Is your Chesterfield sofa male or female?

Chesterfield Sofa

On the face of it, that might sound like a really strange question to ask. Surely a piece of furniture, whether it’s a traditional Chesterfield sofa or not, is simply a piece of furniture? It’s inanimate and it’s functional: what more would you expect? Well, people do expect more. We all like to identify with the objects we own, and often choose to give them human characteristics. Why else would many of us give our cars a name? So, if you own a Chesterfield settee, or are thinking about possibly buying one in the near future, I’ll ask the question again. Do you think of your leather Chesterfield sofa as male or female?

If your answer is male, then I guess a lot of people would understand your thinking. Traditional Chesterfield sofas are solid and dependable. They’re reliable and strong and are suitably business-like. When the Earl of Chesterfield commissioned his first Chesterfield settee, he specifically asked for a piece of furniture that was practical, stylish and functional, yet comfortable at the same time. Well, he got what he wished for. If you go into any business these days, whether that’s a bank, an office, a solicitors, even a coffee house, the chances are that you’ll find a traditional Chesterfield sofa somewhere in the building, usually the reception. Ask yourself why this is the case, and the answer will be that these pieces of furniture convey precisely the right message to the client – strength, dependability, and no-nonsense practicality. Those are the characteristics any male would be proud of.

Then again, couldn’t your Chesterfield sofa be female? After all, just look at those classic curves, the sweeping arms and arched back. Surely they are female characteristics. Leather covered Chesterfield settees are soft and supple and have an understated elegance, charm and subtle poise. It doesn’t really depend on the colour of the leather or fabric covering the Chesterfield sofa: bright pink or traditional brown, it makes no odds. What really matters is that the shape and form is most definitely of the female variety, and that’s what makes it so appealing.

Is there a moral to all of this? Well, in a sense, yes, there is. A traditional leather Chesterfield sofa can be anything you want it to be – male, female, neither or both. These sofas are so versatile and stylish, that they can and will fit in and blend with every different type of decoration scheme. Old, new, vintage, retro, traditional, modern, colourful or stark, a Chesterfield sofa will never look out of place. However you want your living room to look, these sofas fit the bill. How many other items of furniture can you say that about?