Advice On Designing A Furniture Line

In addition to being an interior designer, I am also a furniture designer. Recently, I was asked to participate in a panel discussion at the Decoration and Design Building in New York.

The discussion centered around designing your own furniture collection. But it also certainly applied to the process of developing a fabric collection, a lighting line, a carpet line, a bedding or sheeting collection or anything that requires the practical legal and aesthetic factors that involve creating a branded collection.

These days, every Tom, Dick and reality TV star seem to be pushing some product, be it clothing, paint colors or car cleaners. Being a celebrity does not a designer make. Trained designers have clear advantages both in their design aesthetic and in their experience.

Celebrities with “ghost” designers, working behind the scenes to develop product lines in their name notwithstanding, when you’re considering starting to design your own collection, how do you know if you are actually ready?

I started my first collection because I was an indefatigable shopper who would not stop until I found the perfect piece for my client. Despite my broad searches, I frequently ended up empty-handed and therefore pressed my vendors to create customized pieces.

Styles were changing quickly but upholstery was clumsy, or dowdy, or modern and cold. I had a strong vision of the right kind of proportions, finishes and comfort levels I felt people were asking for and the current architecture was demanding.

I needed, at the time, transitional furnishings that melded modern trends with the comfort and classic proportions of the past. I had exhausted the market searching for simple, well designed items—for example, a dining banquette or a small but ample side table to sit by a king-size bed that would hold up to the bed’s mass.

Corner fireplaces were being constructed that caused a unique problem: how do you find furniture to place around it yet see the fire at the same time? And where were the smaller dining chairs one could place around a small table; dining chairs that were not only comfortable, but also beautiful and whose backs grabbed your attention?

You know you’re ready to design a collection when you see a distinct hole in the market and have a distinct vision to fill it.

On the panel, we were asked to answer the question “What are the beginners’ mistakes to avoid?” when designing a collection.

In general, of course, it is best to know your field through and through. In my case, I had to teach myself every standard proportion: the average seat height, seat depth, arm height, tabletop height. I also had to remind myself of all the human dimensions because what might be pretty on paper could be excruciating to sit on. My biggest beginner’s mistake was not developing the piece properly, not insisting on a life-size drawing, then a cardboard mock-up and then finally a prototype built to every standard I wanted to meet.

At the talk, there were the practical questions, such as, “What kind of investment does it take to start your own collection?”

First of all, time. The conceptual period has always demanded the lion’s share of my investment—gathering concepts from tear sheets, flea markets, antiques, movies, magazines, etc., and then collating them into dream boards and boiling that down to sketches. Once all the sketches are pulled together, the concept of the visual unity of the collection makes itself apparent and some ideas are chucked, while gaps must be filled.

The next kind of time investment involves presentations, travel, dinners and entertainment that come along with the process of seeing your collection through from concepts on paper to actual pieces available in a trade or retail showroom. Hopefully, the time and money spent schmoozing pays off in the end.

And the final investment is in the prototypes and the expense of making and remaking each piece until you get it right. Researching the proper wood veneer, getting the finish and color right, sourcing and buying the hardware—such as knobs for the chest of drawers, casting of the proper keyhole escutcheon, designing the perfect sabot for the legs—this is all part of the investment of time and money that it takes to create a collection.

Then you must select a manufacturer, one who is collaborative, meets your price point, believes in good quality and sustains it. You, of course, want to know if their capabilities fit with your vision. For instance, can they provide luxurious lacquers, sturdy construction, down fill, excellent castings and great veneering? Can they execute all of this?

And finally, if you are designing a signature collection under a manufacturer’s label, how do they help market it, where do they place it and how fast can they produce it?

Ultimately, I chose Lewis Mittman to manufacture my product line because I had bought the company’s products many times, believed in it and trusted its honest reputation, which had lasted through several generations of a dedicated family business.

Once the product is out there, it is important to market it. An introduction in the flagship showroom—with all the media, magazines, TV, and bloggers invited—generally occurs. But I also personally visit the showrooms to educate the salespeople on my vision and make sure my products look beautiful on the floor and are arranged well and have up-to-date fabric on them.

I advise using the collection in a showhouse or encourage other designers to use it. I contact all of the editors to set up appointments, if possible, to show the line.

Ultimately, one should continuously get feedback from all the salespeople, finding out what is selling and why. One should also ask what doesn’t sell and why. I get updates on finish and proportion selections from the showroom, trying to keep a finger on the pulse of my current and future clients.

Though these pointers apply to my specific experience as a designer of furniture collections, it is not so different from the experience of designers of other kinds of collections, as was made clear by similar responses made throughout the panel discussion. It was nice to be able to share the experience.