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.
vegebrarian says
that desk! that chair!
🙂
Maryann Roy says
I am in LOVE with all of their furnishings ! – Fabulous !
Jamie D. says
Wow, this stuff is great. And let’s hear it for made in the USA! I especially love that bed. It’s reminiscent of Broyhill Sculptra, except it’ll be much easier to order an entire bed, rather than trying to hunt down the elusive side rails and footboard in hard-to -find modern bed sizes and for deeper modern mattresses and boxsprings. Sometimes you just need instant gratification instead of the thrill of the hunt.
Leslie says
I also began noticing Joybird at about the same time you did Pam. One thing I am curious about is, they seem so similar to Thrive. The fabrics are the exact same fabrics, colors and names. I searched and couldn’t find out if they were “related” Joybird is located in San Diego – Thrive in LA. Anyone know?
Chelsey says
I’ve been wondering that too! I’ve gotten samples from both Thrive and Joybird, and some of them are exactly the same. Some of the designs are exactly the same too. I haven’t been able to find an answer to this question.
Kali says
Although their website still seems to be in crashed, I agree, at least based on the “Fitzgerald” sofa above, that either they must be in cahoots with Thrive or doing one very serious rip-off of their design!
I know this because I covet the “Cleveland” sofa from Thrive in the best/worst possible way. On an interesting note, I just went to the Thrive website and see that the Cleveland has jumped a whopping $500 in cost (although they seem to be having a “sale” right now bringing it down to its previous cost). This may have just put it out of reach for me, as I was counting on ordering it during a 15% off sale and the Canadian dollar has plummeted recently 🙁
pam kueber says
hmmmm. I asked Joybird to respond to this question. I do not know the legalities of this aspect of product design, but I am sure he will have a response….
Lauryn says
Aren’t all of these sofas (from all these different companies) a “rip-off” to some degree? That’s why we love them; they are reminiscent of designs from half a century or more back. The whole reason we bought our new sofa was due the difficulty in finding a decent vintage and the reason we chose the one we did was because of how much it looked like a vintage sofa.
Hank (Joybird Furniture) says
Yes – they are very, very similar, however the Fitzgerald sofa is our interpretation of a classic mid century design. The original sofa design (circa 1962) lacked a little of today’s creature comforts (durable foam, and screwed frames).
We played with the pitch and seat to get it just right. A lot of people have done their version of the original, we feel we just did it better…
pam kueber says
Leslie, I asked Alex to respond to your question….
Hank (Joybird Furniture) says
Joybird and Thrive are not affiliated. They’re different companies with different factories, but they do offer some very similar high quality items (both mid-century modern).
Most customers choose Joybird (as Pam so kindly pointed out) for the free shipping, customization options, low prices, and great customer service. (we encourage you to compare us).
Leslie says
Thanks for the clarification Hank! Your website is amazing and I am glad I have been hesitant to order from another company – guess I was just waiting for Joybird to arrive on the scene! Here’s to your vision of custom, quality Mid Century Modern furniture.
Erin says
I ordered a turquoise Hopson chair the other day, I can’t wait to get it!!
Hank (Joybird Furniture) says
Thanks Erin! We’re excited to see a picture of it with your vintage lamp and Shag prints 🙂
Cole says
This looks great! I may be looking for a new couch soon, and these are all awesome! Thank you!
Robin, NV says
As the kids say, “Dat wall unit.” Oh my, I want that.
Mary Elizabeth says
Gavin, nice to hear from you.
I wonder if you ordered from them the shipping cost to the UK would be prohibitive?
Gavin in the UK says
Well, mostly it can be difficult to get American suppliers to ship outside the USA (bizarrely parochial in this day and age!) and yes the shipping can be expensive although we did manage to get our kitchen units shipped a few years ago for a reasonable amount. But news of these guys is too late for us now, after much searching both new and vintage sofas over the past year we eventually settled on a couple of Florence Knoll replicas in white leather.
Mary Elizabeth says
Well, Gavin, those sofas are nothing to sneeze at! I’m sure they are lovely.
Yes, it does seem rather parochial that many manufacturers (and retailers) won’t ship outside the US. “Made in USA” is a great idea here; “Stays in USA” not so great.
pam kueber says
I do not agree at all with the “parochial” judgments — businesses can do whatever they want to do, who are we to call it “parochial”? Shipping and customs paperwork — and then what about complaint/returns — overseas can be a real hassle. I tend to think it is very typical to limit shipping locations to locations where customs paperwork is not required…
Mary Elizabeth says
You make an excellent point, Pam. And the size of the company may dictate whether or not they want to get into shipping furniture overseas. I would think you would have to do a huge amount of business in order to invest in the staff to make that happen.
Kathryn in Ontario says
A bummer for those of us in Canada too. Don’t even need an ocean in between, just an international border. This stuff looks fabulous!
Hank (Joybird Furniture) says
We will ship to Canada, however you would be responsible for the shipping fees.
Gavin in the UK says
Wow, you guys are so lucky! There is NOTHING like this that I am aware of in the UK. Amazing, just amazing.
James says
That’s so interesting! I often feel the same way about the UK when I see something I like! Outside of mid century modern, the UK, especially for its size, has a huge selection of great design across all styles; in part because much of Europe is available to you. I just paid to get a recliner from Belgium because only the European designs met the trifecta of fitting in a small space, looking great, and being super comfortable. Had I lived in England I could have purchased it from my local furniture store for a LOT less.
Mary Elizabeth says
I like the look of all of their pieces shown, but I especially love the stacking tables “Swift.” Great size for the smaller ranch house, look convenient to use, and constitute a piece of art on their own.