop the full collection at wayfair.co.uk

With a 40-year history of producing good quality furniture, Graham And Green is all about creating a vibrant, modern space that you'll really want to spend time in. Focusing on colours, the pieces tend to have a bolder look that can brighten up any space with a refined, yet relaxed look. With both indoor and outdoor furniture, as well as soft furnishings, there are plenty of options and collections to shop from. We're particularly into this rattan swing chair for the garden, as well as the Deep Dream Collection sofas, which have been designed by Jamie Graham. Shop the full collection at grahamandgreen.co.uk

Unfortunately, all of us in the UK are still starved of the joys of Pottery Barn, but owned by the same company (Williams Sonoma), West Elm is your ticket for Pottery Barn-style furniture on this side of the pond. If Pottery Barn is the traditional, classic furniture store, think of West Elm as its more contemporary younger sibling, having launched in 2002 to focus on more modern, sustainable furniture styles. The furniture maintains the same quality that Pottery Barn is known for, with plenty of stylish designs across sofas and tables, as well as on soft furnishings like rugs, curtains and bed linen, and even on garden pieces. And if you need a bit of assistance or inspiration, you can even take advantage of the Design Crew services that’ll give you a helping hand. Shop the full collection at westelm.co.uk

Oka is the kind of place where the furniture is always worth a browse, focusing on staple pieces that have timeless style, rather than seasonal trend-driven offerings that you'll be looking to replace within a year or two. Investing in furniture is about finding items that will work in your home for years to come, and OKA's edit is exactly the place to find those. Whether you're after lighting fixtures or lampshades, soft furnishings and cushions or larger pieces like the Katsura cabinet, it's got you covered and then some. Shop the full collection at oka.com

If you’re after colour or patterns, Andrew Martin’s collections of furniture and homeware are well worth your time exploring. Often inspired by classic English designs, the brand incorporates everything from bright florals and bold geometric patterns into its aesthetics, fusing a more stately home feeling with a very contemporary edge. The sofas take a more minimal, streamlined look, like the linen-upholstered Serenity sofa, while everything from the wallpapers to the lampshades and cushions is more unique and colourful. And if you fancy something really special, you can take a look at its collaborations with interior designers, including the most recent with Kit Kemp which focuses on medieval and folk-inspired looks. Shop the full collection at andrewmartin.co.uk

Toast’s whole vibe is about longevity, and it’s at these kinds of furniture stores where you’re going to be finding those hero pieces for your home that’ll last you for years to come, which is ultimately what most of us are looking for from our best furniture bits. The brand places craftsmanship at the heart of its mission, and it’s not hard to see how much that pays off when you start to see the quality of the homeware. It’s more of the decorative home furnishings that you’ll find here, from aesthetic cushion covers and throws to chic and unique tableware and bed linen, as well as fun and bold patterned rugs. Currently, we’re loving this bright jute braided rug. Shop the full collection at toa.st

Bedding is by far one of the most exciting and fun pieces of homeware that you can shop, and it’s the one that pays off the most too. For that dreamy, soft feeling when you tuck yourself into bed in the evening, Rise & Fall has a collection of bed linens that’s well worth your perusal if you’re trying to do up your bedroom. For summer-friendly, cooler bedding, we’d suggest looking at the linen range, whereas the cosier sets can be a great year-round investment for keeping warm in the winter. Shop the full collection at riseandfall.co

The real joy in furniture shopping comes when you find a store that sells and stocks pieces that have care and personality, rather than just being a copy-and-paste job of every other high street or online furniture retailer. Striking a balance between respecting and appreciating more vintage designs, while also looking to create their own take on more contemporary trends, Rowen & Wren has found its own aesthetic fusing the old with the new, and it’s one that could fit into almost any style of home.

The upholstery is one of our favourite things among the brand’s many offerings, with a selection of armchairs and sofas in fabrics from velvet to natural linen, and even more unique abstract and striped designs that feel more personal to your home. Now that we’re in the summer months and the weather has finally brightened up, Rowan & Wren has also come through with a garden furniture range that we’d happily kit our entire patio out with. From sun loungers and outdoor chairs, to garden tables and even outdoor dining accessories like cutlery, bowls and napkins, you can be sure your next garden party or al fresco dining night will go down a hit. Shop the full collection at rowanandwren.co.uk

For statement pieces that have more unique and distinctive designs, Swoon is a great place to shop. With everything from chairs and sofas to desks, tables and lighting, it has an extensive range of every type of furniture you'll need. Placing design and aesthetics at the forefront of its philosophy, the brand is all about making your home somewhere you're obsessed with. And talking about things we're obsessed with, we're currently loving this Berlin sofa, which is available in 17 different shades of velvet, as well as wool or house weave, making it an impossible task not to find a design that suits your space. swooneditions.com

A classic British lifestyle brand that needs no introduction, Oliver Bonas is a great place to find unique pieces that bring your rooms to life. If vintage is your thing, take a look at the Sofia collection, a range of luxurious furniture and upholstery with a classic aesthetic, including the Blue Chenille Loveseat and Velvet Ottoman. Shop the full collection at oliverbonas.com

It's an obvious classic, but John Lewis & Partners has really upped its furniture game in recent years, especially when it comes to fresh, modern designs. We recommend its contemporary collections, including the Hairpin Desk, perfect for a dream WFH set-up. Shop the full collection at johnlewis.com

Taking inspiration from the French flea markets, 1stDibs started with a goal of creating that marketplace vibe for furniture and homeware online. Featuring a whole range of sellers from around the world, you’ll have the chance to browse and peruse at your leisure, and then to connect and chat with sellers before negotiating on the price that you think works best for both sides.

It almost takes branding out of the equation, pushing you to instead focus on the quality and look of a piece, helping you find more unique items that are akin to the kind of thing you’d get at an antique store. Whether it’s fine art or vintage lighting and armchairs, this is the place to go for those one of a kind items that really feel personal to you. It’s the kind of furniture that feels like it has a story to it, rather than just coming straight out of a warehouse. Shop the full collection at 1stdibs.com

Dreams is definitely not the new kid on the block in the bedroom furniture world, and chances are, we’ve all probably already slept on a Dreams mattress at one time or another. It’s a classic and for good reason. Designed to last for years to come, the brand’s mattresses, beds and other bedroom furniture pieces are all produced to be real staple items in your home. The pieces are all surprisingly elegant as well, with a touch of luxe to elevate them slightly above some of the other box store-turned-online retailer furniture stores. And the cherry on top? Dreams also have regular sale periods that make it really easy to get a great new mattress or to jazz up your bedroom, without having to break the bank. Shop the full collection at dreams.co.uk

A classic British furniture brand, Barker & Stonehouse isn't just an online service but a well-established physical store with more than eleven locations across the UK. As an independent, family-owned business, it's actually been around since the end of the Second World War, building up a reputation for reliable and stylish furniture. With such a range of different styles, you'll struggle not to find something you like. Shop the full collection at barkerandstonehouse.co.uk

If you are a lover of vintage but want something new, Dyke & Dean will become your new go-to for home furnishings. Starting out in 2011 the brand has gone from strength to strength, originally specialising in indoor and outdoor lighting, it has since grown its portfolio to offer exquisite furniture, retro inspired homeware and our favourite, the modular kitchen. If you are looking for a way to add some quirk to your house whether that be some niks-naks to display on a shelf, new glass wear or even a new sink, Dyke & Dean has you covered. If you are feeling extra adventurous, head down to their Hastings flagship store, spread over three floors in a Grade 2 listed building, it will inspire you for weeks to come. Shop the full collection at dykeanddean.com

48 Best furniture stores UK 2023: Soho Home to Simba | British GQ

Rope Wicker Chair When it comes to buying furniture online, it's hard to find something with a bespoke element that feels unique to you and your home. Allow us to introduce you to TYLKO. What sets TYLKO apart from every other online homeware shop is how you can customise nearly every feature on your chosen furniture; from the width, depth, storage and even colour, the possibilities are endless. Whether you are after a wardrobe, bookshelf, desk, sideboard or even a TV stand, it has every corner of your house covered. Shop the full collection at tylko.com