I want to tell you about something we've been working on, because I think it matters, and because more and more of you have been asking us about it.

When you buy a sofa in the UK, the law requires it to meet strict fire safety standards. These rules were brought in for very good reasons, after a long stretch of years in which house fires were spreading frighteningly fast, and the foam inside cheap sofas turned out to be one of the main reasons why. Nobody is arguing with the principle. But the way the rules have been met across most of the industry for the last few decades has involved a lot of chemistry. Treated fabrics. Treated foams. Barrier layers soaked in fire retardant compounds. And the truth is that some of those chemicals, particularly the older ones still common at the cheaper end of the market, are not as benign as we once believed.

So we have been quietly working on a version of our Coco sofa, made here in the UK, that is free from synthetic fire retardant chemicals.

I want to be careful with my words, because I think honesty matters more than marketing. We can't make a sofa that has no fire safety in it at all. The law won't allow it, and frankly, nor would I want to. What we can do, and what we have spent some time figuring out, is build a Coco that meets every single fire safety regulation without using any of the synthetic chemical treatments that most of the industry relies on.

Here is how it works.

The base of the sofa, normally lined with a chemically treated interliner, is instead built around a layer of felted wool. Wool is naturally fire resistant. It has a high water and nitrogen content, which means it needs more oxygen to burn than is normally present in the air around us. It has been used as a fire barrier for centuries, and the modern technical version we use, called Wool Safe, passes all the relevant tests on its own merits. Because raw wool against a loose cover would eventually wear, the base is essentially upholstered twice, with the wool barrier sitting inside and a normal interior layer above it. It is a more painstaking way to build a sofa, and it costs a little more, but it is a much cleaner one.

The cushions are where it gets interesting, and where I want to be very clear about what we have done. The standard polyurethane foam used in almost every sofa in the country has fire retardant chemicals built into the foam itself. There is no way around that, legally. So for this version of Coco, we have moved away from polyurethane foam entirely, and into natural latex impregnated with graphite.

Graphite is a natural carbon mineral. When it is mixed into the latex during manufacture, it makes the latex inherently fire resistant. The whole cushion turns a soft charcoal grey colour, which I rather like, and the test that the cushion has to pass is passed by the graphite alone, without a single drop of synthetic chemistry. It is the route used quietly by the better natural mattress makers for years, and it is the route that lets us put a Coco into your home without any of the older, more questionable compounds.

The result is a sofa where the only things doing the work of fire safety are wool and graphite. That feels right to me. Both are natural. Both have been keeping people safe for a very long time. Neither breaks down into household dust over the years. Neither gives off the kind of odours that some of the older synthetic chemicals are known for.

This version of Coco does sit a little differently from the standard one. Latex has its own character, slightly springier, slightly denser, and the natural fillings around it settle into their own quiet shape over time. Some people prefer it. Some people prefer the original. Both are fine answers.

It also costs a little more. The build is more involved, the materials are more expensive, and we are not able to absorb all of that without it showing up in the price. We expect the uplift to be around ten percent at retail. I think that is fair, given what you get, and given how few sofas in this country are made this way.

A word of honesty before I close. We are still finalising every detail of the specification, and I will not claim the option is on sale this minute. What I am telling you is that we are doing it, that we know how, and that if this is something that matters to you, we would love to hear from you. Email us, write to us, walk into the showroom and tell us. The more we hear from people who care about this, the faster we can bring it properly to market.

I started this brand because I wanted to make beautiful, honest things for people's homes, and I have always thought that what is inside a sofa matters as much as what is on the outside. This version of Coco is, I think, the most honest thing we have made.

I hope you'll come and see it.

With love, Sophie