I remember when my wife and I bought our first home in 1990. We spent many weekends travelling from one shop to another in search of the right piece of furniture at a price that we could afford. It was a stressful process and we were fortunate that our young marriage survived the ordeal!

When I first started to work in the furniture industry in 1994 I was surprised to learn that there were over 8,000 companies making furniture in Britain. So why was it, I wondered, when I walked into a furniture store I could only see a few hundred items on display? The answer, it turned out, was quite simple: there wasn't enough space in the shop to display any more stock. It seemed such a shame to me that the general public was missing out on the tens of thousands of furniture items that I could see as a professional buyer at the big 'trade only' shows I was attending.

When the Internet arrived in the late 1990's I saw an opportunity to make people's lives easier by transporting this wonderful Aladdin's Cave of furniture right into their home. So, in 1999 I founded Furniture123.co.uk (amazingly, we were the first online furniture store in Europe!) and our mission then, as now, was simple: we aimed to make our customer's lives easy (as easy as 123!) by cataloguing every item of furniture available, provided it was of good quality and represented value for money. We now see ourselves as curators, not style police and the result is a collection that is wonderfully eclectic. Our skilled team of merchandisers and I still visit many international furniture shows throughout the year but now we are able to share them with you - we hope you enjoy the experience as much as we do!

Julian Field
Founder of Furniture123