Start To Finish: Apothecary Table

I thought it might be fun to start a weekly segment for everyone over how a furniture concept is turned into a design. I know a few people who have that as their sole job. They get to troll around on the internet on sites like google, pinterest and even some blogs and pick out furniture they have a connection with and translate it into their own version. Isn’t that an awesome job?! I’m going to be sitting down once a week and pulling some of their conceptual designs as you watch their dreams become a reality.

Two of these said awesome job-holders (it’s a word) is Christi Fitch, design coordinator for Southern Enterprises, and Daryle Gibbs, VP of Merchandising and Product Development. We’ll be chronicling their journey through the pieces they create!

“When Daryle, our VP of Merchandising and Product Development, visited the Paris show apothecaries and curios were all the rage. We knew we wanted to do something different and innovative, so with the trending color pop furniture, we took that design a step further and decided to use different stained finishes for our drawer and door fronts. The finished product has exceeded our envisioned idea of the product and our customers have really enjoyed the product. We look forward to seeing the reaction from the general public.”

-Christi Fitch

Creating furniture is not only about the architecture of the product but also the attention to detail. What colors are the legs going to be? Do you want to use pulls or handles for the drawers? Christi outlines all of these thoughts in her “inspiration boards” before actually drawing her vision of the furniture piece.

Christi then sends her design to have it professionally drawn and this may take a couple of back and fourths to get the design perfect.

From here it goes to a factory to begin production and the factory will send a sample to Southern Enterprises and a Q & A is done on the furniture piece when it arrives. They check for things like the ability of how easy it is to assemble. Do all the drawers work? Can it support weight? Anything that could go wrong has to be tested. After the testing is completed the piece can hit the final mass production phase. It’s at this point can we begin photographing the product and adding it to catalogs for stores to carry.

I think this piece is super cool with the mixed woods and hardware. The only two pieces that are the same are the two bottom cabinet doors. Imagine how specific you could get about your belongings locations? “Hunny? Where’s my pair of lucky socks?” “Oh George don’t you remember? They’re in the light brown drawer on the second row in the center with the pull that looks like bull ring!” This would be a perfect clothes dresser and then you could add a lamp and a mirror on top for a little vanity station.

What do you think? Are you a fan of the mixed wood stains and the different pieces of hardware? Did any of the production process surprise you? Do you also give stories to furniture in your head? Just me? Alrighty then.