Rhubarb Seating: Designing for Green, Not for the Bin!
The climate agenda has rapidly become a mainstream priority rather than a side-line and it is changing our attitudes and behaviours.
For the furniture industry, that means people are increasingly looking for ways to reuse the furniture they have rather than throw it away and replace it with something new. Cinemas, theatres, schools, student accommodation, hospitals, commercial interiors – all environments where heavy human traffic is a feature – are all turning more and more to re-upholstery rather than replacement.
Seating before reupholstery
Rhubarb Seating is one of the manufacturers who are increasingly involved in refurbishment and re-upholstery work and they report being constantly amazed by the number of pieces they are asked to re-work that have been designed in a way that makes them incredibly difficult to deal with because they can’t easily be disassembled.
Seating after reupholstery
They have effectively been designed for the bin, or at the very least with no or only minimal consideration and design thought given to how their life might be extended by refurbishment when the upholstery gets stained, tired, worn or torn, or simply when the look needs to be refreshed with new fabric.
Lounge seating after reupholstery
It is the case that a considerable percentage of the furniture sold in the UK is manufactured overseas, and not all countries place the same priority on sustainability as we now do in the UK
Lounge seating after reupholstery
Rhubarb consciously designs all their seating with sustainability in mind. Everything is made for the long term. Central to this is cores and frames that are robust with no compromises on the quality of the build, so when the fabric and the foams get tired or wear out, they can easily be stripped back and the whole look refreshed, just like new!
Bespoke seating before reupholstery
Rhubarb’s entire seating range is made to minimise component damage when stripped for refurbishment and therefore maximise reuse. They have gone one step further and even considered how products can be refurbished on-site to remove the need for costly and polluting transport to and from our factory.
Bespoke seating after reupholstery
They really do design for green!
One cautionary note, though. Re-upholstery should not be considered the cheap option. It certainly is likely to be less expensive than buying a new item of comparable quality but many people are surprised by the price tag because they fail to appreciate the amount of work involved in stripping the piece initially and then the costs of foams and fabric. Rhubarb do make a commitment when asked to re-upholster that they will not compromise on the job or simply put a sticking plaster over existing fabric and foams that are not fit for purpose.
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