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There is something instantly recognisable about the interior of Soho House, the super-cool private members’ club located around the world, wherever you have stepped inside one. It’s polished and chic, with a rich colour palette and a layered approach to textiles and art, vintage pieces and original designs, that make it feel at once cosy and eclectic.
It’s a look that many of us now want to recreate at home. One shortcut is to buy through Soho Home, the interiors arm of the Soho House group, which launched 10 years ago. Online searches for Soho Home furniture have risen by 140 per cent, according to recent Google Trends data.
But the rub is the price tag. Soho Home pieces can cost thousands: armchairs run to nearly £2,000, beds can be almost £5,000, cushions more than £200 (though there’s a 15 per cent discount available if you pay a £100 annual membership fee). Sensing our appetite for the aesthetic – if not the cost – canny online and high-street brands have created alternative versions for considerably less, which home enthusiasts on TikTok have relished, saying how they got the “Soho Home look” for a fraction of the price.
The problem is that while products can look very similar on screen, the real test is in your home. Soho Home is pricey, yes, but the makers claim that there are several reasons for that. The materials include hardwood frames, linens and cotton velvets over polyester (although there are some in there too – so do look at the product specification carefully). Pieces are made to order, some of them handmade, and arrive fully assembled, rather than flat-packed.
I believe that a good – lower-priced – alternative can absolutely cut it, and decorative items are often where you can save money. But for your big-ticket pieces of furniture – your main armchair, a bed – it’s worth thinking about longevity, materials and construction. That doesn’t mean splashing out on Soho Home necessarily; a great vintage piece could be cheaper and incredibly crafted. But it does require thought.
So what really is worth the investment, and what’s a convincing alternative? I lined up some Soho Home originals alongside their dupes and played spot the difference. Can you tell which is which?
This is a comparison that has sent the TikTokers particularly wild. At first glance, M&S’s pleated fabric uplighter pendant light is a dead ringer for Soho Home’s Aldwin pendant, but you’d save almost £700 buying the former. The Aldwin’s soft, domed silhouette in hand-ruched cotton against blackened brass is genuinely lovely. One beautiful detail is that the light is suspended from adjustable chains, so it can be hung lower or closer to the ceiling. M&S’s pendant has a similar fabric dome and central chain (although not adjustable), but with a 45cm width, it’s just over half the size. I prefer the way the fabric on the Aldwin tucks up into the centre of the pendant, and its sleek brass over a big metal ball and heavier chain on the M&S version, but it’s a very convincing alternative.
The Garret is the piece that most people picture when they think of the Soho Home look: a deep, scalloped bouclé shell on a swivel brass base made from a birch and engineered hardwood frame. H&M Home’s curved armchair borrows a similar design sensibility and on screen the two look comparable-ish. In person, however, the H&M one isn’t as luxe-looking (or feeling) and the chair’s frame is ash and plywood, which is unlikely to last as well as hardwood. For a spare room or occasion chair, maybe this is OK – but you might end up regretting it as a chair you sit in every day. A better, more cost-conscious purchase would be a vintage chair – Vinterior has a great-looking bouclé armchair for less than the cost of the H&M one.
The Manette’s fanned, piped headboard upholstered in Belgian linen chenille and standing on turned hardwood feet is made to order by UK craftsmen (something I really rate). The downside is that it is priced accordingly. The Daals Hana ottoman bed with its not dissimilarly shaped headboard is almost a tenth of the price. But there are very key differences. If you were to stroke the material, the polyester velvet is a very different sensory experience to Belgian linen, and doesn’t look as gorgeous. Also, the Daals frame isn’t as solid, thanks to the fact that it lifts up to provide storage underneath – although if this is just intended as a spare-room bed, that could be something you actively prefer.
With its distinctive bobbin-turned frame in solid dark ash that gives it a sculptural presence, the Emilia is a weighty, substantial mirror. The Westwing Ayu mirror, at £219, follows a similar round format with a wooden frame, but is about half the size and made from acacia rather than ash, a cheaper wood that makes it more affordable. Accessories are a good way to save money, and this is a reasonable alternative for a smaller space or a lower budget, but you can tell the difference.
The accessories
I feel that decorative items are where you can really save money – but you do have to be careful not to bring the whole room down with a dodgy choice. The Cotswold Co’s velvet cushion is a convincing alternative to Soho Home’s Margeaux. Similarly with throws: the Orwell knitted wool jacquard in Soho Home’s signature olive and sage palette is beautiful. But so is Rise and Fall’s merino throw made by a fourth-generation family mill in northern Italy – and it’s about £200 cheaper. For something with even more character, Melin Tregwynt’s Welsh blankets (such as the one below from Toast) bring their own regional craft story with them.
Sourcing vintage and antiques takes serious amounts of time, but you can use smaller dealers than Soho Home if you want a bargain. It’s hard to compare items directly – by their nature, each item is unique. But these two vintage bedside tables are incredibly similar in all ways but price. In both cases, once they’re gone, they’re gone. So act fast if you like something.
My verdict
This isn’t about choosing a side. Soho Home has built a look worth wanting, and the high street has responded by getting genuinely good at echoing it at a price point that more people can reach. Seating and beds are generally where you should invest in construction and materials as well as aesthetics, with decorative items often where you can save money. As with anything for your home, try to picture it being there for the next few decades: ultimately, we need to buy things we want to last.
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