RTA steps up, delivers style
Technology gains stretch style envelope
By Tom Edmonds -- Furniture Today, November 18, 2001
HIGH POINT — HIGH POINT — Touring ready-to-assemble showrooms here or in the furniture departments of big box retailers around the country, it's remarkable to consider how far flat-pack furniture has come.
While affordable function has always been the primary component in the category's value equation, producers have taken advantage of technology gains to improve the styling, too.
Now, ready-to-assemble furniture can mimic popular styles much more effectively. In addition to the contemporary looks that are easiest to make because of their rectangular shapes, traditional and transitional looks — usually with a casual-living interpretation — are easier to execute for manufacturers, who now can apply laminates to rounded surfaces.
"If you go back in time, the type of equipment that can give you shape and finishing has improved so much," said Bob Young, who spent many years as a furniture buyer for Sears and is now home furnishings market manager for Bush Furniture. "Years ago, we weren't able to deliver a look in combination with function, but now function melds with design and style."
Better looking and better performing paper laminates have played a big part in this. Papers now have surface treatments like optical etching that give them a tactile quality, and the reproduced grain has improved clarity and depth, as well as durability.
"We now have different types of finishes that are much more abrasion resistance," Young said. "The surface technology just continues to get better and better."
And when the major factories find a finish that is an esthetic hit with consumers, they run with it. Thus, Sauder Woodworking's Bishop Pine shows up on more pieces at each market, and Bush continues to expand its Birmingham collection with the Cherry Hill Plank finish.
Another superficial but significant improvement is in the hardware.
More and more, RTA furniture is decorated with stylish pulls and handles that enhance the desired look rather than distracting from it with cheapness.
RTA furniture has always represented a functional value, but the products now offer much more style to go with that function.
| RICH TRADITION The Birmingham collection from Bush Furniture, with its Cherry Plank finish, shows how refined RTA styling has become. |
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