Delivery
This final stage of our custom furniture process is, in some sense, the most important. After all, we can build the most beautiful tables in the world, but they aren’t doing anyone any good sitting in our workshop. Delivering furniture may not be the most glamorous thing in the world, but it matters, at least to us.
Like so much of what we do, the delivery process begins long before we load up a project. Early on, we’ll speak with our clients to get a feel for what the delivery will be like. Are there tight turns? Steep stairs? Low ceilings? The last thing we want would be to show up for a delivery and find out that we’re simply not able to get the piece into place. We’ve heard all sorts of stories from interior designers we work with about furniture that won’t fit, and it isn’t a position we ever want to be in.
If there are any questions about the route to the room and the project’s ability to fit, we’ll start out by asking for more information about the route, and sometimes a video so we can make judgments for ourselves. If we’re still not sure how big a piece will fit into a room, we’ll recommend that we do a “mock delivery.” In a mock delivery, we’ll create a mock-up of the table so that we can test every moment of the delivery. The templates are adjustable, so we can alter them until we discover exactly how large a table will make the trip, and we determine the dimensions of the project accordingly. A ten-foot table that you can actually get into your dining room is a heck of a lot better than an eleven-footer in your front yard.
A mock delivery can also allow us to determine what “moves” we’ll have to make en route to our final destination. Sometimes a tabletop has to go on end to make a turn, and sometimes we need to “leapfrog” people up a set of stairs to get a piece up. Sometimes we need to use straps to get a grip on a table when there are no other handholds available. None of these things are unusual or particularly difficult, but planning them out allows everyone on our team to be prepared, and for us to choreograph the whole thing.
Most of the time, though, two guys simply walk through the front door with a table in their hands and set it down in place, no drama. After hundreds and hundreds of deliveries, we’ve developed a thorough system to ensure that everything goes smoothly, and we’ve got toolboxes with everything we need to make tables sit flat and steady on any floor surface. Here in Boston, there are a lot of old floors that aren’t necessarily level – or even flat – any more, but we’re prepared to make all the required adjustments in-place so that our furniture performs as beautifully as it looks.
In addition to our white-glove delivery, we also ship nationwide. We have partners in place to get furniture wherever it needs to go, whether they be shippers, movers, or both. A shipper will simply get a table, in a custom-built Cannon Hill crate, from point A to point B, whereas a mover will protect the piece according to their own policies, and actually deliver and assemble it in the home. We only use proven partners we know and trust, because letting someone else take control of our furniture means having confidence that they’ll treat it right, and effectively represent us. We may not be able to formally take responsibility for the work they do, but we use the people we do because we have faith, and evidence, that they take their jobs as seriously as we take ours.
