David King, patriarch of the upmarket furniture-making empire King Living, can track the decades by the configuration of Australian living rooms.
The 1960s and ’70s were all about modular furniture and “conversation pits”. During the recession of the early 1990s, Australians stayed indoors and preferred more traditional two-seaters and armchairs. Natural leather and adjustable backs were all the rage.
Some things, though, never go out of fashion. “Australians want comfort,” King said. “You live your life on these things. You spend the best moments of your life on a sofa.”
David King, founder of King Living, is opening a new showroom in Sydney’s northern beaches at Balgowlah.Credit: Nick Moir
“Why would you buy a bit of generic rubbish to spend the best hours of your life? I wouldn’t do it. So we just tried to make better and better furniture.”
This principle has guided King Living since King founded it in the 1970s with his mother, a successful interior designer, now in her 90s. Before it became a global business with dozens of showrooms and three factories, King (who had a brief career as a child pop star) and his mother began making foam sofas from home.
LoadingPicking through hard rubbish abandoned on the street was his training ground. “The way we studied furniture was looking at what people were throwing away,” he said.
“Most furniture is timber frames. They break or they creak. The webbing goes saggy and the seats are saggy, or the fabric’s torn, and Mum and I wanted to make something that would last.”
It led to the steel suspension – inspired by luxury car seats and protected by a patent – that forms the foundation of its popular, and pricey, modular sofa ranges such as the Jasper or Delta.
AdvertisementKing Living’s success at the top end of town is contrary to some other Australian furniture brands that have faded into obscurity; Parker, Moran and Van Treight are brands King admired in earlier years but have each passed their peak.
Mass-market player Nick Scali, which grew healthily during COVID lockdowns, had sales and profits reversed after the 2023 financial year. Lower-cost brands such as Temple and Webster and icon Ikea continue to attract younger customers for convenience and affordability.
The 2018 Jasper II sofa system by King Living in “prestige saddle” leather upholstery costs from $14,000.Credit:
But there is no point being the best of the best if customers haven’t heard of you. Priced about $6000 for a three-seater couch, most customers don’t buy a King Living sofa until their mid-30s, when they’re looking to “graduate” from lower-priced, poorer-quality furniture that has started falling apart.
“When you get to about 40 or something, you realise ‘I want something that’s going to last’,” King said. “A lot of people save up for a long time to buy King.”
But he is “really aware” the brand needs to pique interest, even before the customer can afford it.
Loading“We probably are missing out on part of the market,” he said. “There are younger people, first home buyers – they should be able to buy King.
“If you want to be the Rolls-Royce of furniture, how do you appeal to the younger market?”
Is that how he wants King Living to be seen? “We think we can do that, and we think we have ways to do that.”
The business is working on broadening its range “without compromise”.
“We cannot make a product that isn’t brilliant, that people don’t love,” he said. “We need to meet the price point better, do both super luxury, quite expensive furniture and entry level as well.”
The 100-year chess game
By the end of the year, King Living will have 40 showrooms around the world. Half of these are in Australia, which last year sold $308.7 million worth of furniture, a 7.5 per cent rise on the year beforehand. The rest of the showrooms are spread across Asia, Britain, Canada and the US. An additional 10 are in the pipeline for 2026.
Even Trump’s tariffs won’t discourage growth ambitions in the US, where a new showroom in Portland, Oregon is due to open. “It’s like playing a big game of chess,” King said.
When Canada imposed tariffs of nearly 300 per cent on sofas being imported from China in 2021, King negotiated an exception by proving they weren’t dumping cheap products into the market. “Even [with] ridiculously high tariffs, our furniture is really good value for what it is. We can put [prices] up, keep our margins down, and stay in the business because we’re there for the long term.”
King Living’s slower approach to its global rollout has largely met success, even where it wasn’t expected. You’ll find a King Living showroom in Calgary, Canada, which doesn’t seem to make sense for its population of 1.7 million until you learn it’s virtually winter six months of the year and people spend more time indoors.
There were plenty of moments of doubt; opening in London and Vancouver were some of them. “I always get that feeling: Have I done the wrong thing here? Is this wrong?”
King Living founder and chairman David King in his Balgowlah showroom, which is still under construction.Credit: Nick Moir
As preparations were made to launch in Singapore in 2015, King Living commissioned market research that found locals preferred European design and smaller furniture to fit their smaller apartments.
“It was very bad,” King said. “Anyway, we sold, and have sold, so much furniture in Singapore … ‘Australians are great at relaxing’. That’s what Singaporeans started saying.”
King’s preferred style of ruling is as a laissez-faire mentor favouring young talent over old hands. After stepping back from the day to day in 2015 by hiring a chief executive, he still oversees and approves designs and drives the company’s expansion strategy. Most of his design team were hired as university graduates.
“They’re more willing to experiment. They’re not as conservative. Even great designers seem to get more conservative with age.”
King doesn’t intend to step away any time soon but is firm on preparing the business for that eventuality so it will run smoothly well after his reign ends.
“If I wasn’t here, someone else would do it just perfectly. That’s the way we’re set up.”
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