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Great topic.

Several years back I purchased a couple of R&D frames from a nationally known high end furniture company and stapled to the frame was "confidential" notes. On these notes were some interesting facts about the frame. The ones I remember were: The frame was cut in under 5 minutes and from 2 sheets of furniture grade plywood (1.25" thick). The yield from the two sheets of plywood exceeded 85%. .........or less than 15 % waste.

Here is an interesting article I read the other week: http://www.performancepanels.com/upholstered-furniture

Hi sofadoc,

Thank you very much for adding our websites to your site!  Publishing your client referral code on your website is fine with us. 

Once again, thank you!

Steve's wife/partner, Diane

Wow! Thank you for all of the emails and sign ups.

We are excited about the possibilities that our company can evolve into.

Things on the horizon:
-- Re-orderable fabrics and leathers
--Re-orderable supplies
--KD and assembled frames

Sign up now and enjoy the ride.

Have a Happy and Safe 4th of July weekend. Steve

SD, You need to educate your clients about fabrics and fabric companies.

As a 2nd generation upholsterer, I pass on a lot of fabric that I know will sell but I don't market fabric that I wouldn't want to work.

If a client doesn't  find something from our sites and they buy from another source, at least you "had a dog in the fight".

If a client makes a purchase from our site because of your referral, we share the money  with you. No other Internet company will do that.

Learn to market our sites. Keep up with our monthly newsletter. Pay attention to our inventories.......ie: our inventory is your inventory. We will feature strategies on how to market our goods within our newsletter.

As I have already stated, we are not the answer for every question. We are a new resource for an upholstery company to make money with.

Some days the right resource  might be Greenhouse, the next day it might be Barrow...........etc.  Next Monday, the right resource might be Silverstone. Steve

Paul, Congratulations--you were our very first dealer to sign up.

Later last night, we had several other sign ups, including one from Canada.

Here is how our program works:

Sign UP.........it is free.  You've already taken this first step.

We will send you a "Welcome" letter. In the letter, you will receive a private dealer code. This code will allow you a 50% discount on either of our two web sites (www.silverstonefabrics.com and www.silverstonecontractfabrics.com ). Also included in the "Welcome" letter will be a 10% off code that you can share with your customers.

How the program works:

A DEALER sees a fabric in one of our sites that they wish to purchase. You use your DEALER code at the point of payment and we will give you a 50% discount from the listed price.........keep in mind that most of our fabrics are listed at 50% off true wholesale, so when you divide that by half, you are paying 25% of true wholesale.

A CLIENT is referred to our site by a dealer. The dealer gives them a "CUSTOMER code" that allows for a 10% off discount at the time of purchase. If the customer makes a purchase and enters that code, the dealer who shared the code and our website will be rewarded with 50% of the customer's purchase price.

For Example: A customer goes to silverstonecontractfabrics.com and purchases 20 yards of Ultrafabrics Brisa Truffle at $36/yd. When they get to the check out, their total will be  $720. They enter the 10% discount code. The amount due is lowered to $648.00. At the end of the month, we will send the DEALER a check for $324.00

Since our fabrics come to us in limited yardage and our inventory is constantly turning over, we can not send out sets of samples. Upon request, we do send out individual samples.

Benefits to our Dealers
--You can access our 100,000 yards of fabric and hundreds of leather hides
--You can call and talk to a fellow upholsterer (I have been an upholsterer for over 35 years) about fabrics or leather
--You can ask us if we can find fabrics for an upcoming project
--You can ask if we can find an upholstery-related resource for you. We are based in Hickory, NC and High Point, NC is only an hour away.
--You will receive a monthly newsletter. Find tips and ideas of how to make or save money with fabric from Silverstone.
--Receive money back from the sale of fabric from an Internet-based fabric company.
--Free samples are mailed to your customers

Benefits to your customers
-- They can purchase 1st quality fabric for less than 50% off true wholesale
--They can call and speak to an upholsterer (35 years in the business) about a fabric or leather.
--They will receive free samples.


We are looking to grow our company and to offer re-orderable fabrics, leathers and frames.

We realize that there is no one perfect supply house and that we have our limitations, but keep an eye on us. We are going to continue to grow through innovative ideas and hard work.

Our program is free. What do you have to lose? Nothing.  What do you have to gain?..................money and knowledge.

Paul, your welcome letter will arrive to you this afternoon. Steve

Hello Fellow Upholstery Shop Owners,

Many of you will recognize me and my company from my years of posting on this site (as an upholstery shop owner of over 35 years and as an advertiser here on Ken's site).

I typically do not like self serving posts unless the post speaks to the betterment of my profession and/or my business.

I understand first hand  how difficult it is to make money within our industry, especially in the current state of the economy. It was with this background and understanding,  I looked at my fabric site (Silverstone Fabrics) and decided there must be a better way to market my inventory.

Silverstone Fabrics is part of an Internet based group of companies that market upholstery fabrics in what I call "the secondary fabric market". Other members of this group include: New Toto, Fabric Guru, Winter Beach Modern, Modern Fabrics.....etc. We all acquire our fabrics in similar ways (ie: we purchase large left over inventories from major furniture manufacturers). 

After 2 years in the planning, we are proud to introduce our Silverstone Dealers  program.

In a nut shell, you and your company can make money from our inventory, all while saving your customers up to 50% off the true wholesale of 1st quality fabric.

You may look at our dealer program at: http://www.silverstonedealers.com/

We are not the answer to all of your fabric needs, but we can make a smart  business person some money.

What is the industry standard........a 50 yard roll can have up to 7 flaws and still be considered a 1st quality.

I was asked by a local distributor to "test drive" a gun like the one featured on this site.

I found  two major issues:

  --It took a lot of air to keep the gun's pressure up. Most of the shop compressors I've been around will not be big enough to get the job done.

  --The biggest problem was the "swirling" of the nails in the nail chamber.............the action was enough to remove some of the finish from the nails.

My report influenced my distributor not to invest into marketing this product.

On a related note, I am in and out of some of the best new furniture manufacturers that are located here in NC and when you see professional full time nailers in action, it is like the difference in watching a PGA golfer and  the best player at your club. They use similar tools of the trade but there game is completely different.

The nailers at Hancock and Moore can keep a detailed conversation going with you (with eye contact) and still pound in more nails per minute than any other nailers I have seen.

I am going to try and take a video of one of them in action........it will blow your mind.

You have done enough.

The next time she stops by, hand her a note with a couple of supply houses' phone number and wish her the very best.

When she becomes "professional", treat her like one. Right now she just  has a profitable hobby. Steve

From the mountains of western North Carolina in BOONE, NC. Home of my alma mater Appalachian State University.

........one more thing: APPALACHIAN is pronounced:
App-uh-latch-an!  Apple-ay-shan came about from a place of condescending and implies that you are looking down upon or are better than people of Appalachia.

"These mountains were named after a nation of American Indians living in the Appalachian foothills of present day Alabama and holding territory into the Apalachicola area of  present day Florida. They were known as the Apalachee, and the mountains, river and bay all hold their name and keep it alive, though they no longer exist as a nation, though they were hopefully absorbed into the great Creek Confederacy, descendants of whom still live in parts of the Deep South.
    The name of our mountains is pronounced exactly in the same manner as the Apalachicola River and Bay in Florida, and many of us get quite irritated when people come from other areas and tell us how to pronounce the name of the mountains that are our home. Please, when you come to visit us, pronounce our mountains name in a way that will lie softly on our ears. " Alex Netherton, Appalachian Naturalist

Mike, Keep your fingers crossed that she will want to "mend fences" and have you become her upholsterer again.

Several years back, I had a similar incident with an interior designer (she always introduced herself: Ms Mary Beth S--------E, ASID) and when she called to try and lure me back. I told her "Have a happy life and never call me again!".......I hung up the phone and realized this is why I am willing to pay the price to self employed. I do not have bosses, I only have customers.......some I want and others that I don't.

Hang in there, you did the right thing. Steve

BobbyD, I took the time to look at your website and Facebook page. I was impressed with Wellspring's mission.

I just got off the phone with Evan at Wellsprings and we had a very nice conversation.

He was kind of shocked when I told him I was going to send Wellspring a roll of Morbern vinyl for free. I responded that, in my opinion, America could use a lot more programs like Wellspring and that my company is in the position to help.

A 32 yard roll of Morbern Mirage Bronze has left the mountains of western North Carolina and is on it's way to Massachusetts. Steve

1,000 Thank You(s). Steve

Hey Group, I have been on this forum since 2005 and I have finally decided to post a profile picture.

I went into the area that allows you to edit your profile and here is what happens.

I click on "I will upload my own picture", then I "choose a file".....that takes me to the pictures within my computer, I open a file and select a picture and hit change profile......then I get back this message: The attachments upload directory is not writable. Your attachment or avatar cannot be saved. What am I doing wrong? Steve

BobbyD, I love what you are doing and you have come to the right place for information and encouragement.

Good Luck. Steve