Chair frames of mainly plywood!

[kodydog]

One other thing to consider.

Formaldehyde is a high volume chemical commonly found in the home. It is the adhesive resin that holds composite woods (such as particleboard, plywood and medium-density fiberboard) together and has a similar function in other products.

Interiors Sources
Chemistry Class, by Penny Bonda, FASID
http://www.isdesignet.com/Magazine/Mar'98/eco.html
Formaldehyde, the most widely known of a group of substances known as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) is both naturally occurring and man-made and is found in a variety of consumer products such as molded plastic items, particle board, plywood, paper, sealants, paints, textiles, foam mattresses, building insulation and upholstery stuffing. Many of these items will emit appreciable amounts of the stuff for five or more years after manufacture. Worse yet, the evaporating fumes will tend to be absorbed and then re-released by large interior surfaces such as ceiling tiles, wall board and carpeting. Formaldehyde has been classified as a potential human carcinogen by the EPA.?

On Ladd Upholstery Designs web-site I have a section titled Why Reupholster? On it I make the point, It's "green" to reupholster. Landfills are full of discarded furniture. New furniture requires a lot of resources to produce. New furniture can take up to 2 5 years to off gas toxic fumes. Buying local means less packaging, less transportation and a smaller carbon footprint.

[papasage]

the  mfg. out there don`t care  about the future just  a big bank  account .

yes plywood can be  a good  chair frame  use the  good grade and put together right. plywood is  like  furniture  there are different grades and with a good grade  it can be  a good frame .
  i have been doing  upholstery  for 51 years . mostly furniture and did  some factory work in  early 60`s where we used  hardwood  stapled together frames . oake was the cheapest frames   blackgun maple  was  the better frames  dal joints  and braces were glued in .those frames are made  today but a couch frame alone would be more than a  fully covered  couch in a  low end store  lie  Farmer badcock  railway freight  and such  stores .  that is what the majority buy`s  so that is what they sell  some one is going to make and sell it  . the  un educated  people on  what is good and bad will not listen  the going to buy the cheep stuff  . i just sold my upholstery shop because there isn't enough  good  money making jobs  out there and at 69 1/2 years old  it hit at a good time in my life . most  furniture stores are  junk by the truck load .

[baileyuph]

While this thread started with a discussion centered on manufacturers incorporating plywood in their upholstered frames -that actually seem to be holding up as observed by us upholsterers - as we do just that - reupholster them.  The other ideas that were woven into the thead was blame for cheap made furniture.  Plus, there was some discussion on the one spin-off of the industry going forward - namely there likely will be less custom reupholstery over time.  I believe that is very likely.

With that short summary as background, let's not finger point at low quality produced furnitue and blame manufacturers.  Manufacturers produce what will sell, that simple.  If consumers did not buy, it would not be produced.

A collorary to this discussion,  over the last 10 years, statistics show that furniture retailers and furniture manufacturers that have gone out of business, are those
who produced high quality and those retailers who were selling the same.  Simple answer is consumers did not like the higher prices.  Instead "price" was their biggest motivator.  I definitely think it still is.

There are several more factors that shape the furniture industry today into what we are experiencing.  Technology used to produce low price furniture can be concluded to be higher than technology used several years ago to produce higher quality furniture.

So, in perspective, higher technology does not guarantee higher quality furniture. Nor does higher technology exclude higher quality production.  So what all this says is some of the new furniture has eye appeal even though the intrinsic value is often low on quality, as most admit.  That is full circle to the "price sells" discussion.

Another interesting fact to a craftsman, especially one who does repairs on the newer stuff is; it is not only built with higher technology, it is built more efficiently.  In a word, the manufacturers can really put the furniture out fast!  This fact has developed relatively fast while efficiencies in custom work shops -- well has not changed near as fast.  Personally, this is an important issue for small shops today and going forward.  Time is money in what ever world you work in and money usually very important.

Repeating this important point; Efficiency will become even a bigger factor in the small reupholstering industry - going forward.

In order to give credibility to the points presented, just turn the tables, what if the custom shops were more efficient than manufacturers and had the price advantage in marketing, then there wouldn't be enough frames or upholsters to serve the market.

Efficiency does and will play out in our business today and going forward, namely our financial reapings!  I will admit it is always a latent thought in my daily business.

Thanks to all for the interesting input.

Doyle

[byhammerandhand]

+1 Doyle,

I can't remember the last time I saw an ad for "highest quality furniture.,"   Normally one of these:
- Full room of furniture for $xxx  (This weekend only!!!)
- 20% off everything
- Guaranteed low price or it's free !!!   (Still haven't figured that one out*)
- No payments until next year
- No credit? slow credit?  No problem!








* "At Furniture Fair we guarantee that our prices are the lowest available in the Cincinnati Ohio Tri-State market. If you are able to find it advertised lower, we will beat that price or it is free! Competitors pricing is subject to verification. Excludes: clearance items, floor samples, close-outs, and discontinued merchandise. "  So, FF has a sofa for $1299 and the store down the street has it for $1099.   At what point would FF just say, "No, we won't sell it to you for $1099, here it is for free?"

[kodydog]

We've all heard it one time or another. I bought Ashley because its high quality and I paid a lot of money for it. Where does the customer come up with this idea? By leafing through glossy magazines and seeing ads like this one. This picture emits high quality. Granite counter top, custom trim on the base, High $ faucet even the food looks like something on a high class home. People see this ad and say, that's what I want my house to look like. And all I have to do is buy these two bar stools. And two years later their coming to us. When we tell them Ashley isn't that great they are amazed. Its the rare customer that knows furniture sold at stores like Heilig-Meyers is crap.



For those customers its up to us to educate them. Not an easy task. We're some small fish in a huge ocean. And chances are the folks who shop Ashley will turn right around and do it again.

My business isn't going after that type person. I'm going after people who are a little more educated. Who already know most store bought furniture is made cheaply. People who own Mid-century, vintage or antiques. These people are far and few between but as everyone keeps pointing out upholsterers are becoming that way too.

As far as technology, this is the digital age. Very few upholsterers in my area are up to speed getting their presence on the internet. I myself am slowly getting there. And I'm getting a lot of calls and e-mails from people who found me through one of the 7 or 8 sites I'm on.

If your going to try to compete with manufactured furniture you will loose. Technology is great but a small shop will never justify the expense of half million dollar machines to increase productivity. It's hard not to see manufactured furniture as competition but that is what we must do. Become the guy that people go to because your reputation emits high quality, because you ARE expensive and when their friends ask they are proud to say, Yeah I had Doyle do it.

[byhammerandhand]

One of my customers carried Ashley.  It accounted for something like 95% of their pre- and post-delivery repairs.   There were some times where the company was just told to throw it away and they'd send a new one.  The stuff was literally so cheap it was cheaper to ship a new piece from China and 2/3 of the way across North America than to spend an hour to fix it.   And sometimes, I'd just have to inspect and declare as "non-repairable" at the store's request (broken out particle board, etc.)

I've had worse though.  The delivery company for another brand would call me and have some repairs.  I go in to do a 5 piece bedroom set and 4 of the pieces would have damage right out of the box (often times it was damaged or poor workmanship before going into the box).   And of those pieces often there would be 3-6 spots on each that needed some repair or touch up.