Creating a custom component to your upholstery business

The custom furniture market provides an additional outlet for upholsterers to expand business opportunities in a tough economy.

Upholstery Journal | February 2009

by Holly O’Dell

Upholsterers who want to stay relevant in today’s economy and market often seek out opportunities to diversify their business.

One area in which some upholsterers are carving out a niche is custom furniture. Though not without its challenges, this segment can open doors for new customers while showcasing the capabilities of the trade to a high-end clientele—the population most likely to invest in a customized piece. “Upholsterers can offer a skill-driven service that gives customers what they need but will not find in furniture stores,” says Glenn McAllister, president of Fortner Inc. in Columbus, Ohio.

“When you start to build custom furniture, it’s an opportunity for an upholsterer to make more profits from their labor,” adds Mark Weller, owner of Sterling Upholstery Co. in Moscow, Pa. “There’s always a chance to do something custom or to talk someone into doing something custom. But it does take a little more effort and education.”

For upholsterers interested in pursuing the custom furniture business, we outline the opportunities this segment affords, the fabric considerations involved with designing one-of-a-kind pieces, potential roadblocks and how to market your capabilities in a rough economic climate.

Opportunities abound

Consumers who want to distinguish their homes with custom upholstered furnishings are willing to spend the money to achieve their goals. They want an exclusive piece that rivals any mass-produced furnishing on the market. In turn, experienced upholsterers can market their talents and services to customers who will pay for distinctiveness and quality. By nature, custom furniture runs the gamut, but certain types of furniture remain constant. Sofas and chairs, particularly for the living room, are perennially popular choices for customization, as are formal dining room chairs. Weller reports that he receives the most requests for ottomans and ottoman coffee tables, and he occasionally builds benches for the foot of the bed. Additionally, consumers are seeking exclusively designed headboards. “We are seeing more upholstered headboards in the bedroom than we’re used to,” says Marcella Woitte, market specialist for home décor at J. Ennis Fabrics in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. “People want to make the space more of their sanctuary.”

McAllister, meanwhile, has seen increased demand for pieces in recreational areas of the home. “Rec rooms, media rooms and kitchens dominate the custom work we do,” he notes. Then, of course, there are those customized pieces designed to make a statement in a specific part of the home, thanks to their style, size and overall originality. “We see a demand for traditional furniture styles that are made to fit,” McAllister says. “The client may want an over- or undersized piece to go in a certain space.”

But an upholsterer need not build an entirely new piece of furniture to be considered an expert in customization. Repurposing or customizing existing pieces can be just as effective in giving customers the feeling of exclusivity in their furnishings. “Many people have great sofas and chairs in good condition that have sentimental value, but they don’t match their décor anymore,” Woitte says. “These items are now being redesigned for customers who can still have grandpa’s chair but with a new style.”

Adds Weller, “Customers will completely change the look of a sofa, for example. It may have square arms and a square back, and I’ll put on larger rolled arms or take the skirts off of the piece and install bun feet on it. I would say projects like these, where you’re customizing an existing piece of furniture, are done more often than building a custom piece.”

And, as with any customer-pleasing project, custom furniture can open the doors for repeat business. Weller cites one client for whom he had created a round 48-inch tufted ottoman with a skirt around it four years ago. “She now wants to go to a square ottoman without tufting, just a smooth surface on the top,” he says. “Higher-end clientele change with all the trends. Whereas an average client changes their decorating every 10 to 15 years, the high-end customer does that every three to five. We laugh about it in the shop, but thank God they’re there.”

What’s more, today’s fabric choices make it easier than ever to create a special piece of furniture. Burch Fabrics in Grand Rapids, Mich., employs textile designers who create original designs for the company’s imported fabrics. The company offers its customers more than 500 designs, with 35 to 40 new designs introduced every six months. “With custom furniture, you don’t want that common look,” says Joe Governal, senior vice president for Burch Fabrics. “Exclusive designs such as these fit well with custom furniture.”

From both an aesthetic and a performance aspect, “texture is still very important,” Woitte indicates. “We are seeing more color come back into the market, such as brown shades with a burst of color. By using natural dyes, we can make colors on these fabrics more in tune with nature. Large-scale patterns and black and white are very dynamic as well. ‘Green’ fabrics, like bamboo and organic and natural fibers, are also strong.”

In his custom work, McAllister will use many hospitality-style fabrics in high-use areas, such as kitchen banquettes or media rooms. Meanwhile, Weller indicates that leather and ultra-suedes are the top choices for residential applications, but no fabric is off limits. “We’re into the heavier chenilles right now and other heavy textured fabrics,” Weller says. “The whole traditional line of fabrics—the tapestries, the velvets, the damasks and the light screen-printed cottons—always seems to be in vogue for custom projects.

“Knowing current trends is a must,” Weller also notes. “I subscribe to a few [interior design] periodicals and magazines. Just walking around higher-end furniture stores can help a lot. You will see what good, customized furniture can cost so you don’t work cheaply.”

Custom concerns

With mastering the custom furniture market comes understanding its challenges. One of the biggest priorities facing upholsterers in this segment is meeting a customer’s demands—whether that client is an interior designer representing a home-owner or the homeowner herself. “Our goal is to turn a client’s vision into reality,” McAllister says. “However, this requires excellent communication between the customer and our team. Most customers do not realize the amount of detail that goes into a project, and I have to really listen to them to try and understand what they want. Many times we have several meetings, ‘test sits’ and conversations during the course of the work.”

Especially when upholsterers are working with an interior designer on behalf of a client, managing expectations becomes critical to a project’s outcome. Weller says he walks a fine line with interior designers. Successful collaborations may lead to additional projects, but Weller finds that these partnerships can sometimes complicate matters. “I work with a few that are professional, experienced and understand the market well,” he notes, “but most of them are coming at me from the point of getting it done the cheapest. And that’s just an oxymoron with custom work.

“Designers and decorators may have a concept of what they want to do but don’t understand the practical application,” Weller continues. “They want something built but they don’t have the understanding of depth or lumbars or standard sizes of heights or applicable fabrics. The guy doing the work ends up being responsible for the finished product, so I have to be in control of the situation.”

Regardless of the client, Weller notes, upholsterers need to attain the highest standard possible in order to produce the desired results. “If someone doesn’t just melt when they see the furniture, it’s a rejection in my book,” he says. “So that’s my challenge all the time, to make sure I maintain that level of acceptance. Every time you rip that saw across a piece of wood, that’s what you’re thinking about. No matter what, you have to be upfront and honest with your customer.”

Another potential challenge of the custom furniture market is viewing this segment as a primary source of revenue, rather than as a secondary one. “Custom work always becomes an interruption to your normal business, so you have to be prepared to put in a lot of extra time when doing a custom job,” says Weller, who considers custom projects as extracurricular work that serves as a creative outlet. “The bread and butter work has to be the mainstay of your business. It’s what pays your bills.”

Upholsterers can minimize some of the challenges of custom work by carefully bidding and developing a realistic timeline for a project. “Be realistic,” McAllister says about this process. “It takes time to get the job done right. Figure what you need and then allow a bit of extra time for the unanticipated challenges that will surely appear. Also, do the job right. Upholsterers need to keep our reputation as craftspeople.”

Before starting any custom work, Weller maps out the job in his head. He also prefers giving clients an estimated figure, rather than a firm bid. “One of the biggest challenges during the whole job is coming up with a cost that will make sense for everybody,” he says. “Most of the time I won’t give an exact bid. I will give customers a ballpark figure, and then make sure that I build in extra cost for things I didn’t think about or things that I want to do that are better than what I had originally thought about.”

Additionally, Weller recommends that upholsterers work out payment plans with their customers. For instance, on a $12,000 sofa that he recently developed, Weller requested four equal payments at various stages of the project. He also makes sure to charge handling fees when customers provide their own material. Getting compensated for the extra time involved in checking and handling fabric is a must.

Make yourself known

When it comes to promoting yourself as an upholsterer who specializes in custom furniture, consider these tactics to create some buzz:

Simply pick up the phone. “Upholsterers could begin to break into the market by actively calling on local design firms whose businesses are located around the upholsterer’s factory,” suggests Paul Wyckoff, vice president of sales for Ultrafabrics LLC.

Advertise where your audience will be engaged. Weller’s region is a popular place for vacation-home owners. “We have a lot of second-home folks here that vacation and visit our area, so I’ll jump on a bunch of restaurant place mats in the summer months,” he says. “They tend to eat out a lot when they’re here so I make sure they can find me. I’ve gotten some great jobs from a very inexpensive ad.”

Find a way to display your work publically. “We find that the upholsterers who do the best are the ones who get their finished product on display with their company name,” Woitte says. She recommends connecting with local design centers, showrooms and homebuilders, who can showcase an upholsterer’s product in a model home.

Work your connections—and don’t be afraid to be a little persistent. “There aren’t lots and lots of people looking for custom furniture, so finding them is not going to be easy,” McAllister notes. “We have gotten almost all of our work through the designers we work with. Even that, though, has been frustrating. Helping them understand—and remember—that we are an option for the unique or even simple custom work is something we work on.”

Weller makes himself known to sales people at high-end furniture stores. “I just walk in and introduce myself,” he says. “I give them a few business cards and offer my services. Most of their clients have furniture they would like to keep and fit in with their new purchases.”

Start a web site. And if you already have one, update it regularly. On his web site, Weller posts a variety of photos. Work-in-progress pictures help him communicate job progress with current customers, while images of past projects showcase his capabilities. He also finds value in posting before-and-after shots. “The customer will go to work the next day and show their friends and coworkers what can be done,” he says. “That gets everybody to my web site, and they discover that I do custom work. It’s an incredible advertising tool.”

Appropriately marketing yourself as a custom furniture designer and maker is even more important in the current economic climate. Some in the industry are divided on whether now is a good time to break into the market. “I would imagine that any upholsterer who is looking to grow their current business revenues would be foolish not to investigate the growing custom furniture marketplace,” Wyckoff says. “Unfortunately, those were my feelings prior to the past couple of months and the problems with the economy. Currently, I would be cautious before investing; however, now is the time to start the homework.”

Woitte believes that custom furniture opportunities do exist for upholsterers. “The economic climate is tight, but it also brings opportunities with people staying at home and making their spaces more important,” she says. “I think people are still looking for those individual pieces that can help personalize their home.”

“The economy is so uncertain right now that no one really knows what to expect,” McAllister acknowledges. “But the upholstering trade has been around and survived for a long time. We are taking a cautiously optimistic view of the future, and I’m sure that custom work will be part of the future of the trade.”

Holly O’Dell is a writer specializing in residential design. She lives in Pine City, Minn.

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