Archive for September 24th, 2007
By IE
With the furniture industry having registering a growth of about 100% in the region over the past few years, imported furniture has also acquired a major share in the furniture business.
“At present about 70% of the total furniture sold is imported. Now people select the furniture first and make adjustments in their homes accordingly,” Chander Verma, owner of Adarsh Furniture informed FE.
Back in 1975, only Indian furniture was in vogue, now people prefer straight line furniture with no embellishments. Keeping a tab on the market trends the furniture companies introduced imported furniture for the customers. Verma further shared, “We import the furniture and artifacts from Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia , China and Hong Kong. When we launched imported furniture in the region, it was a new product-stylish, luxurious and more comfortable. It became popular as it comes in a knock down condition and is easy to maintain.”
People from all over Punjab, Himachal and Haryana come and buy imported furniture from the Chandigarh market. Even the NRIs form about 25% of the regular customers. “We have been exporting the Indian furniture to USA, UK and Canada . Back here in Punjab, we get maximum sales from cities like Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Patiala. To cater to the customers of Haryana better, we have opened a showroom in Panchkula,” added Verma.
Adarsh Furniture is also developing a concept mall in Chandigarh. To be spread over 60,000 sq ft, the mall will house a complete range of home furnishings and décor under one roof. “We have marked a budget outlay of about Rs 10 crore for developing this interiors mall. This six storied mall will be ready by the end of 2008. It will cater to all the needs of the person constructing a new house. Since the people have the paying capacity, they prefer taking home a ready to use furniture which is pleasant to the eyes as well,” expressed Verma.
September 24th, 2007
By: BRIAN ECKHOUSE - Staff Writer
MURRIETA —- The parking lot fronting this city’s “furniture row” increasingly resembles a number of homes in this community.
Empty.
Two years after it opened, the 230,000-square-foot Home Center marketplace has yet to become the hit many city leaders believed it would be, despite its choice real estate at Interstate 215 and Los Alamos Road. However, the center isn’t the complete failure some residents have made it out to be, either.
An aesthetic sore point for some officials and residents, the marketplace has been a new source of sales tax revenue for Murrieta.
“It’s still generating money, which is better than not having businesses there,” said Teri Ferro, Murrieta’s administrative services director. “But if there was an anticipation that it would be a draw for nearby valleys to come to Murrieta, unfortunately the housing downturn seems to be coming right at the same time.”
From late 2005 to early 2007, the Home Center has accounted for 7 percent to 9 percent of the city’s sales tax base, reaching a high of nearly $247,000 in the second quarter of 2006. But quarterly sales tax revenues slipped to $212,000 and $224,000 in the final two quarters of last year, before hitting about $232,000 in the first three months of this year, the latest for which the city has figures.
With the closing of a couple stores recently, however, the city expects those numbers will dip again.
Analysts and observers believe the plunging housing market —- on which the furniture industry relies heavily —- is greatly to blame for those struggles, which aren’t limited to stores in Murrieta.
“People are not worried about furniture,” said resident Barbara Nugent, who actively opposed the project when it came before city commissions —- in part because of its design. “They’re not worried about replacing that mattress they’ve had for 15 years because they’re worried about paying their mortgage.”
That’s particularly true in Murrieta: A handful of stores have closed at the Home Center and several others offer deals between 60 percent to 80 percent off.
“With the housing downturn … people are not buying the big-ticket items like furniture, spas and barbecues to upgrade their homes,” Ferro said. “That’s a large segment of the retail business.”
Of the nationwide housing crisis —- which is so acute in Southwest Riverside County —- Plummers manager Francis McTiernan said: “It’s hurting everyone in this business. It’s true of us and everybody else. But things go in cycles. We’re waiting for that next turn.”
Managers at some of the Home Center’s stores, including McTiernan, say they are still turning a profit in the slow market.
“It could be busier, but it’s still good,” said Floyd Remey, the manager of Sit ‘n Sleep. “This is not one of our busiest stores, but it’s profitable for us.”
But that isn’t universal. Of the 22 storefronts, nine are vacant.
Wacky Wicker closed down recently, as did a store called Basix. Before Wacky Wicker closed, a small piece of paper was affixed to the glass door promoted “a gigantic quitting business sale.” HomeComfort Furniture had a clearance sale of up to 60 percent off items.
Industry analysts and store managers may point to the troubling housing market as the explanation for the furniture row’s struggles, but Nugent and others suggest a different reason: poor concept and indistinctive design.
Nugent has been especially critical of the “tacky” design of the center, complaining frequently to the Planning Commission that the city’s architectural standards need to be raised because of the three-building marketplace.
“No one’s drawn to it,” she said. “There’s nothing that makes it stand out so people would want to shop. It looks like any other strip mall along so many freeways.”
Yet, Linder’s Furniture in Murrieta thus far is on target to hit 95 percent of its annual projected revenues, said its manager, Steve Anderson. Customers, he said, recognize Linder’s from his company’s Orange County locations and through direct advertising.
“I think the destination stores do advertising,” Anderson said. “They will pull in more traffic for the area. The guy next door who doesn’t do advertising is acting as prey.
“But people walk in here, leave to browse other stores, then come back and buy here.”
That’s assuming shoppers even stop at the center. In a half-hour period late Friday morning, just two couples entered Home Center stores.
Tyrone Tate, 37, of Temecula said he was drawn to Linder’s because of a sale advertised in that morning’s paper.
“Before that, I didn’t even know (the furniture center) was here,” Tate said.
That could explain why one Plummers employee joked Friday morning: “Could you round us up some shoppers?”
Contact staff writer Brian Eckhouse at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2626, or beckhouse@californian.com.
September 24th, 2007
These pieces of furniture have been in the family for many generations. They lived in Pennsylvania since before the Revolutionary War. The mirror is 47 inches high. The game table is 41 inches wide by 29 inches high. The table is 34½ inches wide by 30 inches high. What can you tell me about them and what they are worth? - S.H.
Congratulations on having such wonderful American antiques. The mirror is in wonderful condition for one so old. It appears to have the original gold leaf finish and the glass looks like it is original, too.
This style of mirror is from the Empire period and is in the classical style. It was made in the first quarter of the 19th century. It is American and would have been in one of the fine homes with high ceilings being built at that time.
The fruit-and-flower motif on the mirror’s crest was a popular one in that time period. You often see similar motifs as furniture inlay or carved onto the front of game tables. I recently had a clock from this same period with a gilded basket of fruit finial.
Having the original gilt finish adds a lot to this mirror’s value. Sometimes the gilding would get dull and dirty looking on old mirrors and frames and instead of cleaning them, people would paint over the original finish, ruining it. Your mirror’s value is about $1,500.
The small table is an 18th century lowboy. Used in the bedroom along with its companion piece, a highboy, lowboys were used as a dressing table. Now, since they have become so collectible and expensive, lowboys are usually placed in the living room or entrance hall.
It is a wonderful example of a Chester County piece of furniture. Chester County, Pa., provided the young American nation with clocks, redware and fine furniture. Domestic items like quilts, frakturs, metalware and samplers from the Delaware Valley are highly prized by today’s collectors.
It is rare for the matching highboy and lowboy from the 18th century to have stayed together through the past 200 years. As families divided up estates, these two pieces often went their separate ways. When matching pieces do come up for sale, they bring high prices.
A highboy is a two-part chest on legs. The top will be flat or arched, usually with small drawers over three long drawers. The top will sit on a base that has a long drawer over small drawers. A highboy is always on legs. Sometimes a family will split the top from the base. Then a cabinetmaker will put legs on the top section and a new top on the bottom section, creating two pieces of furniture. Not only does this ruin the original piece of furniture, it creates two awkward looking hybrids that are out of proportion. I have looked at a lot of lowboys that were actually the altered base of a highboy.
Your genuine Pennsylvania lowboy can be valued at $10,000 to $12,000.
Your game table is a nice Pennsylvania table with a hinged lift top, which lifts up and folds back to make a round table. The back leg swings out and supports the folded back leaf. It is from the Federal period and was made around 1790. The serpentine shape makes it more valuable than a straight or bow-front table.
Game tables or card tables were practical and popular and many were made. When not in use, the table was pushed against the wall. Once in a while I see a similar table without the extra leaf. This type of D-shaped table is usually a section of a dining room table. Before pedestal base dining tables, large dining tables were made up of a drop leaf table and two D-end tables, making a large table. When not in use, all the tables would be put against the wall to make room for dancing or entertainment.
The value of your game table is $2,500 to $3,000.
Julie McClure has 30 years of experience in the appraisal business and is a member of the Appraisers Association of America. Her company, Appraisals and Sales by Julie McClure, Inc., is based in Bradenton (wwwappraisals4u.biz). Send queries and photographs via e-mail or regular mail to About Antiques, The Herald, 102 Manatee Ave. W., Bradenton, FL 34205-8810. Please include the measurements of a piece and a phone number. Also, computer printouts of images do not reproduce, so please e-mail images. Photographs will only be returned in a stamped, self-addressed envelope.
ABOUT ANTIQUES
Julie McClure x
McClurescolumn@AOL.com
September 24th, 2007
Mumbai, Sep 23: With the scenario for the furniture industry looking promising, the Index International Furniture Fair 2007 is scheduled to be held at the Bombay Exhibition Centre here from October 18 to 22.
The fair will be spread over a whopping 35,000 square meters and will have over 200 participants from across the globe, a press release here said yesterday.
With the growing global exposure of Indians, they are now looking forward to designing their spaces innovatively and creatively. The size of Imported Furniture market in India was 152.43 million US dollars in the year 2005-2006 and 53.82 million dollars for 2006-2007 (April-July) quarter.
Italian furniture is renowned for its fine design, quality and creativity making them designer icons. The fair includes over 50 brands from Italy showcasing the best in furniture, lighting and furnishing. Besides these, many international brands from Germany, Brazil, China, Malaysia, Taiwan and Thailand, Europe, South East Asia will participate, the release said.
Indian products will also have a strong representation at the fair.
— UNI
September 24th, 2007
By Nancy Yoshihara,Los Angeles Times
Ina Brosseau Marx speaks painstakingly about furniture restoration. Make the mistake of using the word “refinishing” instead, and her retort is quick: “In this country I don’t know why we have the problem with the word ‘restoration.’ It is not the same as refinishing.”
The exacting way she talks about restoration is reflected in the compendium on the subject that she and husband Allen Marx wrote based on their 30 years practicing the craft. Their restorations are part of the permanent collections of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, Yale University Art Gallery and the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum.
Five years in the making, “Furniture Restoration: Step-by-Step Tips and Techniques for Professional Results,” from Watson-Guptill, has a simple theme. “Whatever two hands have put together, two hands can try to fix,” Ina says in a phone interview from her home in Princeton, N.J. “That is our mantra.” The Marxes, who have been married 58 years, lecture around the world.
The first steps to restoration are analyzing an object to see if you can make it structurally sound and assessing its surface to determine its finish. With restoration, you try to keep as much of the original materials as possible. Refinishing deals with the finish that was put on the surface of the object. When the finish is damaged with white rings or scratches, then people take it off and refinish.
Q What are your top three tips for assessing a piece of furniture
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at flea markets, garage sales or antique shops?
A People should look first to see if the piece is wood. That’s hard sometimes because if there are coats of paint, you can’t tell what is underneath. See if it is heavy. Hoist the piece. Look for some clean lines.
Look for solid construction. Something wobbly can usually be fixed because the problem is at the joints. Do not pick anything plastic.
Frames are wonderful to buy at a flea market even if the joints are loose or it has a junky painting. You can do wonderful things with frames.
Q What is the most common restoration problem?
A When wood shrinks it loses dimension in its width (never in its length). This is particularly evident in frames, where the miter joints open up in the inside corners because the angle has changed from 45 degrees to, for instance, 50 degrees. The solution requires re-cutting the miters to a 45-degree angle (losing the outer size of the frame) or adding wood to the inside edges of the frame. Another solution might be to cover the openings with decorative carvings available in craft shops.
Shrinkage in the width of wood on furniture can be seen not only by spaces between the joints, but also by the tenting up of any paint, gilding, Asian lacquer, or even the clear finish coat.
September 24th, 2007
By Michael Rappaport, Staff Writer
SAN BERNARDINO - Tom’s Farm Country Furnishings, a fixture on what was once known as “Furniture Row,” is closing its store at 1375 E. St.
The date for closing has yet to be determined and the company’s store in south Corona will remain open.
The move will leave only two furniture stores - Home Gallery and Furniture Mart - open in the neighborhood.
“Business has just dried up here,” said Steve Reed, a store manager. “This area used to be called `Furniture Row,’ but there are only three of us left and no one is doing very well.”
Calls to the other two stores went unanswered Friday.
Reed said the brand new Ashley’s Furniture store in Colton had been “the last straw.”
“It’s a beautiful store,” he said.
San Bernardino City Manager Fred Wilson said he was sorry to see the store closing, but that he didn’t think it represented a greater problem for the city in overall retail.
“I don’t think there is any problem with the location,” he said. “In fact, it has been a great location for retail until just recently. I think there’s a larger issue about tastes in furtniture; Ashley’s has just dominated the market recently.”
With Ashley’s to the west and the new Citrus
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Plaza power center to the east in Redlands, Wilson suggested that the local furniture stores were caught in the middle.
“This seems to be about the evolution of retail,” he said. “Stores like Tom’s Farms are older stores, and there are a lot of new stores in the area.”
Reed said the store had a great deal of inventory on hand, and that there would probably be some sort of pre-closing sale.
Contact business editor Michael Rappaport at (909) 483-9395 or at m_rappaport@dailybulletin.com.
September 24th, 2007
By ALICE RAWSTHORN
As design buffs will attest, there were some lessons to be learned from the latest round of furniture auctions. The first is that design, like art, is becoming even more vertiginously expensive. And the second is that Memphis is back.
Yes, Memphis. Remember the Milan-based collective that split the world in two between those who loved the postmodernist wit of its kitschy, colorful furniture and those who loathed it? Like “Diva,” the DeLorean and the Palladium, Memphis was eventually dismissed as an early-1980s blip. There still isn’t a stick of it in the Museum of Modern Art’s design collection. But all that’s changing — MoMA’s antipathy apart.
Among the most sought-after pieces at Phillips de Pury in New York in May were those by the Memphis designers Ettore Sottsass and Andrea Branzi and their chief collaborator in the late ’70s at Studio Alchymia, Alessandro Mendini. Perhaps more telling is that all of Memphis’s hallmarks — dizzying colors, gaudy patterns, supersize proportions, cheesy historic motifs — were visible in the more directional work at the Milan Furniture Fair this spring.
“It’s the wow effect,” says Job Smeets, a co-founder of Studio Job, the Dutch design team whose Memphis-inspired objects often grace Moss’s windows in SoHo. “When I open old Domus magazines and see those amazing pieces by Sottsass and Mendini, they seem so emotional and expressive.”
Why does Memphis feel right again? Let’s begin at the beginning. Memphis was cooked up in Sottsass’s Milan apartment one night in December 1980, when the host, then in his 60s and a grandee of Italian design, invited younger designers to develop a furniture collection to show at the next year’s Milan Furniture Fair.
It was to be a protest against the dry orthodoxy of modernism. They called it Memphis because Bob Dylan’s “Stuck Inside of Mobile” was on the record player at the time and the needle kept sticking (a common problem in ye olden days of vinyl) on the words “Memphis blues again.”
Exuberant, glittery and unashamedly kitschy, Memphis was everything modernism was not. Studio Alchymia had done it all before, but only the design cognoscenti knew that. The secret of Memphis’s success was its flair for marketing. There were long lines outside the opening party during the Milan Furniture Fair, and Sottsass posed for photographs with his young collaborators in a “conversation pit” designed by Masanori Umeda to look like a boxing ring. That image appeared in magazines all over the world, and Karl Lagerfeld placed a bulk order of Memphis furniture for his Monaco home.
Showy, media-savvy and an easily digestible expression of fashionable but often obscure postmodernist theories, Memphis was perfectly attuned to the early ’80s. It was design’s equivalent of Ronald Reagan’s photo-op presidency, not to mention all those gaucho-wearing New Romantics preening on MTV. But there was only so much leopard-printed plastic laminate that the world could take, and by 1985, even Sottsass was bored by it.
The pendulum then swung away from pomo playfulness and back to rationalist restraint. Memphis’s legacy lived on, not least in putting the media onto design, and vice versa. (Otherwise known as the “who cares if it’s uncomfortable when it’s so photogenic” school of chair design.) It’s impossible to imagine how subsequent design stars — Philippe Starck, Marc Newson — could have risen quite as quickly without it.
And now Memphis is everywhere: you could spot its influence in Marcel Wanders’s giant ornamental bells at the Milan Fair and in the sinister surrealism of Jaime Hayon’s porcelain figurines. And you’ll see even more Memphis in December when Moss unveils a fantastical new Studio Job collection at Design Miami.
The reason is somewhat obvious: designers are rebelling against superslick branding, preferring to chase the emotional and expressive qualities that Job Smeets so relishes in Memphis. It’s also because the Memphis aesthetic is attuned to pop culture, with the fluorescent colors of the New Ravers, who hang out at London’s BoomBox, and the acid-house revivalist bands like Klaxons. And let’s face it, if ever an era was as showy and media savvy as the early ’80s, it’s this one.
September 24th, 2007
The standards are accepted by the industry’s major certifying organizations.
by Mairi Beautyman
The American National Standard Institute (ANSI) has approved two volatile organic compound (VOC) standards released by the Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturers Association (BIFMA) International.
The ANSI/BIFMA Furniture Emissions Standards, newly released, are voluntary across the U.S., and apply to VOC emissions from office furniture. They are:
• ANSI/BIFMA M7.1-2007 Standard Test Method for Determining VOC Emissions from Office Furniture Systems, Components and Seating, and
• ANSI/BIFMA X7.1-2007 Standard for Formaldehyde and TVOC Emissions of Low-emitting Office Furniture Systems and Seating
Applying publicly available chamber testing documentation, the standards will be used as a starting point to evaluate the initial release of airborne chemicals emitted from furniture workstations and seating.
“Receiving formal ANSI approval of these standards is the culmination of years of development, research and consensus building effort,” says Thomas Reardon, BIFMA’s executive director. “ANSI approval ensures that a broad and diverse group of stakeholders have had the opportunity to participate in the development and their comments have been appropriately addressed.”
The standards are accepted by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) LEED for Commercial Interiors rating system, the Scientific Certification Systems Indoor Advantage program, the NSF International indoor air quality certification program, and in part, by the Greenguard Environmental Institute.
September 24th, 2007
Glassboards are suitable for modern communication offering a stain free writing surface that accepts any standard whiteboard marker.
Erasing is a breeze - simply use a standard eraser. The surface also accepts permanent markers which can be cleaned off using SK Office Furniture’s Parrot whiteboard cleaner.
Glassboards are suitable in meeting rooms, breakout areas and even formal boardrooms. Glassboards can be used anywhere communication points demand and where style is important.
Glassboards can be supplied in either a clear finish or in your choice of any standard Dulux pre painted finish.
The painted backing is oven baked and is completely blemish free. So you can now have a completely colour co-ordinated office environment.
Sizes
Glassboards can be supplied in any size though generally SK Office Furniture recommends sizes up to 2400×1200mm. Sizes larger than this often have issues with lift access in high rise buildings. For larger areas simply place 2 units side by side.
Installation
Glassboards can be installed onto any wall. Installation is via either 4 or 6 stainless steel brackets (sizes 1200×1200mm or less accept 4 brackets and for sizes larger than this SK Office Furniture recommends 6 brackets - 3 top and 3 bottom).
The Glassboard is supplied to you predrilled with either the 4 or 6 holes. Installation generally takes 2 persons. The glassboard brackets are stainless steel and are manufactured in Australia to comfortably support any size of board.
Glassboards can also be installed directly onto any smooth clean wall using adhesive silicons. If this method of install is preferred, then there is no need for the brackets.
Technical
6.38mm toughened glass which is 4-5 times stronger than normal glass (toughened glass breaks it into small harmless pieces like a car windscreen does)
All glassboard edges are polished and the corners are rounded for added safety and ease of use
Glass is supplied in original clear format. However, all glass has a slight green tint from the iron oxides used in making it. If you are matching colours exactly then this green tint can change the colour subtly. SK Office Furniture can however supply a totally clear glass called Starphire at an extra cost, which has the iron removed for a totally clear finish
21-Sep-2007
September 24th, 2007
Henredon will close by end of year
By Heather Sanders,hsanders@morganton.com
Morganton - Henredon employees found out Thursday the plant will close at the end of the year, putting 521 employees out of work.
President of HDM Furniture Industries Tom Tilley announced the closing to the employees Thursday afternoon.
According to the announcement, most of the products manufactured at the local plant will be outsourced.
Rick Moses has worked at Henredon for about seven years.
He left his job at Caterpillar to work for Henredon, mainly because he has family there and he was getting a pay raise.
Now, he’s not sure what he’ll do. He’s not even sure when he’ll be leaving. His boss told him and his co-workers some of them would leave at the end of November and others at the end of the year.
Moses is not too worried, though. Moses said he’ll probably go back to school. With the degree for machinery he already has, he doesn’t think it will be too hard to find work.
Mike Jackson, president of the Burke County Chamber of Commerce, said it won’t be easy for a lot of people.
There’s not enough industry in the area to support that many employees.
He said some employees may have to leave Morganton.
“It will dramatically affect the local economy,” Jackson said.
Tilley said in the release the company had no choice but to close “if we are to continue to maintain our ability to compete in today’s business environment.”
Employees will receive severance packages if they stay until the plant closes.
If they leave before the closing, employees are not eligible for the severance package.
“We know this news is very disappointing and that it creates a hardship for our employees and their families,” Tilley said.
HDM is made up of the former Henredon Furniture, Drexel Heritage Furniture and Maitland-Smith Furniture and is a subsidiary of Furniture Brands International.
September 24th, 2007
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