What's new at Cypress

The new year is off to a running start for us!
We have added a new interior designer to our staff, Her name is Norma and I could not be more pleased with how quickly and how well she has settled in at Cypress. She has been a great help to me, giving me a chance to catch by breath!
We have a couple of new big projects for the Company which Norma and I will be working on. More details to follow as we get closer to launch date!

Thought I would throw in a pic of a recent new creation! Our leather bean bag chair! Well actually it is filled with shredded foam. Great way to use up all the scraps of the foam. Nothing goes to waste!

 

Cheers for now...more to come later

NEX and William C. Paige

Today I had an open house at the factory. Spencer from NEXsystems was also a host. And our special mixologist, Paige. Paige is starting a new business producing organic small batch  syrups. Which you can add to quite most everything. Today we had it with champagne.  Mmmm, yummy, champagne!  The syrup was raspberry pomegranate. It was delicious.  It was a beautiful sunny day, and with organic raspberry flavored champagne, was not a bad way to spend the day! We had a very fun mix of designers, at the open house. That is probably my favorite part, just sitting back with friends and talking. Or I guess it is called networking now!
There were some colleagues from ASID that came, some old friends, some new clients, and some  new friends. I had a great time. And tried to keep away from the raspberry syrup!  I gave a quick tour of the factory, which always turns out to be a longer tour. I get started talking and forget about time. We also had a demonstration by Spencer for NEXsystem. Both the cleaning product and the fabric protection. I learned that his product can also be used on tile and stone. Learn something new every day! Speaking of Tile. I met Claudia from the Tile Shop. ( What is the protocol for naming people in your blog? I am not using any last names at least. )  the Tile Shop is located in Berkeley, near a couple of other home furnishings  businesses.  Gee, I wish there was a spot for one more retail space in their area.  I think I will go in and talk more with my new friend Claudia!
Well, it was a long day, and  have not had dinner yet. And tomorrow is Friday, which is the our early day, so I need to get to bed! 4:30  comes awfully early. Oh, and Bart is on strike tomorrow, so you know traffic will be a joy!

New and exciting!

Well, At least I have not gone another entire year without posting! So in that regards I am getting better at keeping a blog. I knew I would have a hard time finding time to keep up with this.  Cypress has had a great year and it just keeps getting better.

Recently we built a sofa for a women's shelter located here in Hayward. We built it for the Emergency Shelter Program. It was a beautiful large sofa in a dark woven fabric. We applied the NexSystem stain treatment to it as well. We received a really thoughtful handwritten thank you from the staff. It really made us feel good. We have been so lucky to have had a busy year, that it was nice to take a little time to do something for our community.

We also participated in the West Valley College Design Club Designer Sample Sale.  It was a very fun day! I ran into a lot of people I know and met some great new designers. We sold some stuff, but brought back more that I was hoping. Still, I thought it was a great event and I hope they do it again next year!

We added a couple of new upholsterers this year as well. One is more seasoned, and the other is our "newbie".  Both guys are really learning fast and will both be a great part of our team.

We have also been working to make some new frames for the showroom. We are going to have an open house next week at the factory. We are planning music and food and drinks. I wanted to have a fun get together. I am having it with Spencer from NexSystem. Actually, it was his idea, I just jumped on board with it, and now have quite a party planned.

We are looking forward to finishing out the year. It is looking like it may be the best year we have had so far! We still have a lot of work to complete, but it is nice to be busy.

Cheers,
jim

Seems like only yesterday...

Seems like it was only yesterday when I lasted posted something on my blog. I cant say that I am surprised that years has passed since my last posting. I have been very busy and business is doing really well.
So to bring you up to speed: The factory is running really smooth right now. We have a great team of craftspeople and woodworkers. Everyone really works well together and are very respectful of each others skills and trades. This has helped us to develop some stronger "looks" in terms of new frame style and development.  With the experience which out team has, it helps to create new frames but also new frames which are comfortable and work with the lifestyles of today.
We have been very fortunate to work with some great local commercial design firms and their clients. They have helped to push us into new areas of design. There has been a great deal of interest in creating work environments which are relaxed and comfortable which foster collaborative work. They tend to want "residential" feel. Which is funny because I find lately a lot of the residential furniture design has been looking like the frames we have been building for commercial use. I have been thinking about finally building myself a sofa for the back sun room at home. The photo below is a sofa we recently completed. This is going to be my inspiration for home.I am leaning towards a custom sized sectional which has different seat depth and arm widths and heights. But, I seem to always have other projects to work on , so my sofa for home is always on the back burner. One of these days I will get a new sofa for home. In the meantime, If you have a sofa at home from Cypress, I hope you are enjoying it!
Jim

Someone watched over us!

I have been very reflective lately. It may have something to do with the time of year and the change of seasons. The fall is when my mom got sick and passed away from cancer. It will be two years this coming January. But it was Fall, when she started to really get get sick and the holidays took on new meaning for me. Since her passing I have tried hard to make holidays be more that just the presents, but a true family celebration. My family is located in Washington state and I am in California, so every time I go up to visit, I want to make sure we all spend time together as a family. Life can get so tangled with deadlines and paperwork that I need to stop and take time to make an effort for all of us to be together and listen to each other and celebrate our successes and differences. (I wont go into how weird my younger brothers are!) But I do love them and the fantastic, interesting, and fascinating families they have created for themselves. I am very guilty of getting caught up in the day to day operations of Cypress and forgetting about calling home to check on everyone. We are very excited to soon be welcoming twins to the family. I cant wait to see them and meet them when I go to Seattle for Christmas. But as all of this approaches, I need to stop and reflect on how fortunate I am and Cypress furniture is. We are survivors of an economical crisis that my generation has never imagined or lived through. I think this is the new business climate. Everyone seems to waiting for it to go back to how it was, I think this is how it is going to be. I think people are actually going to make purchases when they really need it, and when they can afford it . But my point is, we are thankful for somebody up there looking out over us! Thanks Mom! We needed you to keep an eye on us and we appreciate it. Thanks for taking care of us this last year.

Integrity and quality

I recently had a meeting with a designer whom we have built quite a bit of furniture for, over the years. She was having a difficult time on a project and wanted to discuss options on pricing with me. She is working on a large project, and the "decorating" committee consists of several women involved with the project. The problem is that the committee has placed their priority on price. They are not at all interested in the differences between my furniture and furniture they have gone online and found.
Of course they have found furniture that is made for about 1/4 the price of mine. Now we all know that in order for furniture to be that cheap, it has to be of a much lower quality. Here is where we get into sticky territory. How does the designer educate her clients without insulting them. They are not experienced in purchasing quality furniture for commercial use. They are looking at the cheapest price. How do you tell them that they will be replacing broken furniture and will eventually end up paying more per item in the long run, that purchasing quality built furniture the first time. The designer wanted to know if I would build a cheaper version of the type of furniture we currently build. My answer was an emphatic "NO". I feel like it is almost a bait and switch scheme. People buy my furniture because it is expertly constructed and very reasonable. (OK, I know that not everyone can afford my furniture, but if you are willing to save and wait till you can afford it, then you are spending your money the on quality furniture. It has a great value and is the better choice.)
I feel or rather I hope that this whole economic turbulence is teaching or reminding us on what it means to save up and buy the best quality we can afford. It is the art of spending wisely and not frivolously. That is true value!
The other point about shopping online, is the effect it has on the Mom and Pop furniture stores. They are rapidly becoming a dying breed. How can you buy furniture online? You don't know how it feels, sits actually looks. And the most important part is how it is made. There is nothing like picking up a piece of furniture and feeling its weight, feeling if it is solid. Are we just too lazy to drive to a store? Have we really missed the lessons of making quality, valued buying decisions? And why are we so slow in learning the lessons, again! I was raised to take care of my things and to value them. We need to be smart consumers and buy quality, made in USA products!

The Power of the internet

Lately, I have been reading a lot about social media and how you can use it in business. I have been very reluctant to embrace this trend in business. To me, furniture is a consumer good which needs to be touched and felt, sat in and sat on. So, using the Internet to sell a product like furniture just didn't make sense to me. Until the other, when I received a phone call from a consumer who has one of our old "Umphred's" collection of sofa's. Guess how she found Cypress....the Internet. She searched Umphreds and found my blog, describing how Cypress was now the old Umphreds. This is even more of a lesson to learn, because we love to reupholster our old furniture, because it proves our point, that we build furniture which is made to last and built to be reupholstered. So the prospect of losing an opportunity to reupholster one of our old frames because someone could not find us, is a clear message to embrace the Internet and furniture! But, don't get the wrong idea...I don't think I will be building a sofa with a built-in lap top in the arm!
Thanks again!
Jim