The Benefits of Sunbrella Upholstery Fabric and How To Care For It

Choosing Sunbrella fabrics for your commercial outdoor furniture is a decision you will never regret.

 

The benefits of Sunbrella upholstery fabric are many, but here are the main highlights:

The Beverly Hills Hotel: A Restrospective

"A company with no history may be one with no future."

In this age of recession, where an estimated 660,900 businesses closed their doors in 2009 alone, we at Contract Furniture Company are humbled by and proud of our continued success. 

This year as we celebrate our 10th anniversary, we decided to take a look back at one of our most notable clients - The Beverly Hills Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. In December of 1992 the landmark hotel closed for a complete renovation. The project lasted two and a half years, with the hotel reopening in June of 1995. We were a part of these site improvements, providing arm chairs, chaise lounge cushions, umbrellas, and umbrella bases.

The following is excerpted from a Los Angeles Times Magazine article entitled The Cabana King, by Martin Booe. We hope you enjoy the blast from the past.

The New Year Brings New Commercial Restaurant Furniture To Our Site

Contract Furniture Company is pleased to announce some new additions to our website.

 

Aluminum Patio - Restaurant Furniture

Jupiter Arm Chair

Jupiter Side Chair

Jupiter II Arm Chair

Lauderdale Arm Chair

Lauderdale Side Chair

Miami Arm Chair

Miami Bar Stool

Miami Table

Outdoor Wicker Restaurant Furniture

Savannah Arm Chair

Seattle Arm Chair

Seattle Side Chair

Seattle Bar Stool

City Center on 6th - Koreatown, Los Angeles, CA.

Just a quick note of thanks to the people over at City Center on 6th in Los Angeles, for sharing their installation photos with us.

Shown: Maya side chair and 200 Series table base

 

Shown: Aluminum market umbrella and Cambi table

 

You can view additional photos on our Pinterest page:

Caribe Resort - Orange Beach, Alabama

When your thoughts turn to getting away from it all, a place to consider is the Caribe Resort in Orange Beach, AL.

The blue waters of the Caribe resort pool, and our Bahia chaise lounge.

The resort is family-friendly!

We appreciate the opportunity to provide the resort with our commercial chaise lounges - and we're pleased that they chose to add the chaise lounge cushions with hood to ensure their guests' maximum comfort.

Five Reasons Why We Love Live Chat

As of November 2012, we now have a Live Chat option on our website, www.ContractFurniture.com

These are the reasons that we love it:

1. There's no better way to make a customer feel attended to than to answer their questions on the spot. We can also provide links to products, guiding them through our site to the most appropriate furniture for their needs.

2. With our chat analytics it's easy to see the city, state, and country of every visitor to the site, as well as their landing page and even the search engine they used to find us.

3. A favorite tool of mine on the Live Chat operators' screen is the keyword information - whatever words/phrases the site visitor entered into a search engine to find us are shown, and can be used to better understand our clientele and their needs.

4. We can look at an individual's navigation through our website, allowing us to see what products they're interested in and what page they exited the site from. We also know if someone has visited our site before, which is handy for number five ...

5. Visitor's to our site can be invited to chat. There are a number of reasons why we'd want to do this: 

• They've visited before and have looked at the same products - therefore, maybe they have questions.
• A person has navigated through many of our site pages, and we want to help them narrow down their search, if needed.
• Someone we've chatted with before has returned and we want to offer a follow-up chat.

Moral of the story: Don't underestimate the power of the Live Chat feature - it's so versatile and such a rich source of information that it's well worth the investment.

Do you use Live Chat on your website? 

What do you love about it?

Holiday Shopping Trend 2012 - #trendalert

According to MarketPilgrim, this year's holiday shoppers will rely more than ever on both home computers and mobile devices to complete their shopping.

MarketPilgrim Infographics - October 2012

It seems like a good time to begin Pay-Per-Click ads, invest in SEO, and try to utilize social media for word of mouth sales. Another great tool is to have a Live Chat feature available for potential customers. Have your staff readily available to answer customer questions, guide their purchases, and provide any information they might need.

Contract Furniture Company has begun utilizing a Live Chat feature that's powered by Comm100. We liked that they gave us a 15-day Free Trial without requiring a credit card number.

Barbados Turf Club - Bridgetown Barbados, West Indies

Joining us today is the Barbados Turf Club, a premier place for horse racing in Bridgetown, Barbados.

We'd like to extend our thanks for the lovely photos! 

 

Featured Products From This Installation Include:

• Holsag Remy bar stool
• Holsag Remy side chair
• Bulldog backless bar stool
• Planked beechwood indoor table tops
• Cast iron round indoor table base

Installation Photos from Orinda, CA

This business office exterior is made more inviting by the addition of wrought iron furnishings and aluminum market umbrellas. 

Featured Products Include: 

• Balero lowback and highback chairs
• Mesh top dining tables
• Aluminum frame market umbrellas
• 70-pound cast iron Promenade umbrella base

Angeles National Golf Club Agave Bar & Grill - Sunland, CA.

A heartfelt "thank you" to the Agave Bar & Grill for providing these beautiful installation photos.

The chairs and bar stools shown above can be found in our European Beech Wood Furniture - Showroom 2 collection.

Fresh Corn Grill - Westwood and West Hollywood Locations

Contract Furniture Company recently teamed up with Fresh Corn Grill to outfit their two California locations - West Hollywood and Westwood.

Noteworthy furnishings include:

• Antique Pine Table Tops 
• RV208 Side Chair with Bonded Leather Seat
• 9-foot Cafe Market Umbrella
• Metro Side Chair
• Teak Table Tops

Pizzeria il Fico - Los Angeles, CA.

We wanted to announce that installation photos from Pizzeria il Fico are now on our Facebook and Pinterest pages.

The outdoor dining area of Pizzeria il Fico features our Solo Collection table tops and Classic folding table bases. It's a great place to go to enjoy the Los Angeles night life. Follow the link to their website and make an online reservation, or simply drop by for a memorable meal.

Cosmopolitan Sky Lounge - Allentown, PA

We would like to thank the Cosmopolitan Sky Lounge for providing installation photos!

Relax and have a drink with friends at this luxurious rooftop location in Allentown, PA. Outdoor woven wicker lounge seating with Sunbrella fabric cushions is the height of comfort and style. This open-air rooftop lounge features two bars, specialty drinks, delectable dishes and breathtaking views of the beautiful Lehigh Valley landscape. 

Outdoor Wicker Lounge Furniture at Contract Furniture Company

Saddleback College, Fine Arts Complex - Mission Viejo, California

Huge thanks to our friends at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, CA. !

We are pleased to announce that installation photos for this college are now ready to view on our Facebook and Pinterest pages.

Wrought iron chairs, tables, and benches offer a place to sit and relax on campus, while the patio umbrellas offer protection from the elements. Saddleback College has a top-notch Fine Arts program including music, theatre, and dance. Click here for more information on current productions and events.

Wrought Iron European Furniture at Contract Furniture Company

"Made In America" Making A Comeback!

In an article entitled, "What is 'Made In America' Worth?", Inc.com staff writer Eric Schurenberg makes the following points:

• The label still has far more international cachet than Americans are likely to give it credit for. Even in the United States, buyers have proven that they'll pay considerably more for some kinds of American-made goods--simply because they expect them to be a better value.

• Simon Anholt is a British branding consultant and creator of the Anholt-GfK Roper Nation Brands Index, which measures a nation's international reputation. In the market-research company's most recent survey, released in late October, the U.S. ranked first - for the fourth year in a row.
  
• Forced to compete with companies that benefit from lower labor costs overseas, American manufacturers have invested heavily in advanced plants. That tends to provide an edge in manufacturing precision and flexibility.

• Contrary to the thrust of much election-season advertising, America's reputation seems to be improving, not receding. In the Nation Brand Index, the United States was the only nation among the top 10 to improve its standing. A lot of this has to do with the American economy. While the United States has emerged sluggishly from the 2008 financial crisis, its recovery is firmly established, and is now more than three years old. The U.S. faces nothing like the 25% unemployment of Spain or the shrinking GDPs of most European nations.

At Contract Furniture Company, many of our commercial furnishings are Made In America and are also Eco-Friendly.

Palos Verdes Golf Club - Palos Verdes Estates, CA

We'd like to extend our thanks ...

... to Palos Verdes Golf Club, for providing beautiful installation photos to us. The wrought iron patio furniture and market umbrellas they chose make their outdoor space welcoming and comfortable after 18 holes in the California sunshine.

Wrought Iron Designer Patio Furniture at Contract Furniture Company