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A Solitary Industry, Reupholsterers Find Comfort in Technology & Community
The daunting COVID-19 restrictions of social distancing and shelter-at-home have put immense pressure on businesses across the country. Musicians are playing concerts at home, veterinarians are providing TeleVet mobile appointments, and restaurants are offering modified food and cocktail menus for pick-up or delivery. Not all services, however, require high customer interaction–like reupholstering furniture. This ancient craft tends to be tucked away in basements or busy workrooms. So how is this behind-the-scenes industry coming to terms with the crisis? By harnessing technology, like everyone else. The first ever Upholstery Community Meeting was held on March 25, 2020. Hosted by the National Upholstery Association (NUA), around 40 upholsterers from across the country…
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Let’s Begin at the End, Market That Is
Lucy and I passed 7 trees on one walk last week. The city offers a free tree pickup service immediately following the holidays. There are some simple rules to follow: no stands, no decorations, no (fake) snow. (They’re also supposed to be cut into small chunks, but few seemed to get that memo.) This makes it easy for the waste haulers to send the trees to the compost pile, not the landfill. They break down, new soil is born. Trees have an end market: a place to go to recapture their value. Most furniture comes from wood, from trees. It’s treated and processed but its core is wood. Yet, wooden…
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Ikea Sets its Eyes on Reuse
Ikea wants you to forget everything you know. Despite being famous for flimsy product, it now believes the future is all about reuse. A huge global brand, Ikea has more than 422 stores in 50 markets and sells over 9,500 products. It is well known for its snappy furniture designs, massive stores, affordable prices, and DIY at-home assembly. It helped make ‘flat pack furniture,’ something commonly known for its mass production and low quality, irresistible to young consumers. IKEA shoppers dominate the mid-20s-mid 30s demographic. Though IKEA bristles at being considered disposable, it is now calling attention to its need to ‘close the loop.’ Modern speak for recapturing product–often headed…
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Comfort for the Unsheltered
I met D as he was pushing this cart of furniture down the street. He found them at the DMV. “They were just left there,” he said. D was in transit to his tent in Mosswood park, a large homeless encampment just two blocks away. An abandoned stroller by the car wash caused him to stop. The cart wasn’t working well. We spoke as we unloaded and reloaded the entertainment center and chair from the cart to the stroller. D told me that he’s lost 5 tents to rats at Mosswood park. It’s inundated with rats, he said. Oakland’s unsheltered population recently earned national attention by @nytimes in a powerful…
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Who Feeds on a Couch Carcass?
If this was an animal carcass, what would we think? First, that it’s a food source for other members of the local ecosystem. So we would expect scavengers to come and feast. We know that bacteria will help break down what remained, which would feed the soil, among other important activities. Looking closer, we know the bone structure would reveal how it adapted to its environment, the place it called home. In short, we’d get a tiny window into a moment in time that is part of a huge continuous evolutionary cycle. It may sound gruesome, but decomposition is a critical component to maintaining life on Earth. But, this is…
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Will Wins!
Will drove past this bookshelf on his way home from the laundromat. Instantly recognizing its good condition, he pulled over to take a closer look. His partner was in need of one, he told me, and he liked its look and heft. We shared our amazement of how much freely available, good quality furniture peppered our streets. I told him I saw a skinny black bookshelf earlier that morning just up the hill, if he needed another. Moments later we had it loaded into the bed of his truck, and a used bookshelf was on its way to a new home. Local sharing for the win. #savedfromthelandfill #climatevictory
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Rico’s Chair
The people behind the chairs on the curb can be hard to track down, but I got lucky yesterday. As I stopped to photograph this piece, Rico, as in Puerto Rico, he told me, asked if I was looking for a chair. He stopped sweeping the sidewalk and came to show me how it popped out into a twin bed. He said he was letting this one go because he had too many chairs. I complimented the green and yellow art on the inside arm. “It’s Russian,” he said, eyes twinkling. Though he seemed to be offering the chair to anyone who stopped to look, he said a woman who…
