Office Furniture Selection Issues - What You Need To Know

Office furniture selection is a bottom line business issue. The big issue is your supplier. You need a one stop shop. A good supplier can save a lot of money.
You also need value, long life products, and quality. A bit of thinking and hunting around can find you an excellent supplier and save a fortune, particularly over time.

Step 1: Systematically, assess what you need

It’s a very good idea to do a basic inventory of the things you need. This saves time when you do your real inventory, and it also helps create a picture of the overall needs of the office.
The typical inventory is all functional:

• Workstations- Good workstations are a real blessing to office furniture acquisition, particularly for big offices. Good, solid, high quality workstations with built-in drawers or supplied drawer cabinets are very good value.
• Office chairs- If you’re buying 100 chairs you’re entitled to be fussy. Look for high quality ergonomic chairs. Don’t get the cheap ones, they’re lethal. They’re basically OHS lawsuits on wheels. Anything ergonomic about the cheap chairs is largely accidental. Look for chairs with proper armrests and adjustable backs. They should look good and have good warranties.
• Office cabinets- The old “filing cabinets” have reinvented themselves and gone upmarket. They’re now used as high quality secure storage for those important hard copy documents and materials. A few of these can solve a lot of space problems.
• Desks- You can get excellent desks from office furniture suppliers, and save money while you’re at it. Set a figure for the desk(s) you need and shop around. You’ll get what you want, at a decent price from these suppliers. (While checking out the desks, also look for built-in desk features for computers, etc. Some of the new desks on the market are truly excellent organizers.)

Stage 2: Décor and design considerations

You may be surprised to learn that you can get a very good office suite with a great look far more easily than you’d suspect looking at catalogs. The trick is to match your office décor, flooring and furniture. There’s some new “visualization” software provided by upmarket carpet manufacturers which can help you do a full layout.
The usual problem for office décor is that commercial flooring tends to vary from the bland to the hideous, unless you know how to get the right flooring design. This software allows you to check out carpet designs against typical office layouts, and it’s extremely efficient. If you’re also looking for good carpet, it’s a godsend to office managers.
A typical “décor check” is basic but effective:

1. Check office flooring colors and designs.
2. Check office furniture for match with flooring.
3. It’s a Yes/No answer.

This is a good, very reliable disaster prevention strategy when you’re paying good money for your office layout. You can see what works and what doesn’t. When looking for carpets using this software you can also literally create your own designs. These are “digital carpets”, software based designs, and they’re brilliant for office managers who want that Class Act look for their business environment.
Get a good office furniture supplier and be as fussy as you like. You’ll definitely get what you want.

Hooker Furniture Offers New Collections

Hooker Furniture is a third-generation company and one of the few furniture firms today that is still led by a member of the founding family. Opening in the heart of furniture country in Martinsville, Virginia in 1924, Hooker Furniture has been making stylish, beautiful, well-made furniture which has propelled the company to become one of the nation's premier importers and manufacturers of furniture. Today, Hooker Furniture is a complete home furnishings resource that offers one of the greatest selections of quality home entertainment, home office, accent, dining and bedroom furniture, as well as leather and custom seating.
Never content on resting on their laurels, Hooker Furniture is consistently offering new and exciting collections based on the latest design trends. From the contemporary to the eclectic, these two great new collections from Hooker Furniture offer you two very different styles and is offered to you at great prices at Carolina Rustica.

Felton Collection

 

The new Felton Collection by Hooker Furniture brings a softer, warmer life to the contemporary style by blending soft shapes with strong vertical design elements, concave case fronts, chrome hardware and a warm finish on walnut veneers.
These contrasting motifs come together harmoniously to create the unique design of the Felton collection of bedroom, dining, home office and entertainment furniture. Chrome hardware in a circle-within-a-square shape and concave cases are signature elements for Felton, which may be the most contemporary collection in Hooker Furniture's recent history. Chrome hardware in a circle-within-a-square shape and concave cases are signature design elements for Felton. Sophisticated but down-to-earth, Felton promises quality, comfort and style to welcome you home time and again.

Mélange Accents Inspire Owners to Be Creative

 

Transcend time and trends with one-of-a-kind furnishings. Unexpected pieces in unexpected places tell a personal story. Come closer to Mélange, and you will discover something unexpected, something far more than a 40-piece accent furniture collection. An eclectic blending of colors, textures and materials in a vibrant collection of one-of-a-kind artistic pieces, Mélange is meant to inspire you and fuel an experience of self-discovery. Mélange is a collection of artistic pieces, each with its own story. The product mix centers on three specific design themes:

• Modern/Classic - Refined, Sophisticated and Sleek
• Pretty/Feminine – Elegant, Graceful and Charming
• Eclectic/ Multicultural – Dramatic, Whimsical and Bold.

The themes provide a venue of expression meant to help the shopper identify and define their own individual style. While each piece stands on its own independently and clearly represents one of the distinct design themes, all the pieces have the capacity to mix seamlessly together for a shopping experience to delight the senses, intrigue the mind and touch the heart.

Wood Furniture Construction Basics by Stanley Furniture

Every once in awhile, we find some great advice or nugget of information from our suppliers that we like to share.  Here is some great basic information from our friends at Stanley Furniture, regarding wood furniture construction.   We have found that, while these terms are thrown around a lot by salespeople, there is an assumption that we all understand what the terms actually mean.   Stanley explains it all with some helpful diagrams, and of course, you can find all of this information on their website From Stanley Furniture: Construction: Since wood is sensitive to heat and humidity, floating joints must allow for expansion and contraction. For the same reason, all joints are not only glued but are held by glue and nail. Joinery Floating joint systems allow wood to expand and contract with humidity. All joints are glued and nailed. Mortise and Tenon Two pieces of wood are joined at right angles. One is a rail and another is a post, or solid end panel. Rail ends are prepared on a tenoner, or cut to fit a socket, usually square, that has been cut into the post or panel. The joint is glued. Dovetail Dovetail joints tightly interlock, creating a sturdy connection. Woods with minimal expansion characteristics generally are used for dovetail joints. Miter Used frequently on bonded case and tabletops, miter joints connect pieces of wood with glue, reinforced by hidden wood or metal wedges, or by wood dowels. Dowel This joint performs a function similar to the mortise and tenon. It uses a wood or composition peg that fits into borings to join the two pieces of wood. Tongue and Groove The joint is so deftly constructed that it is barely noticed by the untrained eye. These are generally used as corner blocks for chair seat frames. Solid versus Veneer The term “solid” as used in the furniture industry may be confusing because both types of processes - solid and veneered - are of solid wood construction. Solid Wood Furniture describes furniture with drawer fronts, tops, panels and other like surfaces made of whole wood, or of one piece, without plies of veneer. Composed of narrow solid wood planks, bonded permanently together, side by side. These planks serve to prevent splitting and warping when temperatures change and when the wood naturally expands and contracts. They also provide decorative variation. Veneered Wood Furniture layers of woods are permanently bonded to a center core on a solid wood frame. Veneering permits matching and repeating grain patterns that are impossible in solid lumber. Veneering is used in about 80 percent of wood furniture, from the least to the most expensive, because of its strength and added versatility. Stanley Furniture Craftsmanship Here are some of the hallmarks of Stanley Furniture craftsmanship: Mortise and tenon joints Heavy-duty center drawer guides Drawers dovetailed front and back Durable dust panels between drawers Durable drawer bottoms held rigidly in grooves Strong case backs recessed into end Well mounted top and sides We are excited about carrying Stanley Furniture!  Give us a call at 704-788-3952 or visit our two showrooms here in Concord and we will be happy to show you the diverse collections and styles from this outstanding manufacturer.