New manufacturer+retailer of mid-century modern furniture —
made to order
Several weeks ago I started noticing ads for Joybird Furniture appearing on the blog… the ads looked intriguing… so I finally took a look at Joybird’s products. I liked what I saw and read, and a few minutes later I was on the phone talking with one of the company’s four co-founders. I was impressed — I count nine reasons why:
(1) The furniture is good-looking. For example, my favorite sofa (this week) is the Worthy design, shown in orange at the top of this page. I love the Dick van Dyke Show lines and ooooh, that tufting. I bet a lot of folks will also like the atomic-looking Fitzgerald sofa (in aqua, above). There are sleek lined-desks… and wall units that look to be channeling Cado and Royal Systems and Barzilay….
(2) Prices seem fair. “My” Worthy sofa — which was on sale recently — came in at under $1,500 (on sale). Yes: You may be able to find vintage furniture at better prices. But re: sofas particularly, while the frames can be amazing, reupholstering a vintage sofa can get very expensive, very fast — if you can even find someone to do a quality job.
Related to pricing, I learned a term that I had never heard before: Joybird Furniture is among a new breed of ‘manutailers’. That is: They are both the manufacturer and the retailer. Sounds like this eliminates the middleman markup, allowing for lower prices. And, this business model should help Joybird stay very close to needs and wants of today’s customers.
(3) Shipping is free.
(4) Two-pound foam — I asked about the quality of the sofas, worried that a relatively inexpensive price point would mean… lesser quality. The company said that it uses kiln-dried hardwoods for the frames, which sounds like it is pretty standard in the industry. What really sets their sofas apart versus some other similar competitors today, they claimed, is that that Joybird uses two-pound foam for their cushions — which is not so common industry-wide, he said. I googled the foam-weight issue a bit, and sure enough, it seems that foam quality can make a significant difference in how sofa cushions wear. I checked with another company that I’ve featured before — Younger Furniture, which has lovely mid-century style designs and is Made in the USA story, and Marilyn Spell told me, “Our standard is 2.0 high resiliency and our ‘Y Lux’ [an upgrade] is 2.5 high resiliency.”
Note, however: I am not an expert on how to assess sofa quality and certainly not company-vs.-company; we are not Consumer Reports here. I put this foam-weight issue on the list because the company called it out; sounds like this is definitely a factor to further research and add to your checklist if you are in the market comparison shopping and want to assess ‘value’ issues. To be sure, I’ve heard complaints about failing cushions on inexpensive sofas before….
(5) 8/6/2017 Update on this one: Not so sure it’s available any more. Made-to-order sizing; check with Joybird — Joybird told me that they Furniture carry no inventory. It makes all its products to order. The company also offers customers the option to adjust their furniture sizes up, down, sideways — whatever. Want a sofa that’s six inches longer… or three inches shorter… or 2 inches deeper or how about different legs? Joybird can do it for you. They will also let you send your own upholstery fabric. I was told that lead times are four weeks for all orders, but that timing can vary depending on volume.
(6) Made in North America — Update Sept. 2015: The mass of the company’s production is in Tijuana, Mexico; they told me they also do some framing about five miles away in San Diego. They are also looking at starting up a manufacturing location in Canada. I have eliminated any text in this story that previously suggested “Made in the USA” since the mass of their production is in Mexico.
(7) Clever customer service — Joybird will email you a photo of your furniture piece at each key step during its manufacturing progress. For a sofa, for example, there is a seven-stage manufacturing process — so you’ll get seven photos along the way.
(8) Great website — Nice website, easy to navigate. Nicely done, Joybird tech team, I like it!
(9) Efficient communication — Well, this is very anecdotal, but when I first contacted Joybird — via their online chat — the service was surprise-and-delight excellent. Chat-box Hank was right there… Hank found me the right person to talk to right away… and they picked up their phone. In today’s phone-tree-push-a-button-get-disconnected-frustrating world, this certainly made a nice impression on me. A repeat interaction was equally efficient.
I like the look of these products and the ‘manu-tailer’ business model. I will keep my fingers crossed that it’s all a big success — good for Joybird, and good for we mid-century modern and -modest enthusiasts and decorators, too!
Link love:
Note, just to be clear, this is NOT a Sponsored Post — nobody be paying me to write this. If and when you ever see a sponsored post here, it will hit you across the head, okay? FYI, how we make money here.
Update: In late fall 2015, Joybird began advertising directly on this site. This is an advertising deal only, does not include product placements or links in stories, etc.
Douglas Camin @ House on Rynkus Hill says
Wow! This is good looking stuff. That wall unit is awesome – I’ve been keeping my eyes on vintage Cado wall units for my living room, but may have to give a look here to see what I think.
Heather says
They’ve got some neat accessories Pam. Hope this helps. http://joybird.com/decoration-accessories/
pam kueber says
Yes, I know they are there. But to be clear: The clocks, for example, are NOT made by them.
Mary Elizabeth says
I just remembered that in a tag sale several years ago I found a beautiful pair of vintage wooden table lamps that echo perfectly the lines of the “Swift” table set. I gave them to one of my daughters, then she got a new Golden Retriever puppy. Alas, the puppy got one, pulled it off the table and dragged the cord out of the wall and ran into the kitchen with the lamp in its teeth. After that, she called them the “dogbone” lamps. (Little Haywood-Wakefield joke.)
Heather says
I ordered a Calhoun sofa from them and am looking forward to getting it. I will try to remember to post a photo of it once it arrives. I showed their site to a friend of mine who is an interior and she loved it as well. Crossing my fingers some lamps will be offered that mimic the style of their wooden tables, as well as some Danish-inspired planter stands similar to Modernica’s case study planter, but with lines similar to their sandburg, tolson, and stern models.
pam kueber says
I don’t think that Joybird makes the accessories. I think they make the upholstered goods and the hard goods (if that’s what furniture made from wood is called.) HANK: Can you clarify what you manufacture vs. stock?
Hank (Joybird Furniture) says
Sure! We make everything on our site except for the accessories items – clocks, rugs, lamps, throws, and some of the accent pillows are supplied by other companies. Everything else we manufacture ourselves including all sofas, chairs, beds, tables, and storage/wall units.
hannah says
I’ve been on their site now for over an hour. I have a 1K bonus and a 1K tax return and seriously considering the Calhoun Love-seat (which measures 78″ and would suffice as a sofa in our small ranch). That’s longer by 18″ than what we have right now.
I wonder if they offer printed fabric? I’ve checked the site and all I see are solids.
*LUVS*
Hank (Joybird Furniture) says
We’re more than happy to use your fabric for upholstery. So if you find a pattern somewhere that you love we can use it to build you the perfect love-seat!
hannah says
Thank you for the reply Hank! I just ordered some swatches. Can’t wait!
I compared your offerings to Thrive, and came away preferring your product with regards to pricing and available styles.
I lived in San Diego (was raised in Los Angeles) for 8 years before we moved to Maine (where Mr. Wonderful is from). Throw the city a kiss from me!
Jamie D. says
I see that some of the furniture is customizable. I’m wondering if it’s possible to get one of the chairs turned into a rocker? Or if Joybird has any plans to add a rocking chair to their lineup?
It’s really difficult to find a comfy mid mod rocking chair + ottoman! And for people who may be planning nursery decor, they don’t necessarily have an endless timeline to keep searching for the perfect vintage piece.
(I know, again, I really like the instant gratification.)
Hank (Joybird Furniture) says
Good to know there’s interest in those Jamie – we’ve been discussing rockers recently around here…
Jay says
Just went to the web site to browse. Nice stuff! I was taken aback at the “Best Seller” Tolson table. It is the spittin’ image of my A. Pearsall end tables. I wonder if they bought the design.
Sam R says
The design of the first couch is almost identical to a pristine early 60s sofa I pulled out of a Habitat store in a very rural town several years back. It’s the most comfortable sofa I’ve ever owned, and the upholstery is nearly pristine. I probably do need to have new foam inserts made for the cushions, though. It’s definitely nice to see a company reproducing classic designs in quality materials!
Lauryn says
Oh, I just love reading about companies like this and I LOVE that the furniture is made to order. How cool is that? We love our Younger sofa (which we learned about on this blog), but would love to add some chairs to the mix, so this is a great resource. Can’t wait to finish this comment and go jump on their website!
Peach Kay says
I think it’s crashed again. Pooh. Must see!!!!
Hank (Joybird Furniture) says
Sorry about that!
Looks like we’re back in action – feel free to call us or visit the website.
tammyCA says
I saw those ads pop up the other day and I was thinking, “that is one sharp looking desk”. I can’t get on their site yet but oh, my goodness I LOVE that Jetson type chair! I have been obsessing on that design since I saw one in a lame ’60s Bob Hope movie..I couldn’t stop staring at that awesome chair behind the stars. I have no Mid-century Modern furniture but I am getting swayed more and more. 🙂
pam kueber says
Apparently we’re sending lots of traffic, and we crashed their server for a short bit. The site is up again, as I write this! I am going to guess they won’t have any more problems, they likely asked their server company to allocate them more juice while all we Retro Renovators go to looky loo.
Robin, NV says
That sounds like a good problem to have.
Shane says
The site is down again and their phone number is not accepting incoming calls 🙁 Can’t wait for it to come back up, I need a new couch and these folks have style! Something that seems hard to find at the big box stores.
tammyCA says
Just got on their site…so cool. The fabric choices can be cotton, poly, or leather in such great colors (my fave aqua/turquoise)…but, what is even niftier is that you can send in your own fabric, esp. great if you happen across vintage upholstery fabric.
(p.s. I shouldn’t have said ‘lame movie’ ’cause I actually like watching all those old movies…instead call it “madcap comedy.) 🙂