This is not a beer advertisement. This is a case study for some upholstery we just completed for BCIT's Student Association building. What business does a luxury furnishings company have making seating for a huge public institution...? Quality and value plain and simple. We have been succesfully engineering foam seating for over ten years and have turned the practice of laminating foam to an art and as a result are able to design and fabricate seating that is not only ultimately comfortable but incredibly hard wearing too. This was what BCIT requires for all their seating. They understand that doing something once... properly saves them THOUSANDS of dollars in the long run, so they call in the expert. :)
So the project entailed about 300 upholstered units in two fabrics from Maharam's contract line. We specified these fabrics based on their high abrasion rating and the smart and sassy colour scheme! They were an instant hit!
Stacey was busy arranging the sewn covers into sets, this in itself was a monumental task. Categorizing the covers and keeping them organized was paramount to the success of this project.
My job was to take the covers that Anna sewed, and Stacey organized and upholster them onto the new foam units. The entire project was engineered to work in sequence and the upholstery went together like clockwork, with every single piece being exactly identical. You can see the units uncovered to the right, these consisted of a plywood base and a 3 foam multilam, which will wear in amazingly well with the daily use these will receive, and are designed to last a minimum of 17 years with heavy daily use.
I was faking my happiness, at this point in the project I had upholstered about 200 seats and my hands were so calloused and bruised I had to keep them iced... mostly with a cold beer, always Phillips usually Blue Buck or Slipstream Cream Ale.
***Allow me a shameless plug here... Phillips Beer on Vancouver Island (Victoria) makes some of the best beer in the world and is THE OFFICIAL beer of Ravi Design. I am definitely going to visit them next time I am in Victoria. Although after this post hits the air waves they may have to relocate in to larger premises... ahem.***
Look at the growing mountain behind me... we had NO space left in the shop by the time this order was done!
Ahhh delivery day! Here Anna is arranging the massive bundles! Anna is pretty much a one woman show, I just show up to make sure she is fed and happy.
Stacey and Anna were sorting the seats out, you can see the frames to the left! A big undertaking no doubt!
Stacey and I had just returned from our third coffee break, Anna was taking her time, but she was indeed almost done assembly... what a trooper! And she didn't even want a coffee!
This gives you an idea of just how badly these pieces needed to be covered. You can see our new modern version on the left and the originals on the right. Can you believe that some students actually preferred the look of the old ones? Those students were probably studying Economics or something.
At the end of the first day of install we had most of the seating changed over....
All done! Look at these students, they are lounging in the lounge in such comfort and looking good doing it!
I am so proud that we were able to pull this project off ahead of schedule and on budget to a higher level of finish than was expected of us. This project highlights our incredible versatility, the flexibility of our workroom and our dedication to quality and value. I am so very proud of all of our hard work!
:)