Kittinger to produce White House replica furniture for action film

Thomas Russell -- Furniture Today, September 4, 2012

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Upper-end case goods and upholstery manufacturer Kittinger Furniture will build replicas of White House furniture for a new action thriller movie starring Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx.

The pieces will be featured in "White House Down," which is about a Secret Service agent played by Tatum who is tasked with rescuing the president from a paramilitary group that has taken over the White House.

The movie, which begins filming this fall on location and in Montreal, has a planned July 4, 2013, release.

Kittinger has more than 40 years of experience building furniture for the White House, including pieces for the Cabinet Room and the Oval Office. It is replicating pieces it has already built for the Oval Office, including the desk, chairs, accent and occasional tables and chests.

The company built a conference table and chairs for the Cabinet Room in 1969 and in 1997 was hired again to restore the table. More recently, it has produced a conference table for the Roosevelt Room.

It also produced two presidential fireside chairs and a utility table used during the Obama inauguration. It made a set of six Kittinger chairs it made for the 2005 inauguration of former President George W. Bush.

Ray Bialkowski, president of Kittinger Furniture, said the company is enjoying the added business from Sony Pictures studio, which is producing the film.

"Sony Pictures has been a great client for Kittinger," he said. "They were excited to work with a company that already had the designs for the exact pieces in the White House."