Where are you based?
Our store is in Hove which is the Hove part of Brighton and Hove.

What is the meaning of life?
Mature Cheddar on plain digestives. The smell of fresh towels. A gin and tonic with ice in a pale blue glass. Sausages with onion gravy. Putting on cricket pads. The smell of my youngest son’s hair. The sound of the sea rolling pebbles. The view from Ditchling beacon. The first mouthful of a draft beer. My wife’s widest smile. Hot apple crumble with vanilla ice cream. Static electricity. Anything by Iain Banks. Chocolate at room temperature. Ham, egg and chips. 42.

Where is your furniture made?
All Rume branded furniture is made by Rume Associates in our workshops in East Sussex, England.

What is Brexit?
Brexit is an inexplicably popular breakfast cereal that is difficult to digest, leaves an unpleasant taste in the mouth and can trigger intolerance. It is made with secret ingredients though is often said to be mostly nuts and bannanas.

Why is bannana so difficult to spell?
Lots of people think that banannas are proof of intelligent design, the perfect food, in its own perfect wrapping and the perfect shape to eat one handed whilst driving the sports utility to the gun range. But they are wrong, the real proof of intelligent design is the ability to spell bannana without a spell checker. Even I got it wrong a couple of times but I think I got away with it.

Why is your furniture more expensive?
It rather depends on what you're comparing it to. Certainly if you were to compare us to any of the acronyms or the online furniture sellers then our furniture would appear more costly. But that would be like comparing an accumulation of minute calcite shells with a delicious coagulated dairy product. There is other furniture and then there is us.

Is Darth Vader really dead?
Of course Darth Vader isn’t dead, his Force ghost is alive and well and currently possessing my youngest son who, having declared him the only legit Star Wars character, wanders around our apartment in a much too large Darth costume breathing heavily and chopping off the hands of rebel scum. I am typing this one handed. May the fourth be with you.

How soon is now?
Pretty soon, any moment, now... aw, missed it.

Why don’t you sell furniture online?
I would if you could download it.

Can I return a light I have ordered online?
We would prefer you didn’t as we purchase the light on your behalf and can’t return it to the supplier. We are a small company and can’t afford to have lights come back but we are bound by law so if you are determined we will have to take it. It doesn’t make us very happy, so please, to avoid unhappiness, if you are unsure about a light and think you may return it, don’t buy it from us.

Can I order online and collect from the store?
No sorry. But you could phone us and we will hold it for you. If we have it.

Is there more than one Rume store?
There can only be one.

If visiting the store where can I park?
Our store is in Brighton and Hove, so the closest place to park is probably Hastings. Sorry, joking. There are car parks in Hove centre and some street parking, we also have a spot around the back of the store which can be made available if you call us in advance.

Would you be able to send me some fabric samples?
Absolutely. Just go to the contact us page, fill in your details so we know who you are, and let us know what it is you are looking for. We will then contact you for a chat and we can take it from there.

Are all of your products on display in the store?
I am afraid not. Our store is quite large but not huge by any means. We show a lot of our online lights and accessories but our sofas are rotated due to limited space. If you are travelling to us to see a particular thing, especially if it is furniture, it is always best to give us a call first to confirm whether or not we have it on display.

Do you take anything seriously?
We take our furniture very seriously. It is exactly what we say it is. Life? Not so much.

Why are you called Rume?
It is very important to choose the right name for your company. You have to think it through, make sure it is relevant to what you do, at least in an abstract way, that it sums you up, describes you, if not literally then as a kind of mnemonic. That is why after much thought and research I decided to name our company after an eight foot tall alien robot that resembles an enormous leather beachball and which spends its time scouring the Rocky Mountains drugging, abducting and studying lesser life forms. True. It was in a short sci fi story I read when I was a kid and I thought, perfect. It was actually called Ruum but that was unavailable as a web address so I settled for Rume. Job done. It was only after I had bought the domain name, registered the company had signwriting done, business cards made and told everyone I had ever met about it that my wife, Libby, thought to ask me what Rume actually meant. Well, I, er. There followed much frantic internet activity and prayers that it wouldn’t mean the inside of a cow. I couldn’t find anything but then Libby discovered an online copy of an ancient dictionary and there it was, Rume, an old English word with German antecedents meaning spacious, open and to a very high degree, it is the original spelling of room but not in the enclosed sense. ‘That was lucky’ She said, as if I hadn’t known all along.