The Contract Chair Company’s
furniture observer
Hammersmith, London January 2021
Confidence, Choice, Convenience & Customer Care
A Year in Review
New Upholstery Finder tool, showroom social distancing measures and a fabric library expansion. Read more page 4.
2020’s Top Products
Our picks of the best furniture from the last year, featuring some mid-century inspired cane chairs, Read more page 2.
Eco-friendly Material Recycled chairs from ocean plastic, great new green fabrics & eco leathers
Read more page 3.
▶ RBDA winner Clockspire
Welcome to 2021. Here at The Contract Chair Company the year has started more brightly, despite the latest lockdown - it’s maybe that the industry is starting to feel that the worst point of the pandemic has passed, with the vaccines offering the possibility of hospitality venues reopening in the spring and summer. We are delighted to be hearing that design practices are getting new work, reflecting this more positive outlook. Brexit has happened with shipments from the EU suffering only slight delays so far, albeit with low volumes of traffic through Dover. We are finding that factories are hurrying to adapt their procedures and carriers have not sunk under the notable weight of new paperwork.
▶ RBDA winner Electric Shuffle
We hope you enjoy our newspaper which features our favourite products of the past twelve months and just a fraction of the award-winning hospitality projects we’ve had the absolute pleasure of delivering in 2020. A staggering 17 of our projects were shortlisted for last year’s Restaurant and Bar Design Awards and five of those were happily crowned ‘winner’. The Clockspire, by Studio Indigo in particular went home with one of the most prestigious accolades Best Overall UK Winner in the Restaurant category. The sensationally converted 19th Century former schoolhouse uses outlines to maximum effect and our Galinha Chairs really complement this scheme. We were similarly delighted that Ellis Design Studio took home two awards - Best UK Pub for
Flight Club Birmingham and Best London Bar for Electric Shuffle with their glorious Victoriana and steampunk infused designs. Elsewhere Birdies by Shed Design won the UK’s In Another Space category. Their brief ‘to put the crazy back into crazy golf’ certainly succeeds. Our Brass and Antique Mirror Glass tables help give it a bit of extra shine. And finally Norma by Rosendale Design picked up the prize for Surface Interiors. Our striking Lava Stone Pattern Table Tops perfectly complement the Siciliant restaurant’s Moorish design elements. We wish a heartfelt congratulations to all our nominated projects and look forward to seeing what excellent designs they’re working on in 2021.
▶ RBDA winner Flight Club
www.thecontractchair.co.uk
▶ Serena Cane Armchair £370
Furniture highlights
▶ Dorothea Side Chair £233
Cane continued to be prominent in 2020 with the material applied to more mid-century modern, rather than just traditional bentwood designs. The Serena Cane Armchair and Dorothea Side Chair are great examples of this. Oversized lounge chairs which accentuate comfort were also popular; we’ve chosen the Goa Lounge Chair, a soft and surprisingly light addition to the ranks of the succesful Goa range. The Hari collection first caught our eye at the imm Cologne furniture fair. Inspired by the world of textile looms, Hari blends an industrial aesthetic with the delicacy of material threads, all culminating in a unique feature where the frame threads its way around the backrest like a thread around a spool. Our favourite table base this year has to be the Nouveau which is the epitomy of great design as it combines an attractive look with unique self-
▶ Goa Lounge Chair £590
▶ Julie Side Chair £203
Julie Sidefrom Chair£187 in Lina Stores ▶▶ Sisi Wood
▶ Hari Barstool from £299
stabilizing technology to make wobbly restaurant tables a thing of the past. The honor of best barstool goes to the Rhodes, pictured bottom right opposite in Carmelo, Leon, part of the Big Mamma resturant group. We developed this barstool bespoke for the project, but loved it so much we’ve now added it to our standard range. The biggest honour however, goes to the Julie Side Chair, pictured below in Lina Stores, which we can officially reveal as our product of the year. Its midcentury chic and piped upholstery detailling has been wowing hospitality designers from all corners in 2020. As well as featuring in London’s seventh most instagrammable resturant - Lyle’s - this chair has been chosen for Gordon Ramsey ‘s new burger restaurant in Harrods, which is rolling out all over the world, as well as an excellent new Nobu Hotel. We hope to share the project images with you soon.
www.thecontractchair.co.uk
▶ Lady B Armchair £71 ▶ Range from £298 ▶ Remind Side Chair £67
New force for eco-friendly furniture materials ▶ Nova Sea Side Chair £487
Manufacturers continue to innovate with cleaner designs made from recycled or natural materials, we’ve selected some stand out products. The Remind Side Chair is made from 50% consumer waste plastic & 50% industrial waste plastic and has an attractive price point to match its bentwood evoking frame. Lady B Armchair is available in a ‘Go Green’ edition which has a 60% certified recycled technopolymer shell, in a choice of three colours. Nova Sea Side Chair consists of 96% recycled fishnets and recycled plastic shell and the seat can be
▶ Brentano Eco-fabrics
upholstered in post-consumer recycled polyester. For other upholstery options Brentano has a great range of eco-fabrics which don’t compromise on performance or style. Their strict green criteria focuses on sustainability and environmentally friendlyprocesses and requires the raw material to either incorporate recycled materials or degradable fibres. If the raw material is naturally grown it must be rapidly renewable, the entire production process avoids harmful chemicals and the factory must comply with environmental laws. If faux leather just won’t do, Alma leather’s tannery is the first in the world to possess an environmental product declaration and process certificate. As leather is a by-product of the food industry, is completely natural, 100% biodegradable and has a long life span. Alma’s production processes ensure a low carbon footprint, water recycling, offset emissions & reuse of by-products.
▶ Nouveau Table Base £359
▶ Rhodes Barstool £606
▶ Nova Sea from £187
▶ Rhodes Barstool in Carmelo
Website Improvements
Faster website We’ve moved to a speedier platform to improve your experience and to help you get the job done quicker. Browse furniture, add products to Scrapbook and request a quote in a fraction of the time. Specification Tips on Product Pages Ensure you get the right product for your project by being fully informed. Each product page now has specification tips, taken from our years of experience in the hospitality industry, to guide you in the right direction. Product Info Sheet Download each product as a Word document or a PDF for offline working. Collate it with your other project paperwork, send it to a client or even print it off, so you can have it to hand old school style.
Upholstery Finder Getting the right upholstery for a commercial project can be a long and complex process; our tool makes it easy. Whether you’re looking for an eyecatching pattern, need a Crib 5 material or a hardwearing fabric, Upholstery Finder can help. Simple filters let you search by material, type, pattern, performance, brand and colour with ease. There’s also a slider to refine your options by price and a search function where you can find a specific Brand, range or even pattern. You can also view the COM or COL price alone by clicking ‘Exclude Upholstery’. Need to show your selections to a customer to make the final decision? Just copy and send them the URL and they will see the same results.
Click to try Upholstery Finder
New Collaborations
Showroom Improvements • • • •
More samples displayed than ever Search by Style Category 100s of fabric books at your fingertips More screens and group meeting areas
We’ve redesigned our showroom to accommodate social distancing so you’ve got more space to feel safe when you visit us. We observe COVID-19 social distancing rules, follow appropriate hygiene rules and our showroom is quite large enough for a number of visitors; our own team work on another floor and so remain well-distanced from the showroom. Call us on 0800 8494 135 to answer any questions you may haveortoarrangea furnitureshowroomwalk-through with a sales manager. Alternatively, you can contact us here. Our 5,000 sq ft workspace at 135 Glenthorne Road, London, W6 0LJ has free on-site parking and we are just a short walk from Ravenscourt Park station on the District Line.
HOWOFURNITURE.CO.UK
WEBSITE LAUNCH 29.01.2021
We are excited to announce the coming launch of our e-commerce store of home office furniture. From desks to chairs and lamps, we offer a unique range of lovely products from Europe’s best manufacturers.
www.howofurniture.co.uk Get £50 off your first order with Discount Code: LOVEWFH