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About us

In our world - the furniture is the star!

About us

Film and Furniture – Furniture and décor with a story to tell

Have you ever watched a film and found yourself captivated by an intriguing chair, glass, carpet, or wallpaper, and thought, “What is that? Where can I learn more about it and buy it for my own home?”
If so, welcome – you’re among friends.

Film and Furniture is a lovingly curated online resource for film enthusiasts, design aficionados, and interior designers alike. We’re here to uncover the fascinating stories behind the furniture and décor you spot in your favourite films—while pointing you to exactly where you can buy these pieces for your own home.

In our world, the furniture is the star: from a contemporary item in a recent blockbuster to a vintage piece in a timeless classic.

Driven by an unrelenting passion for film and design, Film and Furniture has become the definitive resource for discovering the furniture and décor featured on both our big and small screens. We reach over 275,000 people per month through our website, newsletters and social media channels.

The furniture and décor we explore come with rich design knowledge and provenance, shedding light on why these items were chosen for the film set and how they sometimes reveal more about the characters than the script. We then show you where to acquire these pieces yourself, enabling you to recreate a sliver of the silver screen in your own home.

We’re regularly invited to share our insights at global events and conferences and have been featured in numerous podcasts, radio programmes and prestigious publications such as the Financial Times Weekend, GQ, Architectural Digest, and The Hollywood Reporter. Our accolades include winning Best Design Inspiration in the Amara Interior Blog Awards.

Perhaps most importantly, we’ve earned the trust of the film industry, who often share their behind-the-scenes secrets exclusively with us. Film studios now eagerly seek out the Film and Furniture treatment. Our features, guest articles, and interviews with the world’s most respected production designers and set decorators are inspiring for any interior design or home décor project.


The birth of an idea

Paula Benson founder of Film and Furniture

Film and Furniture was born out of the imagination of our founder, Creative Director, film lover, and furniture fanatic, Paula Benson.

“As a kid, I would sketch out my dream future house, complete with all its décor and furniture. I’d lose myself in the world I was creating – the look, the sensations, and the conversations – just like a film set.”

Over the years, as Paula watched countless films and became a proud homeowner, she became captivated by the aspirational furniture they often featured. However, finding these items proved difficult.

“Whenever I watch a film, I often lose the plot because I’m too busy studying the contents of the set – whether it’s a space-age chair in 2001: A Space Odyssey or a bed in a Bond movie. But how could I find out what these pieces were?”

This curiosity reached a whole new level after a rewatch of Kubrick’s The Shining about ten years ago. The Overlook Hotel’s iconic hexagonal carpet is now synonymous with one of the most respected horror films ever made, yet no one had explored its design origins, why it was chosen or the hidden narrative it reveals as Danny pedals over it again and again on his tricycle.

What if there was a place to discover these items?
A place to uncover who designed them, why they were selected for the film, and to delve into the hidden narratives of material culture?

Enter Film and Furniture!


Behind-the-scenes

For the first three decades of her career after leaving art college, Paula honed her design sensibilities as co-founding partner of the renowned London graphic design and branding studio, Form®.

“At Form, we create worlds through our design and branding projects (Abbey Road Studios, Virgin Galactic, Adidas) and for events, music festivals, and bands (Elbow, Depeche Mode, Girls Aloud and many others). My partner Paul and I were even invited to head up the Apple graphics department in California under Steve Jobs, and along the way, we’ve met luminaries like Nelson Mandela and King Charles, as well as a host of colourful rock stars and visionary thinkers.”

Initially, Paula started Film and Furniture as a blog while continuing to run Form®. But juggling too many plates led to a pivotal decision.

She and her partner Paul West made the tough call to downsize Form® and focus on a select few design projects – allowing Paula to devote herself more fully to Film and Furniture and Paul to his personal art. They bid a bittersweet farewell to their team, sold their beloved London home, and relocated to the West of England.

This life redesign was intended to free up more time to develop Film and Furniture. However, the move quickly turned into a nightmare as they found themselves caught up in the post-Covid exodus from London, leaving them temporarily homeless. Additionally, without a team’s support, Paula became overwhelmed by the tech know-how needed to run a media-focused website, leading to burnout.

In the early days, Paula also had few contacts in the film industry, so she had to push far beyond her comfort zone to find and connect with production designers and set decorators willing to share their insights. It was a time-consuming and exhausting process.

Tenacity and passion, and the unwavering support of her partner Paul, and her family and friends, kept her going. Over the next five years, while continuing the blog, Paula took courses, spoke with business owners, met with film PR companies, sought advice, learned about coding, dove into affiliate schemes, mastered video editing, attended events, brought in help, gradually built trust within the film industry, and continued to drive her partner Paul mad by pausing every film they watched together!


And now…

furniture and decor items discussed on Film and Furniture including House of Gucci, Blade Runner, A Clockwork Orange

Fast forward to today, we now discuss and sell, or show you where to find, thousands of items from hundreds of films and TV shows—from a glass in Blade Runner to a sofa in Mad Men. We also act as trusted agents for selling limited edition art, lighting, and hi-fi equipment, spanning films from A Clockwork Orange to House of Gucci.

And after extensive research and determination, Film and Furniture is the only place where the public can purchase the officially licensed The Shining Hicks Hexagon carpet and rugs (a name Paula put on the map), as well as Room 237 and Gold Room high-quality luxury carpets and rugs for thrilled clients worldwide—from London to Los Angeles and everywhere in between.

Room 237 rug, Hicks Hexagon carpet and Gold Room runner from The Shining

The Film and Furniture family has grown, and we now attract hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the globe who flock to our website, sign up for our newsletter, and engage with us on social media to find the dream pieces they’ve spotted in films.

We’re forming exciting partnerships with like-minded brands and hosting lively talks, quizzes, and events.

Join us as we continue to blend the magic of film with the beauty of interior design, bringing a piece of the silver screen into your home.


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Press Articles

FT How To Spend It

FT How To Spend It

In their feature ‘Furniture from cult movies at the click of a mouse‘ the Financial Times How To Spend It says “Film and Furniture is designed for easy browsing – flick through the Film A to Z or the ‘Furniture & Homeware’ category and it serves as an ever-growing IMDb for objects and their starring roles”.

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Contributors & Advisors

Film and Furniture has a number of talented advisors, collaborators and contributors to whom we are very grateful
Paula Benson, Film and Furniture Founder, Curator, Editor and Creative Director. Passionate about furniture, films, design, art and mind over matter.
Cal Loucks, Set Decorator and Film and Furniture contributor/advisor, known for her work on major Hollywood films including Batman v Superman, Fifty Shades Darker/Freed, Total Recall, Don't Say a Word, Shall We Dance, The Sentinel, Max Payne, The Incredible Hulk, RED, Robocop.
Loren Weeks, Production Designer (Marvel Netflix Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Daredevil, The Defenders as well as Gossip Girl, Blind Date, Interview), Film and Furniture fan and advisor
Simon Bowles, Production Designer and Film and Furniture contributor, known for his work on Johnny English Strikes Again, The Descent, Dog Soldiers, A United Kingdom, Hyde Park on Hudson (for which he won the 2013 British Film Designers Guild Award) Pride and Belle.
Matt Cole, Creative Director at Media Monks, occasional digital art noodles and Film and Furniture guest writer. Matt's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mattgcole/
Christian Anderson Ramshall, Head of Digital Production for virgin.com and guest writer for Film and Furniture. He loves beautiful design in furniture, guitars and going full nerd over hidden meanings in Kubrick films.
Paul West, Multi-talented and multi-cool (our words not his!). Designer, contributor and advisor to Film and Furniture, Paul is co-founder and creative director at London design and branding agency Form as well as being a successful artist (landscape painter and charcoal artist) and music aficionado.
Justin Pratt, Manager, Knoll Studio UK and International at Knoll. Furniture consultant and guest writer for Film and Furniture.
Cornelia De Ruiter, Interior Designer, Founder of Homewings and guest writer for Film and Furniture
Toni Barton, Art Director for the Marvel Netflix series (Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Daredevil), Film and Furniture contributor.
Sebastien Dehesdin, Film and Furniture's website developer as well as a photographer and film maker.
Fiona Cole, Copywriter, promo director and contributor to Film & Furniture.
Lucy Ryder Richardson, Founding Partner at Modern Shows®, design writer, property stylist and Film and Furniture contributor.
Hannah Russell, Film and Furniture contributor, furniture fanatic and Co-founder and CEO of Layer, the curated online marketplace for preloved design furniture which has recently been acquired by Vinterior. She discovered a love for mid century furniture whilst browsing the flea markets during her time spent living in Berlin and hasn’t looked back since!
Eleanor Elliott-Rathbone, Practicing graphic designer with a penchant for movies. Her latest project is a publication about the significance of objects and spaces in film. Guest writer for Film and Furniture.
Karen Burg, Editor of Set Decor, the Set Decorators Society of America online magazine and Film and Furniture advisor and contributor.
Kassia St Clair, Culture historian and design journalist who writes for the New Statesman, Quartz, The Economist, 1843 and guest writer for Film and Furniture. You will most likely have read her regular insightful column on colour in Elle Decoration. Her new book The Secret Lives of Colour is well worth a read.
Natasha Brinsmead, Film and Furniture contributor, writer for Zespoke.com and associate editor at Homebuilding & Renovating.
Frances Anderton, Design expert and broadcaster, host of DnA: Design and Architecture on KCRW Radio, and Film and Furniture contributor.
Jean Whitehead, Film and Furniture contributor, Senior Lecturer in Interior Design at Falmouth University, U.K. Interested in interior atmosphere, experiential design and storytelling within design and is the author of ‘Creating Interior Atmosphere: Mise-en-scène and Interior design.’
Malcolm Pearce, Managing Director of CSM who specialise in metal fabrication for film sets as well as the industrial, retail, commercial and domestic sectors. Contributor to Film and Furniture.
John Cole, A filmmaker, writer and contributor to Film and Furniture. John specialises in cinema, digital media, and pets, his passions include art-house movies and biscuits. A native Englishman, he is always on the move, but can most commonly be spotted in the UK, Norway, and the Balkans.
Anthony McKay, Anthony McKay is a New Zealand based researcher specialising in the history of British film studios. He is best known for researching and curating ‘A Guide of Avengerland’ a web site which documents the locations used in 1960s filmed television series. He is currently researching the M-G-M British Studios and the history of Metro Goldwyn Mayer, within the United Kingdom.
Maurice Leslie, Former film critic for La-North.com and for the past five years has worked in Belleville, Ontario as a playwright and theatre director. His one-act plays include The Flooding, I Am _____ and The Yard. His debut novel will see release on Canadian bookshelves sometime in 2021.
Molly Musselwhite, Molly is a writer from Toronto with a strong interest in interior design and architecture. Her favourite movie is Breakfast at Tiffany’s due in part to the eclectic set design.
Barbara Stern, Barbara has over 20 years in the textile industry and serves as Editor in Chief at Ottoman Textiles. Her deep understanding of textile manufacturing and design is widely recognised, and her expertise has been featured in numerous publications.

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