Hello Everyone,
Well I think I have finally recovered from our First Annual Open House at Cypress Furniture.
I have spent some time thinking about the Open House and the wonderful responses which I received. Here’s what I learned from the Open House:
1. It can not be called the “Annual” Open House. Everyone said it was very informational and how great it was to network with other designers from the area. And so it seems, everyone wants to have another event a lot sooner than next year. The designers who were present were from all areas and expertise of interior design. They covered a pretty broad range of talent. However, what I do think they all had in common was a very high level of professionalism, and that everyone enjoyed the opportunity to network with other designers of the same caliber and level of experience.
2. I need to work on adding more of my product to my website. I have been hesitant to do this, although now, I can’t seem to remember what my reasoning was! I guess originally, I was so concerned about the “presentation” that I forgot about the ‘product”. I was worried that the pictures were not professional looking and therefore did not look present the right image. The designers were much more impressed with the broad range of products and styles which I have added to our line. Many designers said they wanted to be able to go to the website, get an image from it and then email that to their clients. Or, they wanted to be able to direct their client to our website and have them review the styles and collections. (Benefit from this: Paperless catalog)
3. I have some ideas for the topics for our next Open House, but I would also like to hear some ideas from designers. So, I would like to encourage you to contact me and let me know what you would be interested in expanding upon.
Bye for Now
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Hello! We had an outstanding day at the factory today! Today was our first Open House with Educational Seminars along with a special showing of fabrics made from recycled materials (plastic water bottles). We had just an amazing group of design professional. I think what I personally enjoyed most about the day was the sense of community. There were designers from all around the Bay Area, and doing all types of design work. But it was an opportunity to all be together and share in our common passion of interior design. I think one of the most important things the design community needs to do, is to band together and build strong relationships. As everyone knows, it is a difficult time to be working in an industry related to homes and home sales, but we can all support each other, and at the same time, work towards elevating the awareness of a good designer to help their client avoid making costly mistakes with their design budget
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Work in Progress
I thought it might be a nice change to have this blog post be about one of the projects we are currently working on.
I have attached a photo of this amazing sectional we are working on. A designer in the East Bay designed this sectional. In the photo, you can see that it has just come out of the frame shop, and is now heading to our spring-up department. The spring up department is where we interweave the jute webbing, and then attach the coils to the webbing and then hand tie all the coils to each other as well as to the frame. This is for a large family which will make heavy use of this sectional. So, we are using heavier gauge coils to ensure maximum life for the seating foundation. The more information the designer provides us, the better we can meet expectations. In this case, the designer told us about how much heavy use these items will get, so we used the heavier coils and added extra supports to the frame.
The sectional consists of 5 pieces. There are two quarter round armless sectionals. When they are put together to form a half circle, the distance across is 12’-0”. So you can imagine the size of home this is going to fit into. Then there is a center ottoman which is a 60” diameter round. This fits into the center of the half circle. And the last two pieces are quarter round benches. They complete the other half of the circle, but they are benches with no backs. The benches can be pulled apart to allow access to the sectional. So, all together it forms a huge circle. I think it is an amazing design. It reminds me of those old “pit” sectional. They were kind of a u-shape sectional with a large ottoman which fit into the center portion of the sectional. But this version is so much more creative and modern. It will have a tight back, with multiple toss pillows. The seat cushions a bench style cushion. We will add D-rings and clips to hold the cushions in place.
Once this sectional begins getting upholstered, I will take some more photos to show you the work in progress. I hope you like it! Thanks.
Jim
I have attached a photo of this amazing sectional we are working on. A designer in the East Bay designed this sectional. In the photo, you can see that it has just come out of the frame shop, and is now heading to our spring-up department. The spring up department is where we interweave the jute webbing, and then attach the coils to the webbing and then hand tie all the coils to each other as well as to the frame. This is for a large family which will make heavy use of this sectional. So, we are using heavier gauge coils to ensure maximum life for the seating foundation. The more information the designer provides us, the better we can meet expectations. In this case, the designer told us about how much heavy use these items will get, so we used the heavier coils and added extra supports to the frame.
The sectional consists of 5 pieces. There are two quarter round armless sectionals. When they are put together to form a half circle, the distance across is 12’-0”. So you can imagine the size of home this is going to fit into. Then there is a center ottoman which is a 60” diameter round. This fits into the center of the half circle. And the last two pieces are quarter round benches. They complete the other half of the circle, but they are benches with no backs. The benches can be pulled apart to allow access to the sectional. So, all together it forms a huge circle. I think it is an amazing design. It reminds me of those old “pit” sectional. They were kind of a u-shape sectional with a large ottoman which fit into the center portion of the sectional. But this version is so much more creative and modern. It will have a tight back, with multiple toss pillows. The seat cushions a bench style cushion. We will add D-rings and clips to hold the cushions in place.
Once this sectional begins getting upholstered, I will take some more photos to show you the work in progress. I hope you like it! Thanks.
Jim
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Quality is the new GREEN
I am often asked about the “green” aspects of my upholstered furniture which I manufacture. This seems to be the current buzz running through the design community. Usually it is the latest trends or colors, but right now is the environmental “friendliness” of furniture. Well, following is my answer (in the short form!).
My new slogan: Quality is the new Green.
Suppose you purchased a product, which you used every day, and lasted for 40 plus years, and only needed a few replacement parts along the way; wouldn’t you consider that to be an amazing product? Now, let’s imagine that product was a sofa. Sofas only really perform a limited number of tasks. A sofa is placed in a space in order to offer options for one to sit or lounge or sleep upon. An added bonus, sometimes but not always, is that a sofa can make a room look pretty. So, how did we take this product and add a built-in planned obsolescence to it, if it only performs one task to begin with, and a replacement performs the same task? Well the home furnishings industry did it by turning a functional piece into a fashionable piece. The industry didn’t think about rain forests or oil rigs, or land fills. They wanted to create an industry based on obsolescence through design. The design community created the need for newer updated color and fashion trends. We had to have the newest version sofa upholstered in the newest colors and the newest patterns. Well, not everyone could afford to buy a new sofa every time a new color trend was launched. So, rather than be satisfied with a sofa in last years colors, the furniture industry began building cheaper furniture. And I mean cheap in both the cost and the construction. You can’t have one without the other. And thus was born: throw away furniture. I don’t think the design industry set out to do this, but I do believe it has become a detriment to the industry. Designers are always complaining about their clients constant questioning of the price of everything. Well, of course they would when they see advertising for sofas for $299, and a designer is trying to sell them a $4000 sofa. Is the client buying the newest and latest fashion sofa, or are they buying a piece of furniture which they will sit, lay or lounge upon? Ultimately, whatever the price of the furniture, whatever the fabric covering, whatever the color, the sofa will perform the same task: to offer seating options. The question then becomes, how well will the sofa perform this task, how long will the sofa perform this task. Given enough time of performance, are replacement parts available and at what cost?
Now, let’s apply this to the real world! I was recently contacted by someone looking for someone to reupholster her sofa. She asked if Cypress did reupholstering. I told her we did, and explained to her how we would check the frame for structural integrity and check the coils, inspect the foam, etc. She then asked me if I was familiar with a manufacturer named: Umphred’s. What a wonderful coincidence! (Cypress Furniture started out as Umphred’s Furniture! We still build our furniture with the same quality standards! Same frame construction and the same hand tied coil foundation and the same all solid hardwood construction.) This wonderful customer had purchased her Umphred’s sofa in 1963 for $459.00 at a furniture store in Oakland. 46 years! She had reupholstered it once already and had the cushions replaced at that time. So that sofa preformed the task of providing seating options for 46 years. Or, the frame cost her roughly $10 per year. Do you really think a sofa which you could by today for $299 is going to last 46 years? Do you even think it will last 2 years? Let’s take a well built sofa, and extend it out to 46 years at a cost of $4000. This equals about $87 per year. Compare that to a $299 sofa over 2 years: $149 per year. So it looks like the better value is the sofa which is better built! So, we are using our resources in a better way, in order to use less resources (which is what “green” is all about.), and coming up with a better valued product which performs the same task.
Okay, I can hear you all saying that you don’t want to keep your sofa for 46 years. Which is exactly why you buy a well built piece of quality furniture: you get it reupholstered. You can change the color, the type of fabric and the pattern. With a well made piece of furniture, you can even make changes to the frame. You can change the shape of the arm, add a skirt, or remove the skirt and have an exposed leg, you can raise the seating height, etc. But, what you haven’t done is throw away your old sofa and use more of our precious resources to build a new sofa. That is why you buy quality furniture!
My new slogan: Quality is the new Green.
Suppose you purchased a product, which you used every day, and lasted for 40 plus years, and only needed a few replacement parts along the way; wouldn’t you consider that to be an amazing product? Now, let’s imagine that product was a sofa. Sofas only really perform a limited number of tasks. A sofa is placed in a space in order to offer options for one to sit or lounge or sleep upon. An added bonus, sometimes but not always, is that a sofa can make a room look pretty. So, how did we take this product and add a built-in planned obsolescence to it, if it only performs one task to begin with, and a replacement performs the same task? Well the home furnishings industry did it by turning a functional piece into a fashionable piece. The industry didn’t think about rain forests or oil rigs, or land fills. They wanted to create an industry based on obsolescence through design. The design community created the need for newer updated color and fashion trends. We had to have the newest version sofa upholstered in the newest colors and the newest patterns. Well, not everyone could afford to buy a new sofa every time a new color trend was launched. So, rather than be satisfied with a sofa in last years colors, the furniture industry began building cheaper furniture. And I mean cheap in both the cost and the construction. You can’t have one without the other. And thus was born: throw away furniture. I don’t think the design industry set out to do this, but I do believe it has become a detriment to the industry. Designers are always complaining about their clients constant questioning of the price of everything. Well, of course they would when they see advertising for sofas for $299, and a designer is trying to sell them a $4000 sofa. Is the client buying the newest and latest fashion sofa, or are they buying a piece of furniture which they will sit, lay or lounge upon? Ultimately, whatever the price of the furniture, whatever the fabric covering, whatever the color, the sofa will perform the same task: to offer seating options. The question then becomes, how well will the sofa perform this task, how long will the sofa perform this task. Given enough time of performance, are replacement parts available and at what cost?
Now, let’s apply this to the real world! I was recently contacted by someone looking for someone to reupholster her sofa. She asked if Cypress did reupholstering. I told her we did, and explained to her how we would check the frame for structural integrity and check the coils, inspect the foam, etc. She then asked me if I was familiar with a manufacturer named: Umphred’s. What a wonderful coincidence! (Cypress Furniture started out as Umphred’s Furniture! We still build our furniture with the same quality standards! Same frame construction and the same hand tied coil foundation and the same all solid hardwood construction.) This wonderful customer had purchased her Umphred’s sofa in 1963 for $459.00 at a furniture store in Oakland. 46 years! She had reupholstered it once already and had the cushions replaced at that time. So that sofa preformed the task of providing seating options for 46 years. Or, the frame cost her roughly $10 per year. Do you really think a sofa which you could by today for $299 is going to last 46 years? Do you even think it will last 2 years? Let’s take a well built sofa, and extend it out to 46 years at a cost of $4000. This equals about $87 per year. Compare that to a $299 sofa over 2 years: $149 per year. So it looks like the better value is the sofa which is better built! So, we are using our resources in a better way, in order to use less resources (which is what “green” is all about.), and coming up with a better valued product which performs the same task.
Okay, I can hear you all saying that you don’t want to keep your sofa for 46 years. Which is exactly why you buy a well built piece of quality furniture: you get it reupholstered. You can change the color, the type of fabric and the pattern. With a well made piece of furniture, you can even make changes to the frame. You can change the shape of the arm, add a skirt, or remove the skirt and have an exposed leg, you can raise the seating height, etc. But, what you haven’t done is throw away your old sofa and use more of our precious resources to build a new sofa. That is why you buy quality furniture!
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