There are many dimensions to J&B Furniture’s design philosophy-the set of priorities that determine how we decide what will feature in our store’s range, that allow us to select only units that will provide customers with a wealth of options to choose from without ever doubting the comprehensive quality of their selection. These dimensions include build quality, material quality, the aesthetic impact and profile of the unit, and whether this aesthetic contributes to wide interior design variety throughout our range.

But one major factor we’d like to explore today is what we call “nested functionality”. What this means is that, where possible and appropriate, we want a piece of furniture or a design element to have more than one use/function, or more than one reason a customer should value it and feel it contributes to their life and their home. We search for units that give you more functionality, convenience, and general benefits without a major increase in price.

Sofa Beds

Perhaps the most obvious and extensive example of this, the example we use as a benchmark really, are Sofa Beds. While not every one of our Sofas is a Sofa Bed, it’s a very large majority, much higher than the majority of furniture stores in line with J&B’s commitment to Nested Functionality. When you buy a J&B Sofa Bed, you’re not just getting comfort, quality, and sharp interior design style, you’re getting a superb and ideally located bed in addition to all of that. J&B Sofa Beds quickly and easily unfold on advanced, machined hinge systems that do almost all the actual lifting.

This provides a whole new dimension of functionality without a major increase in price, and illustrates how the convenience of being able to set up an extra bed in your Living Room or similar space is seamlessly nested within the unit’s primary functionality of being an excellent Sofa.

Another major and obvious example of Nested Functionality when it comes to Sofas is storage. Many J&B Sofas, whether Sofa Beds or not, contain easy-access storage compartments. Part of the Sofa’s surface lifts away on assistive systems very like those which facilitate Sofa Bed functionality, revealing a wealth of storage space within the Sofa itself. This does not detract from the general quality of the Sofa-traditional Sofa design generally “cavities” within the units, empty space that would provide no additional structural or comfort benefits if filled in.

There are also other, less intuitive forms of nested functionality based on the general hardware and material quality of a unit. A J&B Sofa Bed filled with our preferred High Elastic Polyurethane foam and premium pocket spring systems, along with fine quality upholstery, benefits from these no-cut-corners practices in both its Sofa and Bed configurations. Parts of the main Sofa comprise the “Bed” of the Sofa Bed mode, so the quality and comfort of the unit as a Sofa translate directly to quality and comfort as a bed.

Have a look at this configuration of the Stone Modular Sofa Bed. It perfectly illustrates nested functionality. Being in the first instance an excellent, extremely high-quality product cleaving the strict standards discussed above, it also fluidly unfolds into a luxuriantly comfortable bed mode and opens to reveal a large, super convenient to access storage area.

Another range of J&B furniture that frequently displays nested functionality in the form of storage is Beds. A good quality bed frame will have a sturdy, well-crafted slat support system, under the mattress but generally raised well above the ground to give the unit extra height. But this can create another otherwise useless cavity. Applying the principles of nested functionality, many of our beds install assistive, mechanical hinge designs to the slat frame, allowing it to lift vertically with familiar, trivial ease and reveal an ample and expansive compartment underneath, ideal for extra bedding, clothes, and other general storage purposes.

See how the slat frame of the Windsor Ottoman Fabric Bed Frame below lifts to reveal a generous trove of storage space underneath.

The quality of the frame and general construction is impeccable as is, so if this functionality wasn’t available all that space within the frame would simply go to waste. But for a small additional investment it is now highly functional and useful.

Nested in Style

Often the nested functionality takes the form of a fusion of what’s aesthetically pleasing with what increases a unit’s functionality and versatility, both reinforcing the other. Examples of this are more diverse, such as the soothing lighting cavity of the Safina Ottoman Velvet Bedframe, which is both soporifically attractive and provides additional illumination to its surroundings.

Or consider extendable Dining Tables like the Argenta, which can extend or contract both to make a room strike a subtly different aesthetic, but also to respond to practical requirements of how many people will be using the table and how much space you want it to occupy.

Sliding Wardrobes

Another nested fusion of extra functionality with an aesthetic bonus can be seen when it comes to Sliding Wardrobe designs, a style of furniture J&B has a particularly vast selection of due to precisely these aesthetic and functional advantages.

Sliding Wardrobe designs have panel doors that slide horizontally and shelter each other when the unit is opened, rather than swinging outwards as with traditional wardrobes.

The practical, functional side of this is that the sliding design doesn’t demand as much space, they don’t take up as much room when opened.

On the aesthetic side of things, synergising with this functional advantage, is the fact Sliding Wardrobes lend themselves really well to sleek, very modern, and minimalist designs. A Sliding Wardrobe will generally have a perfectly regular and simple silhouette, because the lack of swinging doors creates an opportunity for things to be very visually clean and geometric. And at the same time, the large, flat panels that make up the doors provide an excellent canvas for the designers to maximise the unit’s distinct and particular style.

And this pared-down but visually bold aesthetic itself rebounds to the benefit of functionality-the simplicity of the unit’s shape makes it extremely space-efficient.

This is an ideal case of additional functionality lending itself to an opportunity for particular aesthetic strengths, which in turn create an opportunity for further efficient functionality, these advantages synergistically nesting within each other.

Pictured Below are the The Betty 180 High Gloss Sliding Wardrobe(left),The Betty 180 Monastary Oak Sliding Wardrobe(centre), and the Hamster 255 Sliding Wardrobe(right)

Conclusion

We hope we have demonstrated just one more reason that J&B Furniture should be your first destination when you’re in the market for furniture and want an excellent addition to your home at incredible value. You can count on J&B to make the most of your investment not just in quality and comfort, but in our efforts to give you whole new dimensions of functionality you might not have even thought of. J&B units do so much more than just take up space and fulfil one singular need, they have the potential to multilaterally transform your home for the better.