Furniture Facts and Figures
At Home With Merle
Current Column - Spring Furnishing
Previous Columns -
Table Talk.Getting Added Value From Your Salesperson
Mixing Woods and Stains in the Same Room
I have received numerous comments from customers perusing our website concerning the dimensions we have posted for room planning. Since we do not sell our product online, and the primary purpose is to help you make pre-shopping decisions, this month's column is dedicated to more facts and figures about furniture.
Barstools
More than any other item we sell, the barstool is the most common returned
after purchase. Not that the barstool is the wrong color, the wrong
wood, or doesn't perform correctly, but rather because it is simply the
wrong height. Barstools come in two standard heights: 24-inch, which
is a counter height stool, meaning it works well at a kitchen counter (and
all kitchen counters are 36 inches high) and 30-inch stools, or bar height,
which are made to sit up to a bar that is 42 inches high. These dimensions
may vary slightly but if you use a 30-inch stool at a standard kitchen counter,
you won't have room for your legs. In summary, the seat of your chair
or stool needs to be about 12 inches less than the height of counter, bar,
or table. If you don't remember 12 inches, then simply pull out your
ruler and you will soon find that your kitchen or dining table is 30 inches
high and the seats of your chairs are about 18 inches from the floor--the
requisite 12 inches. One foot of space will give you comfort wherever
you are sitting.
Beds - Mattresses
Even experienced salespeople can get confused about the size of a mattress. Also, when a customer comes to House of Oak & Sofas, where the ceilings are high and the room is quite large, all the mattresses look much smaller than they do in their home. Here is a summary.
- Twin Mattress: 38 inches wide by 74 inches long
- Super Twin Mattress: 38 inches wide by 80 inches long (Common in
college lofts)
- Full Mattress: 54 inches wides and 74 inches long
- Queen Mattress: 60 inches wide by 80 inches long
- King Mattress: 76 inches wide by 80 inches long
- Western King Mattress: 72 inches wide by 86 inches long
Queen continues to be the most popular size as it provides acceptable comfort for 2 people. Customers occasionally downsize from a king to a queen but seldom from a queen to a full size. Although increments between sizes are only 6 inches, that is a lot of space in a bed.
Bed Frames
More confusing than mattresses are bed frames. Metal bed frames are used to assemble many beds which either don't have wood rails provided with them, or are free-standing headboards that can not use rails, or are not built heavy enough to support the weight of the bedding and those sleeping on the bed.
Hollywood Frame: The Hollywood frame is the most popular metal
bed frame and is similar to the one you see in most hotel rooms. It
usually attaches to a headboard to keep the headboard more stable, but not
necessarily. A Hollywood bed frame is slightly shorter than the length
of the mattress: therefore, you can not attach a footboard to this type
of frame. The Hollywood frame comes with an end that needs to be bolted
to the bed frame, rather than hooked on.
Brass Bed Frame: The brass bed frame is built to hold the weight of the bed and its occupants without putting any additional strain on the headboard or footboard. It usually has from 5 to 8 legs for that purpose. The rails are long enough to attach a footboard, and the ends are bolted to both headboard and footboard.
Hook-on Rails: The hook on rail is made to hook, rather than bolt, on to a wood bed that has both a headboard and footboard, and has short pins, usually embedded in the wood frame, on which the hooks of the rails are attached. We sell these rails most often to people who have bought an older style bed. Most new wood beds are provided with this type of rail but it is constructed from wood that matches the bed frame. Hook on rails require both a headboard and footboard for use.
Bolt-on rails: Bolt-on rails serve all the functions of hook-on rails but must be used if the bed does not have hook-on pins embedded in the frame. Bolt-on rails simply are attached with lag bolts screwed into the frame, or machine bolts run completely through the frame and attached with a nut and washer. Once again, this type of rail requires a headboard and a footboard. Full to queen conversion frame. This is a hook-on rail system that can be used to utilize a queen-size mattress on a full-size frame by lengthening the bed 6 inches and attaching 3 inches of additional width to each side to give the 60 inches required for a queen-sized mattress. This frame is most often used in a home where the customer desires to use an antique bed in their decor and also wants the advantage of a queen-size frame. It is important that the headboard and footboard are in good condition to carry the extra weight.
Room Settings
Finally a few comments. I received a note from one customer who had visited our store and was disappointed that we do not have the same room settings on display that we show on our television commercials. This is common practice in the furniture industry for two reasons. First, it is extremely expensive to film room settings in the store as the tagging, lighting and placement are all arranged to assist the customer in their selection. In bygone years, individual rooms were set up in furniture stores to look like catalog settings. Now most shoppers prefer to shop in open spaces where the eye can see from one end of the store to the other and walled room settings often give a claustrophobic feel. Therefore we have as few walls in our store as possible. However, many manufacturers provide us with beautiful room-setting photos that are produced in furniture photography studios where lighting and backdrops simulate "rooms" and give the best detail to the product. I would hope that the customer takes advantage of both views of our furniture: perfect room settings provided by our suppliers, and the more casual settings in our store.
Catalog Ordering
Having said that, I must also add that House of Oak & Sofas continues to sell a large percentage of furniture from our catalogs. Since we encourage special-ordering, and can only show about 5% of available product on on 30,000 square foot showroom floor, many customers check out similar pieces from a manufacturer and then order what they like from the catalog. Just this week a customer exclaimed how happy he was with his purchases because after having shopped at House of Oak & Sofas for 10 years, he knew that the best jewels of our store were what we offered beyond the showroom floor.
Until next time, keep asking questions. Send them to mrfurn@msn.com and I will answer as many as I can in person or in my column next month.
