New generations

[sofadoc]

It's always great to see sons and daughters of longtime customers bringing work in. It means that a whole new generation of customer will consider upholstery as an option.
I had a young girl bring in some work the other day. My grandmother did work for her grandmother, and my mother did work for her mother. And I've been around long enough to do work for all 3.
Because I "inherited" customers from my parents/grandparents, I had to deal with people that didn't think twice about trying to take advantage of me. After all, they had always had their way with my family before me.
I decided to start this young girl off on the right foot. I told her clearly what I WOULD, and WOULD NOT be able to do for the price that I charge.
She was actually VERY understanding, and even acknowledged that her parents at times could be very unreasonable.
Maybe, by the time I'm ready for the "Boneyard", I'll have this whole customer relationship thing down pat. :D

[kodydog]

That's cool Sofa. Most young people don't see the value of reupholstering untill they have blown through 2 or 3 $600 sofas.
It's up to us to explain how grandmas old sofa is better built and in the long run a much better deal to recover.

Just finished a few pieces for a young couple in their 20's. Shes pregnant with their first baby and their restoring his grandpas house, the one he built 50 years ago with his own hands. I had an old goose-neck rocker frame that she fell in love with. She painted it white and had me put white vinyl on it for the nursery.

Love to see young adults do stuff like this.

[bobbin]

I grew up in a home with "antiques"; some were really nice, others were gems Mum found on her rounds of local thrift/"antique" stores.  She had an unerring eye for something with nice lines and several coats of poorly applied paint never deterred her.  Some of my earliest memories are of playing in the backyard while she applied stripper to pcs. or mended them.  They are fond memories, too.  And they branded me for life!

We were never permitted to jump on furniture and we were taught that furniture was expensive and should be treated with respect... wet hats and mittens had no place on tables, and coffee tables and sofas were not places for shoes...   tilting back and balancing a chair on the two back legs was met with a quick correction. 

I have my grandparents' bedroom suite, c. 1910.  I have my grandfather's wing chair, and my brother has his handsome desk.  We have a super channel back arm chair and an early '50s sofa that I had reupholstered some years ago, turning a deaf ear to the entreaty to just "buy a new one" and be done with it.  When it came home from the upholsterer my husband became a reupholstery convert.   ;).  I have had a couple of pcs. reupholstered since then, too.  There is no way we could afford to purchase that level of quality on our wages nowadays.  There is something so very gratifying about seeing something that is a little shabby and has seen its best day given new life. 

I think young people are ready to "hear the word", so many of them are concerned with recycling, reducing waste, and repurposing things already.  It can be tough to get past the desire for immediate gratification, but once you do they're totally "on board".  Some of my favorite alteration customers are young people... it's fun to teach them about clothing construction and  how a properly tailored garment makes you look better.  I am finding the very same thing with respect to window treatments.  But you do have to make the time to explain the process and why the time invested will be worth it in the end. 

What a nice story!

[jojo]

Man, are you guys old!  ;D

[kodydog]

Man, are you guys old!  ;D

Hay hay, A little respect you little wiper snapper. With age comes wisdom. I prefer to call it mature.

When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.

- Mark Twain

[Mike8560]

We were never permitted to jump on furniture and we were taught that furniture was expensive and should be treated with respect... wet hats and mittens had no place on tables, and coffee tables and sofas were not places for shoes...   

me too. Feet on the floor and  sitting o. The arm of a couch was nit even thought of. 
Inwas also told 
Write or wrong children were to be seen not heard.  Now days if I go out to say pizza hut. It full of kid yelling and maybe parents when the kids get too loud. Go "ssshhhh"

[sofadoc]

The arm of a couch was nit even thought of.

It's a bit ironic that back in the day, when sofa arms were strong enough to sit on......you weren't allowed to. Nowadays, when sofa arms are too cheaply constructed to sit on.....apparently everyone DOES!!!
I do a ton of warranty work for furniture stores that have arms that are completely collapsed.
Same with ottomans. They were made for FEET to rest on. Not 250 lb. 13 year olds.
But of course, a good sofa back then represented more than 2 months salary. Now, people buy sofas that barely cost a weeks pay. It's no small wonder that they make no effort to take care of them.
Remember when you got a new pair of shoes to start school? And they had to last the year? I always had to start school with long sleeved shirts (even though it was STILL 100 degrees) because "back to school" clothes also doubled as winter clothes.

[Mojo]

I gravitate to antiques. I find their lines, craftsmanship and beauty untouchable in today's " production " environment. Because of this, new furniture  bores me to death. I think my love comes from the fact that my grandparents home was filled with old antiques. I will still see an antique today that brings back great memories of my grandparents.

Our home in Bristol had 14 rooms and I made sure I tried and stuff it all full of antiques. But a problem arose when we bought this 1,600 sq ft home. I am now left with selling them or storing them till I build an addition onto the back of the house. :) I just cannot let them go though I know I should downsize.

I am trying hard to push my kids towards an appreciation of old furniture. I did go out and buy a bedroom outfit that costs thousands of dollars. All solid oak, dove tailed drawers, hand carved highlights, etc. It is styled after the old furniture of yesteryear but made by a company that specializes in high end wood furniture. I also commissioned a father and two sons who own a woodshop to build me a solid oak dinning room table. I cannot even begin to explain just how well built that set is. These are my heirlooms I will be passing down to my kids and my grandkids. Hopefully they will have that love for old furniture by then.

I need two matching sitting chairs ( wing back or club chairs ) for our living room and I have been scouring the thrift shops and junk shops looking for something from the 30's or 40's. Finding one is difficult but finding two that match is next to impossible. I want to re-upholster them in a fabric I like. It is real difficult as so many throw them out.

I am hoping that the coming generations will find a love for antiques and old furniture to preserve a time when things in this country were made with pride and craftsmanship.

Chris

[bobbin]

I've found myself thinking about this thread all morning.  Priming floor cloth canvas and laying on sealant coats lends itself to a wandering mind... .  And Mojo's post about having a table custom made reminded me of a similar story from this household. 

We have a tiny, galley kitchen... minimal storage.  I have inherited some cool china, some plate, and silverware and we had nowhere to display/store it in convenient reach of the dining table.  I had a local man build a wall mounted cabinet with glass doors (great move!).  And I began scouring shops for a suitable sideboard/buffet to go under it.  I looked and looked for a few years and found nothing I liked. I think families tend to hold onto sideboards rather than sending them to auction/consignment shops.  I began looking at new furniture but still found nothing I really liked; it either looked "chintzy", wasn't the right size, was too "formal", or manufactured overseas, etc..  I decided to make a few inquiries into having something custom made, not sure if I could afford "custom". 

The upshot was that "custom" wasn't very much more than the higher end production pieces.  I took a a deep breath and commissioned a sideboard from a fabulous furniture maker in the Philadelphia area.  And it is absolutely perfect!  It's walnut, with custom provisions for storage, and it has a lovely, discreet,  uninsistant and understated look that blends in perfectly with the mish-mash of cherished "found" and inherited pieces that fill our home.  Don't get me wrong, it was an expensive piece but viewed in the long term it was money well spent.  Trouble is, with no kids who will get it after I go to the "happy hunting ground"?   ;)
1.)  It is the proper size
2.)  It holds everything we wanted to put inside it
3.)  It's handsome! traditional, discreet, and the wood is gorgeous
4.)  It was delivered on time and put in place by the delivery guys without a ding on it
5.)  Everyone comments on it and the furniture maker has a shot of it in his residential portfolio (the price is nearly double what I paid in 2005, BTW)

So, in a discussion of long term "value", sometimes more money "up front" is the better investment.  I maintain that that holds true for reupholstering suitable pieces, too. 

[Mojo]

I had this oak kitchen table made back in 1992. It came with four chairs ( Amish made ) along with two extra leaves. The table top is gear driven with a lock. I paid $ 1,000 for everything and that included being done in a custom stain color that I wanted. The going price for a good dining outfit at the time was about $ 600-700.

I paid more but the difference in quality and craftsmanship is night and day.

Bobbin. I would love to spend two weeks in your neck of the woods antique hunting. Your area used to be the mecca of antiques. Do not know if it still is but they used to have an awesome inventory of antiques and some very cool shops as well.

Your area is on my list of places to travel. I have done the entire USA except for your corridor. One of these days I will point the coach in your direction for some spectacular scenery, seafood and antiques. :)

Chris

[NDAV8R]

Write or wrong children were to be seen not heard.  Now days if I go out to say pizza hut. It full of kid yelling and maybe parents when the kids get too loud. Go "ssshhhh"


  I was attending a hunting seminar a few years ago, and was sitting towards the back, when a couple of teen aged kids had absolutely NO respect for the speaker.   I simple turned around and said "ssshhh"...to my surprise, one of the young kids replied back by saying very loud so everyone could hear "What the F*** is wrong with you, OLD MAN!" I was shocked and played the quiet game, but they kept heckling until there were a two other gentlemen interacted discretely, and they were heckled, too.  The seminar was almost before they left, and I was going to get some type of building security.  
  What I really wanted to do was to give them two some "Parking Lot Justice", like I have done in the past, but I knew they had me because they were under age and they would sue me for sure. I would of loved to video recorded their actions and play it back to their parents!

Gale.

[sofadoc]

   What I really wanted to do was to give them two some "Parking Lot Justice", like I have done in the past, but I knew they had me because they were under age and they would sue me for sure.

A black customer of mine tells me that when he was a child, ANY adult had free reign to discipline ANY child in the neighborhood. I don't remember white neighborhoods being that way, but maybe they should've been.
Can you imagine the #@!! storm you would be in for if you took a belt to the neighbor's kid?
I have a neighbor that always said "If MY kid misbehaves at school, I WANT them to whip him, and he's gonna' get another one when he gets home!"
She said that until it actually happened. Then she hired a lawyer, and sued the school district.

[NDAV8R]

By the why, when I mentioned about my parking lot justice in the past, that was when I also was a teen vs a teen. I left those days well behind me back then! 
     Back in the 60's if I did something wrong at school, I was hit by the teacher or Principle cause I had it coming. By the time I graduated in 74, I had seen the discipline transition to a no-hit policy and the students rallied!

[JuneC]

I don't remember white neighborhoods being that way, but maybe they should've been.

My neighborhood was that way.  I can't say I was actually disciplined by another adult in the community other than my parents, but I sure as heck knew that they wouldn't overlook my misbehaving.  I was going to pay one way or another. 

And I believe you can still raise kids the way they should be despite TV/games/school/the environment.  We have two family friends.  Both families have 2 kids under ten.  First family we can't stand to be around the kids - they're completely out of control - girls, BTW.  The other family (both boys) are a pleasure to be around.  It's "no sir, no ma'am", quiet, respectful.  It boils down to parenting skills. 

And as for how to treat furniture, we didn't put feet on anything other than the floor or an ottoman - period!  I recently donated my first set of furniture to the Salvation Army because I simply got tired of it... after 26 years.  The upholstery was still in great shape.  Solid maple Ethan Allen.  It was the Heirloom early American style.  I paid over 2 grand for that set in 1982 after sitting on cinder blocks and 2 x 8's for a few years.  Sorry to see it go, but I'd really outlived it.  Listed it for sale on Craigslist for pennies.  No takers.  No one appreciates quality anymore.  I really thought some woodworker would have bought it just for the clear maple. 

June