Quality can find a home
UNLOVED lounge suites being left on nature strips tell Geelong furniture upholsterer Anthony Ramirez how the furnishing industry has gone down a wasteful path.
“It’s telling you something’s not right,” said the second generation owner of Madrid Upholstery.
The ABC’s War on Waste estimated that up to 85 per cent of kerbside furniture won’t be recycled.
Like its fast fashion counterpart, ‘fast furniture’ made overseas is adding to the country’s waste burden.
The challenging competitive environment for Australia-made furniture makers is claiming casualties.
In Melbourne the Tessa factory in Bayswater closed last year after 50 years of making quality furniture, while closer to home the shunning of preloved quality furniture in favour of the mass produced contributed to the demise of Kerleys auction house in Moorabool St.
Mr Ramirez, who learnt his trade from his father Francisco, hopes to see a return to the recycling of quality furniture while there are still qualified upholsterers like himself with the skills to do it.
“It’s a dying art,” he said. “Sooner or later things will change, hopefully sooner than later. There’s not many of us around.”
Without the demand, it will be challenging for the industry to pass the trade forward to the next generation.
Mr Ramirez said quality products from brands such as Tessa, Moran and Parker Furniture were worthy of consideration for being reupholstered.
“Everything I do has to be old and well-made furniture,” he said.
“Anything that’s worthwhile, the furniture is well-made and it is going to last you.”
Much of the work coming through Madrid Upholstery’s North Geelong workshop has sentimental overlays, with people restoring pieces from previous generations or which hold special memories or connections.
Mr Ramirez said that by spending a little more on their furniture, people could have the comfort of knowing it would last for years and wouldn’t be contributing to the community’s waste issues.
“In the long term you are going to save money and you are going to be happy having something special at home,” he said.