A Duet of Unique New Parsons Chairs
Posted by Brad | Filed under news, parsons chairs
I just wanted to make a quick post to let everyone know about a couple of new styles we just rolled out. The first is called the Elizabeth Parsons Chair. It has a distinctive "crown back" that definitely makes it stand out from the crowd.
We've also introduced a customer inspired design. The Bordeaux Parsons Chair has a traditional kick-pleat skirt accented by button tabs at each corner. The contrasting fabric used for the buttons and the welt running around the seat and back is a real crowd pleaser for everyone that has seen it.
Look forward to more updates in the near future. We have some big announcements coming out in the next few months that I think everyone will be excited about.
Killer Deals on New Dining Chairs in Our Outlet
Posted by Brad | Filed under outlet, dining chairs, parsons chairs
We've been clearing out our stock of photo samples, discontinued fabrics and new in-box dining chairs, parsons chairs and benches. There are some really great deals to be had. With a large variety of styles and colors, you should be able to find something that matches your decor and tastes.
Outlet items are limited in quantity, but they are perfect for accent pieces. Several chair styles have 6 or more available, so in many instances an entire dining room could be be outfitted at a bargain price.
Best of all--furniture in the outlet is new and unused. It may have ended up there because it was used as a photo sample or because an order was canceled before it shipped. In any case it is a win-win for you. You'll get quality furniture and save even more.
Visit the Carrington Court Direct Outlet today!
New Dining Chairs and Fabrics Galore
Posted by Brad | Filed under news, fabric, dining chairs
We're starting May off the right way. We've rolled out three all new dining chair styles and 9 new fabrics. My favorite addition has to be the Victoria Dining Chair. This is one of those chairs that is so distinctive that you'd think it would cost hundreds of dollars more and you'll certainly be the only person on your block with this style.
New fabrics include Monica, Maggie and Sonya. Both Monica and Maggie are offered in 3 different colors. Our aspiration is to give you a choice between the latest color trends and fabrics that have a lot of utility so you can use just about anywhere.
Monica Indigo (3 colors)
Maggie Flame (3 colors)
Space does not permit me to show you everything we've added, but check out the News Page on our site to see the other two dining chairs (Jackson Skirted Dining Chair & Columbia Dining Chair) as well as all the other new fabrics we've added. Look for more to come!
March Madness - Flurry of New Dining Chairs and Fabrics Introduced
Posted by Brad | Filed under news, dining chairs
March was a hectic month. We were busy getting all the Easter orders out, but we also managed to roll out 5 new dining chairs. Two of the chairs were entirely new designs.
The Columbia Chair introduces a broad shouldered tufted back, while the Jackson Dining Chair features an all new short, pleated skirt. Both styles are really unique and are probably something that you won't see every day. We also made some modifications to existing styles. Most of these were brought about by customer request, so please keep letting us know what you want.
These three chairs offer new variations on existing styles. The Westminster King Chair adds nailhead trim, the split camel back and ball-and-claw legs to our traditional king chair offering. The Norwalk Parsons Wing Chair takes our hot selling Greenwich Chair and adds a nailhead option. Finally, the Hudson Dining Chair is a variation of our Button Back Dining Chair adding inset nailhead trim on the back.
I always point this out in my blog posts, but I can't do enough to emphasize that our goal is to give you choice. While there is no way that we can ever put up every combination possible, but you do have the power to make change. If see a chair that you love, but would rather have it with nailhead trim--just call and ask. If you would rather have a camel back on a style rather than a rolled back it can be done. We may not be able to offer these options online, but we're just a phone call away and we'll be more than happy to help you get exactly what you want.
A Perfect Union - Matched Dining Chairs and Counter Stools
Posted by Brad | Filed under dining chairs, bar stools
I just wanted to make a quick post to show how great a matching set of dining chairs and counter stools looks. Below is a picture from a custom order that we recently did. Neither style is pictured on our site, but most everything we make can be customized. The customer went with counter height stools and dining chairs with tapered legs, both with camel backs and nailhead trim. We were also able to find an off-white leather for her.
The finished result looked great and this is a terrific example of what we can do if you just ask. Often we can change a back or leg style at very little or no extra cost. So if you're interested in a tweak to a chair you see on our site, call us or shoot us an email and more than likely we'll be able to fulfill your request.
Customer Creation: Box-Pleat Beauty
Posted by Brad | Filed under wing chairs, decorating, dining chairs
We frequently have customers that like to take one of our styles and make it their own. It's something that we encourage. As I was going through the inspection area the other day this pair of chairs caught my eye.
The first thing that popped into my head was that it was a terrific idea to use small wing chairs at the end of a table with complementary, but stylistically different side chairs. As I pulled them aside to get a better look I noticed that neither chair is a standard style that we make. The side chairs are based upon the Rolled Back Dining Chair with Half Skirt. However there are a lot of small changes that really make it a totally new chair. First of all it has a camel back instead of the rolled style. It also keeps the short skirt, revealing the finished legs but the skirt is a box-pleat as an alternative to the kick-pleat skirt. Finally, the tapered legs of the original style have been replaced with Chippendale type.
The end chairs get a similar treatment. Once again the customer started with a Danbury Parsons Wing Chair, but requested some alterations. The Crescent back of the Danbury was substituted for a camel back and the kick-pleat skirt was replaced with a box-pleat for a perfect match of the side chairs.
While there is no way for us to allow this level of customization on our web site, we encourage you to call us with any changes you'd like to make. In most cases we can accommodate the request. Call one of our design consultants (828.396.1049) for more information or to get a quote.
Our Top 5 Resolutions for the New Year
Posted by Brad | Filed under news
Quite a few people set resolutions for the New Year. I'm one of them. Resolutions shouldn't just be for people--they can be a great motivator for companies as well. Businesses that want to keep their doors open should always set goals, but resolutions are a little different. Goals are often concrete: loose 10 pounds, save $5000 or increase profits 7%. Resolutions on the other hand can be measurable, but are often more open-ended steering you in a new direction that may not have a measurable result. You tend to see resolutions like: loose weight, be kind to strangers or exercise more.Towards the end of every year I set goals for the upcoming year. This year I made a separate list of resolutions and since most all of them directly involve our customers I thought I might as well share them.
- Offer a wider variety of home furnishings. We have great customers and I get a lot of letters from them letting me know how happy they are with their purchase. Unfortunately, once they have their dining chairs we really don't have a lot of other furniture to offer. I get people telling me that they would buy just about anything that we would make and I want to give them the opportunity.
- Communicate better. We do a pretty good job now especially pre-sale and during shipping. Where I see room for improvement is post-sale. We need to do a better job following up to ensure the customer is happy. I'd also extend this to sending out emails to customers (that opt-in) about new products that are in the pipeline. I also want to blog more. I've been lax about this lately, especially considering all the great stuff that our customers are doing.
- Ask customers what they want. Most businesses have products that they offer customers. I think this is the wrong way to go about this. We want to make what you want, so you don't have to make compromises in your decorating.
- Make our web site more customer-centered. I personally think that we have a great site, but nothing is perfect. I want to customers to have the information at hand when they need it. This is a hard thing to do because you can overload people with too much. The best way to deal with this is showing the customer information based on where they are in the buying process.
- Offer customers a voice through services such as Facebook, Twitter and Flickr. Our customers have great things to say and they often want to share their experiences or show what they have done. Social networking is the best way to do this and we are going to commit a lot of energy to it. It also opens us up to criticism, but it also keeps us honest and our feet to the fire.
I hope this gives you some kind of idea what we are looking to do in 2010. As I've already mentioned, our business revolves around you and we want to hear what you want. Feel free to leave a comment here or send me an email at brad@carringtoncourtdirect.com.
Have a great 2010!
Brad Haas
President Carrington Court Direct
It's Crunch Time - A Look At Fulfilling Christmas Orders
Posted by Brad | Filed under fabric, Christmas, shipping
The holiday season is always our busiest time of year. A good portion of our business comes between September and December. Building furniture is a complicated matter, especially when you have dozens of styles and over 200 fabrics. We can only really make an educated guess as to what particular combinations will be popular. One of the key aspects that we focus on is making sure we don't promise something that we cannot deliver and as the Christmas approaches this can become next to impossible.
You'd think in this day and age that computers could automate much of this, but as we've learned over the years that only human ingenuity will do. Luckily, the staff at Carrington Court have become experts in what I like to call "fire fighting." Most customers will never know the lengths that these people go through to get their orders to them on time. I'm truly grateful that we have people that will go the extra mile.
Most of what we face has very little to do with production (the actual building of furniture). With the necessary materials on hand we can get most orders built in a day or two. What causes us the most headaches is ensuring we have all the pieces. Consider this: we have many different styles of frames and our fabrics come from over a half dozen manufacturers. Add to this the vagaries of shipping and it is pretty easy to see where things can fall apart.
Our number one hurdle is usually fabric. We try to keep everything in stock, but in reality this is very hard to do. There are often long lead times and there are inevitable gaps where we run out of fabric while waiting for the next roll to arrive. Over the last few years the textile industry in the U.S. has suffered tremendously. I can't tell you how many times we get an shipping date on a fabric that gets pushed back and then pushed back again, only to get a notification that the mill has decided to drop it.
At the same time we have a customer patiently waiting for their order, anxiously looking forward to having family or friends over for the holidays. So how do we handle this type of situation? We have to beg, borrow or barter.
To be honest we put a lot of pressure on the mills. It's not like we are a multibillion dollar giant that has a lot of sway, but the squeaky wheel gets the oil. If we exhaust our options with the mill, we try to find other manufacturers that may have ordered the same fabric and try to buy it from them. This takes a lot of leg work, but it is something that we occasionally do. If we hit another dead end, the next step is scouring through retail fabric shops trying to find anything we can. This is something that we don't particularly like to do. It is very time intensive and paying retail prices for fabric will pretty much kill any profit from an order. Our final option is to call the customer and try to move them into another fabric. Once at this step we've often discovered fabrics that are similar to the one ordered and nine times out of ten this is something that the customer has no problems with.
The other problem we run into with holiday deadlines is shipping. We ship by many different sources including FedEx, common carriers and home delivery services. We pick the the fastest, most affordable way to get a particular type of furniture to you. FedEx Home Delivery is often the fastest route and we can reliably estimate the arrival date. Unfortunately, anything larger than a standard sized parsons chair or dining chair is too big to ship. The weather can play havoc on FedEx. A snow storm can delay a shipment a day or two and at Christmastime this may be a day too long. Home delivery services are frequently used for oversize items or very large orders. These services have a longer transit time than FedEx and we can never be sure exactly when a truck will be in a customers area.
The closer we come to Christmas, the more we must focus on shipping. When using FedEx, we always build in a day or two extra time in transit just in case there is a delay. With home delivery services we work closely with the shipper to ensure that the customers order gets on a truck in time to be delivered. Frequently this means one of our employees loading up their SUV or pick-up and rushing down to the shipping company to get on the "last truck out." One other option that we use is common carriers. They are fast like FedEx, but only offer curbside service, unlike a home delivery company. Using a common carrier takes a lot of research. You have to find one that actually ships to an area where the customer lives. In addition not all do residential deliveries. On top of that, pricing a transit times vary greatly.
Carrington Court has been selling directly to the public from our website since 1997 (in business since 1984). With each passing year we get better at this complicated ballet. While no year goes off without a hitch, we will continue to do everything possible to make our customers experience as smooth as possible. I know that some may not be interested in knowing what goes on behind the scenes, but I just wanted to take the time to acknowledge and thank all of our team for their hard work.
Holiday Slipcovers - Decorate More Than Your Tree This Season
Posted by Brad | Filed under Christmas, Thanksgiving, slipcovers
I have to admit this is my favorite time of year. There's nothing better than the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Parades, parties and getting together with family. One thing I always look forward to is putting up the holiday decorations. It's even more special now that I have kids.
September through the end of the year is the busiest time at Carrington Court. Everyone's ordering new furniture in time for the inevitable get-togethers that happen in November and December. It is essentially a part of the holiday decorating process. Let's face it--these holidays are focused around eating, so your dining room will be the one place that receives the most attention from family and friends. We put a lot of thought into ways that we could make your dining experience more festive and we came up with a line of holiday specific slipcovers.
Nicholas Holiday Slipcover
Slipcovers turn out to be a very good fit (no pun intended) for this time of year. First of all, they allow you to give your dining room a more festive look without being stuck with it year round. You put them on in November and take them off in January. Slipcovers also offer protection to the chairs underneath. Cranberries and gravy tend to be less ominous when in the worst case scenario you end up replacing a slipcover rather than an entire chair. Finally, slipcovers are an option for those who purchased chairs in the past that are still perfectly good but would like to change up the look.
This Christmas we are offering two very similar styles with one major difference. Both slipcovers have a simple, pleated skirt and are offered in a festive red fabric with gold accents. The only difference: the Noel Slipcover features a screen printed wreath on the back and the Nicholas Slipcover does not.
These slipcovers are available for most side chairs in our line. We are excited about offering something especially for the holidays. In the future we are considering adding more seasonal pieces throughout the year, so keep an eye on this space for more announcements. As always, if you have any questions about purchasing slipcovers, feel free to call us (828.396.1049) or send email to info@carringtoncourtdirect.com.
Happy Holidays!
Some Modern Additions
Posted by Brad | Filed under news, dining chairs
One thing we are working on is to offer more selection in our line. Although we have some contemporary designs, we've tended to lean toward more traditional styles. This is not to say that you could not get a modern feel from a traditional chair. Just by selecting the right fabric a chair could look either traditional or contemporary. For example, a dining chair with a toile on it would look very different than one with bold colors and geometric shapes.
Several customers have suggested styles they would like to see and these week introduced two new chairs with a nod to the modern. The first is the Modesto Dining Chair. It is really a departure from our past products. The flared, concave back sets this one apart from the rest of our line.
The other new chair (Fresno Dining Chair) has many of the great features of contemporary designs. It is very symmetrical with a short back and crisp lines. The linear layout is broken by a single large button on the in-back. I really love the look of this chair. I'm not sure what it is, but I'm reminded of a freshly pressed pair of pants with its nice, straight creases.
Of course, we will be introducing even more news styles in the future. As always we want to here from you with any suggestions.