retail opportunities

 I've just learnt that some of our products are to be stocked in a Dublin city centre department store. this has led to more reviews of our pricing - for retail , for wholesale etc. our problem, and the problem of many a smaller bespoke furniture maker, is that our margin is too small already. so with the higher end stuff that we do we can't allow for the retail markup - anywhere from 2.3 up to 4 - even gallery prices are an issue - usually 2 . 

 with this in mind and after spending the week in front of the computer and on the phone i decided to see if we could make a viable  product quickly and easily. 

for us it's the finishing that adds huge expense. no matter how we try we cannot cut any corners so trying to circumvent that part of the process is somewhat new to us. are we prepared to make something that doesnt have the usual finish that we want or are known for? 

 anyway, I sketched this nest of tables on thursday morning. nice enough, not going to set the world on fire or anything but possibly a seller. i found some inch and half  european cherry and started cutting on the saw.  the idea being that all dimensions are the same and all cuts are the same. all the joints are finger joints which were cut on our small spindle with a minimum of set-up. the top rails were rebated to accept the plywood top.  a simple gluing jig allowed us to glue everything up square and each joint has a small dowel inserted, acting as both a clamp and a stabiliser. 

so at this point it's taken maybe 3 - 4 hours and all the frames have been prepped and glued. it's now that I see that maybe the low cross rail should be separate so as to make it all flatpackable. it would make packaging easier and any old moron could put it together! 

the top section is reversible - its HPL over 6mm plywood. could be any colour i suppose but here its orange and cream underneath. this gets screwed into the rebate in the top rail thus stabilising the whole thing. I wouldn't ask auntie fats to sit on it unless i wanted her to break the floor though. this is my problem - we can make things fast and cheaper than normal but they don't have the strength that Id like them to have. looking at other similar flat pack products out there - there isn't that worry about about durability. if auntie fats sits on it -well,  tough. so it's in that spirit of negligence that i present to you .......... a nest of tables in cherry and plywood.