The Business Of Decoration Previous Page (31)
Page 36b
A very sumptuous bed chamber furnished with satinwood with six windows in green taffeta backed by peach silk French shades.
Page 37
THE DECORATOR AND THE CLIENT 37
public today hampers decorators very seriously in their work, and that is the fact that so large a number of people either can buy actually from wholesale manufacturers at net trade prices or believe that they can do so. As a matter of fact, few of them can, for the wholesaler knows very well how to charge a good, * stout retail price when he finds himself confronted by one whom he knows to be a retail customer. People have discovered this to their cost in many fields of activity outside of decoration, but many of them still believe in the advisability of purchasing their furniture from wholesale manufacturers and then going to a decorator for advice about the minor incidentals that they require. In such a case they are not apt to secure their furniture any more cheaply than they would if their entire order went to the one man and they certainly do not get any more service from him than they actually pay for. It is a great mistake to suppose that a decorator needs to charge any more for furniture than a manufacturer of furniture alone, especially if the decorator has his own workshop and manufactures his own pieces. He is generally satisfied with a surprisingly modest remuneration, whereas the manufacturers of furniture intended for wholesale use actually triple their cost in making up the prices at which the pieces are to be offered to the public, and even if the individual secures a percentage off from the regular retail figure he still pays as handsome a profit to the producer as any decorator could desire. It is true the manufacturers cut and put together more of one design than a decorator is able or willing to do, and thus save something of the expense; but where fine hand-made pieces are
The Business Of Decoration Next Page - (33)
Bed In A Bag Sets Books - The Business Of Decoration
