Times - Bricks and Mortar
 
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The failure of the Pre-Budget Report to stimulate the property market and encourage moving up the housing ladder is set to accentuate the cocooning trend: people are staying put and investing in creature comforts. This may be why cushions are some of the fastest-selling home- wares items in budget, mid-market and luxury ranges. Everyone from Asda to The Rug Company is reporting increased cushion sales. There is also a fast-developing preference for bright colours. When selling your home, neutral furnishings attract buyers. But if you have no intention to move, why not indulge your leaning for reds, blues and purples? In this please-yourself climate, bespoke craft items are also making a comeback.
The need to economise will strengthen the supermarkets' share of the homewares sector; Tesco will, in particular, strengthen its position as the top power player. Dinnerware at the superstore has been the hit in recent months. Eating in is now the soirée of the season; entertaining is affordable when a set of four champagne flutes can be yours for £12.
Staying in on a Saturday night to watch Strictly Come Dancing and The X Factor is surely one reason for the soaring demand for sofas. Old-fashioned button-backed styles are making a comeback at John Lewis and M&S. The Cranborne sofa, costing £2,200, is a bestseller at John Lewis, which is remarkable considering that a real Chesterfield can be bought for £1,000. At M&S the button-backed Portland chaise longue, pictured, which uses Swarovski crystals, is very popular, indicating that a little bling can be a consolation in a recession. Sparkly seating may not be everyone's thing but bold styles are in demand. The red-striped Ruby china collection is a hit at M&S, along with rugs such as the swirly plum Damask design, and richly coloured upholstery fabrics such as the brashly patterned Hermitage Aqua. Bright colours, geometric prints and statement pieces have been flying off Ikea's permanently understacked shelves; the Trollsta sideboard, at £199, is selling surprisingly well considering that the bestselling version is sunshine yellow with curvaceous edging. Perhaps people want a touch of opulence at home; the popularity of Ikea's Ektorp take on the chaise longue suggests so. M&S and Ikea shifting thousands of chaises longues must mean that many are reclining in cut-price splendour (unemployed bankers perhaps?).
Michelle Alger, head buyer of furniture at Liberty, has noticed that interest in Arts and Crafts pieces and high- end vintage has increased, while Christopher Sharp, a co-founder of The Rug Company, says: "The craft idea is popular now and people like the idea of investing in something that will last for hundreds of years." The well-off are looking for traditional, safe places to put their money. "People like to invest in decorative art because they understand it, unlike some conceptual art, and it serves a purpose," believes Sharp, who commissioned 15 artists, including Paul Noble and Grayson Perry, to design limited- edition tapestries for Banners of Persuasion, a branch of The Rug Company. "We have sold almost all the first editions but I think that if the tapestries had been launched at a more prosperous time they would undoubtedly have sold much faster." The starting price is £15,000. Ikea, anyone? Kasia Maciejowska
