Hanny's blog

Mod Visits The West Coast

We are on the West Coast now, checking out LA and SF's design and furniture world! It's been an exciting trip, although (non-disclosure) we did spend half our time on this trip working and communicating with our NY team! Such is a life of a small business owner...So what do the Mod folks do in CA?

//LOS ANGELES//

Sat 2/23: We arrived in LA late Saturday late and checked into Mr. C. Beverely Hills. Unbeknownst to us, the 2013 Oscar Pre-Party was at our hotel, so we met some really cool people that night!

Sun 2/24: Decided to explore the city. We hung out at Venice Beach, Abbot Kinney Blvd, Santa Monica, Rodeo Drive & of course Hollywood. The weather was insanely beautiful - 78 degrees and blue skies! Coming from 15 degrees and cloudy in NY, this was a treat. No wonder why everyone is LA is so relaxed...

Monday 2/25: We checked out loads of upholstery shops in LA. We wanted to get a feel for LA's market and how people in sunny Cali do what we do. We learnt a lot that day:

LA is saturated with mom-and-pop upholstery shops. No kidding, there must have been at least 1 upholstery shop on every retail block! We noticed that most of them were traditional upholstery shops, working on wing chairs, Chesterfields, skirted sofas and the like. And... all of them were run by people in their 50's (or older), with walk-ins who were definitely over 40. We stuck out like a soar thumb!

We had dinner at BOA, sat next to Blake Griffin of the LA Clippers, and managed to get our car locked in the parking lot (who closes at 10 pm)?

Tuesday 2/26: Woke up, took a taxi back to Santa Monica to get our car, and went about our day. We visited several design firms, more upholstery companies, furniture stores, then headed to the airport for San Francisco.

//SAN FRANCISCO//

Arne Jacobsen Egg Chair

We stepped out of the airplane and saw Arne Jacobsen Egg Chairs all over the airport. This was probably the single most exciting part of our trip!

Wednesday 2/27: We devoted yesterday to the San Francisco area. Wow, what a contrast to LA. There are less than half as many upholstery companies here as there are in LA, and reupholstery prices here are literally double than LA prices. We were curious to know who the "mid-century expert" is, so we walked into DWR and asked. They told us the only guy around is Mike Boloyan from Hye Quality, whom Knoll themselves use. Wow!

Thursday 2/27: Today we checked out the Oakland - Berkeley area. We visited Malik Gallery (a client), Klassik Living (an awesome vintage Danish furniture store), and some other design shops in this city. Since we were in the area, we decided to stop by Mike Boloyan's shop to say hello, but his shop address was a cute little home. We couldn't excactly show up unannounced :) I did a little research on this guy, and apparently he's a one-man operation and has a lead time of 6 months!

Friday 2/28: Our plan for tomorrow is to check out the design/upholstery scene in the Palo Alto - Penninsula area, and visit some of our tech friends in Silicon Valley. Should be exciting!

Saturday 2/29: Will be our last day in SF, so we'll do some touristy stuff like Fisherman's Wharf, Lombard Street, San Francisco's MOMA and then back to the airport.

The bottom line learnings from our trip? California needs Mod! read more »

How Reupholstery And Perfectionism Collide

Are you a perfectionist in your personal or business life? Then you probably can relate to me. Read my latest article on Forbes.com!

Berlin Chair from 20Age

How amazing is this reupholstered Berlin Chair by London-based vintage furniture company, 20Age? They reupholstered it in a heals vintage fabric called "Treasure Chest" by Maggie Walker.

Why Reupholster Your Furniture?

The Question of The Day: Reupholster Or Buy New Furniture?

We're asked this question at lease once a week: "Why would people reupholster their furniture when they can buy new for the same price or less?"

It's a good question, and there's no one answer to that. Every client has a unique reason why they chose to reupholster their furniture; here are the most common ones: read more »

Hair-On-Hide Custom Ottoman

Here at MOD, we carry thousands of different fabrics, leathers & hair-on-hides. We custom-made this 5-foot ottoman for our NYC client who absolutely loves hair-on-hide and leather! read more »

The Djinn Chair & Ottoman

Djinn Chair & Ottoman in Purple

Our client mentioned in passing (while we were reupholstering some mid-century furniture of his) that he wants to get rid of his original red Djinn arm chair. He noticed in our gallery that we reupholstered a Djinn chair & ottoman set before, and asked if we would take it off his hands (which we of course did!). read more »

The Mod Workshop

Mod is located in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Our shop is 10 steps away from the water, and our the Statue of Liberty is straight ahead - our dream view!

MOD Restoration Workshop

The Mod Team in Action. This is what reupholstery looks like - up close & personal :)

For those of you who don't follow Mod or know our history, here's a little background.... read more »

IIB Reupholsters Conference Room

Even a financial firm needs a great looking conference room! Institute of International Bankers (IIB) houses 60+ conference room chairs for bankers who come to their NYC office from all over the world.

BEFORE

IIB Conference Room Before read more »

A Herman Miller Sofa

We bought this amazing Herman Miller Classic 0693, designed by George Nelson. The perfect reupholstery project for MOD.

The Original Sofa We Bought & Shipped From Ohio:

Herman Miller George Nelson Sofa

What We Saw On 1stDibs.com For Inspiration: read more »