Furniture Skirts - Overview

[baileyuph]

Skirts on furniture, not applied like past years.

Why?

Is it part of the play on reducing cost and the practice has actually established the newer style?  Rarely, at this time are they applied to new furniture.

For someone who likes the looks of a nicely tailored skirt, furniture designed to accept a skirt looks overall more classy and exudes more on the quality issue.

What about it furniture people, do you also not do as many skirts and is this because of what?  People's taste or a combo of price and taste?

It does take time to prepare and install a professional skirt.

Maybe it is all about cost and habit?

Just my experience and taste talking

Doyle

[gene]

I've been taking skirts off furniture for a few Interior Designers for about 2 or 3 years now. They say it's the style now a days. I learned how to refurbish the furniture feet to make it easier for the homeowner to decide to take the skirt off.

It's always nice to give the customer a choice: to skirt the issue or not?

I certainly do think that furniture manufactures would rather not put a skirt on to lower costs. They probably still do because of tradition more than anything else.

I wonder if it's cheaper to put a skirt on and use crappy legs, or leave the skirt off and use legs that are good enough to be seen?

gene

[brmax]

I think cost savings is in the mix pretty heavy, I agree though they do look sharp.
It seems designs have been more contemporary or less colonial altogether so this extra has been more easily dropped. I think the design of the skirt itself possibly shows a time period is there any agreement in that?. Some rooms or areas can handle the mix of skirt or not yet I think some designs are to much, this gives to the easily dropped classic trim.
Your where custom starts! and Im learning

Good day there

[kodydog]

When given the option to leave the skirt off in order lower the cost my customers often opt for the no skirt look.

What I love is lifting the skirt and finding hansom carved legs. At some point in the life of the chair someone thought it a good idea to add a skirt and cover those beautiful legs.

Consider all that goes into a skirt at a factory. Its got to be cut, sewn, and applied to the frame not to mention the extra care during packaging. Supplies like skirt liner, stiffner and welt cord add to the cost. For a sofa you can add 1-1/4 yds of fabric. That is if its not matched. And that's for a small 6" skirt. The taller the skirt gets the cost goes up.

In this day of mechanized wood working and easy to apply lacquer finish, I'd say legs are much cheaper to produce.

[chrisberry12]

Most of the pieces I do have dress maker skirts. Skirts only use about two yards of fabric so there is not much in the way of saving cost. It is more for looks however where I am located there is a lot of fog rolling in from the sea so I try and talk them into eliminating the skirts for air circulation.  As far as dating the piece, i don't think so, it is more the fabric choice that dates the furniture.

Chris