February 2017 - The Winter's Almost Over
Well it’s a long time since we posted here on our blog so we decided it’s time for an update! So what’s new here at Kingdom Furnishings HQ? Well quite a bit actually. We’ve been very busy over the past few months. We’ve improved our little warehouse and added in a built in office, that’s been very handy over the winter months as it’s a lot warmer in the office then the rest of the warehouse. We’ve also managed to acquire a little extra storage space which is great news as it means we can have more items out on display for when our customers come for a look.
In terms of stock we have some exciting new lines. We’ve just had a new colour come in. We are calling this antique cream, it’s a dark cream with a stain wash over the top which gives it a real antique look. We only have a few wardrobes in this colour at the moment but if it proves popular we will look to get lots of other pieces in that colour.
We also recently conducted an experiment on our Facebook Page. We asked our followers what they prefer, the Shabby Chic distressed finish or a standard ‘brand new’ finish. The vote was split right down the middle. All the furniture we sell is distressed so we thought we might be missing a trick here. So we’ve started to get non distressed furniture from our suppliers. At the moment we are just testing the waters but again if popular we will look to start stocking all our furniture in both distressed and non distressed finishes. This way we can give you lovely people a few more options.
We had new stock arrive last week and we’ve finally got a few of the very popular Throne Chairs back in stock. Along with those we also have some incredible Porter’s Chairs which I am sure will be massively popular.
Our most popular product in recent times has been our Mini Grandfather Chairs in the weathered oak. The demand for these has been simply staggering. We have photographers from all over the UK and indeed the world begging us for these chairs. With our last delivery we got 25 Mini Chairs and they sold out in less than two hours! We have again asked our suppliers for more of these, hopefully they will send more than just a handful as we hate letting people down.
Well that’s just about it for now. The weather should be warming up soon and spring is always nice here in the Ribble Valley, especially here on our little farm in the country side. We’ll update our blog again later in the year and let you all know what been going on.
Thank for reading, the KF team.
August 2016 - The Brexit Effect
Well it’s finally summer time although as usual here in the North West of England we don’t seem to be getting much sunshine. We’ve just had a few nice days and lots of not so nice days. We did enjoy the spring though. The farm we are based on usually have lots of cows, but this year they’ve had sheep instead. So we enjoyed seeing all the little lambs being born and then watching them bound around the fields. At one point a lamb climbed through the gate next to us and wandered over to have a nosy at what we were doing. We just about managed to guide it back into it’s field before it started nibbling on one of our chairs that was near the door.
Things are still going well here at Kingdom Furnishings. Our website is continuing to grow in popularity. Since our last blog post we’ve had quite a few customers getting in touch leaving us reviews and testimonials. So a big thankyou to everyone who’s been in touch. You can head over and have a look at some of our reviews on our new testimonials page.
In line with the recent weather, sadly there are now some rather dark clouds on the economic horizon. With the UK’s recent vote to leave the EU we are starting to feel the effects here at Kingdom Furnishings. Since the vote the British Pound has seriously suffered in the global market which means importing goods from anywhere in the world is suddenly considerably more expensive. This of course means the prices we pay are going to be higher. We spoke to our suppliers last week and they have confirmed prices are going to go up by around 15%.
With us having to pay more to get our furniture in, this sadly means we will have to start raising our prices. We haven’t set a date yet, we’re going to leave it as late as possible, but sooner or later you can expect to see a ten to fifteen percent rise in most of our prices. We are expecting all the other companies who sell similar furniture will be doing the same so we will still look to make sure we offer the best prices when it comes to handmade French furniture. It is a shame that prices are going up, but some things are out of our control. So if you’re considering buying from us we recommend you do it ASAP before our prices jump up.
In other news we know many of you have been requesting our weathered oak mini grandfather chairs. After a few photographers posted our chairs on social media the demand has been simply staggering. We were hoping to get some more of these in July however our suppliers didn’t have any available. So now we are hoping we should have some by the end of September.
Anyway that’s all for now. We hope you’re all enjoying the summer holidays and we’ll post again later in the year.
March 2016 - We Want To Hear From You
Well here we are in March. This year seems to be flying by already. Although spring is just around the corner you wouldn't have thought so here, we had almost three inches of snow on Friday morning! Despite the cold weather we've been keep busy here at Kingdom Furnishings. We've had some beautiful new stock in recent weeks including some lovely beds and wardrobes (see picture). We currently seem to have a shortage of single wardrobes as these have been selling extremely well in the past two months, so we have asked our suppliers for some more of these so if you're after one don't panic, they will be back in stock soon.
One thing that has occured to us recently is that we don't have any customer reviews or testimonials anywhere on our website. We often get lovely comments from customers saying how much they love their French furniture, a few even send us some lovely pictures. So we have decided it's time to create a page dedicated to your feedback. So over the next few weeks we're going to be gathering together some feedback from you, our customers.
If you've bought something from us in the past we'd love to hear from you. Maybe we'll even feature you on our website. Ideally just a few sentences telling us what you think of our furntiure and the service you received. As an added bonus a picture of your new furniture in your home would be wonderful. It's always nice to see our pieces in a natural setting.
You can get in touch via the contact page and we'll keep our new testimonials page updated on a regular basis as new reviews and comments come in. Any other suggestions, comments or even constructive criticism is always welcome. We're always looking to improve our service so we always take any suggestions on board.
There's not much else to report. We do have new stock due in later this month (March) and the good news is we are finally getting some Triple Charroux Armoires back in stock. I know a lot of people ask for these, so when they appear on the website don't hang around, as there will only be a limited supply.
Well that's all for now. By the next time we update our blog the weather should be much warmer and spring should well and truly be in the air.
December 2015 - The Winter Is Here!
Well we thought it high time we update our blog and let you know what's going on here at Kingdom Furnishings. Well for a start, it's very cold! Winter has arrived in full force and the dark nights have drawn in. This was giving us a few problems. The reason being we tend to rely on natural light for shooting our photos, however, at this time of year there is only a very small window of acceptable light available. Add that to the fact that we've had rain, rain and more rain here in the North West and it basically means it's very dark and gloomy in our little workshop. We do have lighting, but not suitable for taking photographs. So we have invested in some professional photographic lighting. We're still playing around with it but it certainly making the pictures look better.
Along with fancy new lighting we've also invested in some bedding for using on our bed pictures. So as you may have noticed in the past few weeks, our beds look a lot more inviting. This can lead to problems after a long days work, but so far we've resisted the urge to climb in for forty winks.
November is traditionally our busiest month, then as Decemeber starts it all slows down a little as people prepare for the festive season. We have new stock arriving early in January and we're hoping for lots of lovely new French Armoires, some new beds and lots more of your favourites. So keep an eye out for some new ranges of French Furniture coming in the new year.
That's all for now, we hope you all stay warm over the winter and enjoy the holiday season.
August 2015 - Time For A Makeover
Here at Kingdom Furnishings HQ we've been very busy over the past few weeks. The summer months tend to be the quietest of the year, so while there has been a little bit of a lul in demand we've been making good use of our time. So as you may have noticed from some of our recent pictures, we've created a little bit of a photo area for our furniture. The bigger companies all have studio settings and expensive lighting and we've just never been able to compete with that without raising prices which is something we don't want to do. We did decide that we could do something though!
So we brought in a joiner and spent a few days boarding up a section of the warehouse. We then painted it a nice neutral colour, added some skirting and basically made it look as presentable as possible. We are also going to buy some carpet to put down and try and make it look as much like a bedroom as possible. This is simply to enhance our pictures and make it look like our furniture is in a more natural setting rather than just in our dusty warehouse.
As well as creating a little photo area we've also been on a shopping spree. Well my wife has anyway. We decided some of our furniture such as bookshelves, display cabinets etc... needed a bit of a woman's touch to make it look more appealing. So we gave my wife some money and off she went with a smile on her face. She bought us some lovely nic naks to put on our furniture and dress things up a little more.
So as of early August you should hopefully start to see an improvement in our pictures. People who come and see our furniture in person always comment how much better it looks in real life. Pictures never seem to do it justice but we are hoping by improving the setting and dressing things up a little it will make things look that little bit more appealing.
In other news we have new stock coming in this week, so stay tuned from some new beds, wardrobes, dressing tables and lots more.
June 2015
Well summer is finally here, or so we are told. As I look out the window all I am met with is wind, rain and some very dark clouds. On top of that it's still freezing! I'm wrapped up in a fleece with our little electric heater doing it's best to keep my feet warm. Every cloud has a silver lining though and the good news here at Kingdom Furnishings is that our new website seems to be doing very well. We are getting visit from all over the UK and even further afield than that.
Over the past few months the demand for our French Furniture has been growing, so a few weeks ago we came to the decision to meet with out supplier. So last week we set up a meeting and I am happy to report we have arranged to have more regular shipments of our furniture. What this basically means is you will see more our your favourite pieces added to the website and stocks are less likely to run out. We often have phone calls and emails from people asking when a certain item is going to be back in stock, with more regular shipments we are hoping this will not be quite such an issue.
On top of that you will also see some exciting new ranges of wardrobes, beds and seating. As you may have noticed with our most recent update to the site, we have added some beautiful new pieces that are proving very popular. One of our favouites are the Lion Throne Chairs. The detailed carving on these really is remarkable.
Along with the Lion Throne Chairs we also had some beautiful new beds. We often get customers saying how much they love the upholstered beds we do. At the same time though when we add upholstered beds we also get people asking for non upholstered. So clearly there is demand for both.
Other highlights from our recent additions include some beautiful Chaise Lounges. When we met with our supplier we mentioned about getting a few different kinds of material in the future. We are looking to bring a really classic look to our furniture while keeping a more modern feel at the same time.
Well that's all for now, we hope you enjoy looking at some of our new stock. Keep your eyes glued to our site over the coming months as with plenty of regular stock heading our way we will be looking to keep our site updated on a regular basis with all our brand new French Furniture.
April 2015
Welcome to our blog and our first post. As this is our first post we thought it only proper we give you a little information about us here at Kingdom Furnishings. So who are we first of all?
Well let me introduce myself. My name is Andy and I have been helping out here at Kingdom Furnishings for just over a year now. I was brought onboard to help improve the online presence of Kingdom Furnishings, promote our furniture and bascially get us out there seen by more people. I have a history of working in online article creation, website design and advertising. So I look forward to putting those skills to good use on our new website.
I work along side Brennen who owns Kingdom Furnishings. He is our expert on the furniture as he has been in the furniture industry for well over a decade, he has advanced skills as a cabinet maker and he is very handy at fixing up any of our peices and making sure they look their best for our customers. Brennen started Kingdom Furnishings back in 2009 and has been building the business up ever since.
Humble Beginnings
When starting up Kingdom Furnishings the first thing Brennen needed was a workshop/warehouse. Now when it comes to looking for a new warehouse you would probably expect something on an industrial estate or in a built up area. However, Brennen had something a little different in mind. While out for the afternoon in the Ribble Valley Brennen got talking to a local farmer who mentioned he has a barn going to waste that he was looking to rent out. Brennen saw his chance and a few weeks later he was moving in. The barn needed a little sprucing up but it wasn't long before it was fit for furniture storage.
Although the barn was a good starting point it soon became clear a larger and more practical space was needed. Around this time another farmer up the road mentioned he had an old chicken shed that was now empty. Again Brennen saw his opportunity and soon a deal was agreed. A few months later that shabby old chicken shed had been converted into a made for purpose workshop/warehouse and that is where Kingdom Furnishings remains to this day. The picture to the right shows our converted chicken shed when it was almost empty, it's usually a lot fuller than that with all our lovely furniture.
So here we are, on a beautiful little farm in a converted chicken shed, which is now a lovely furniture workshop/warehouse. We are very lucky to be here, we are surrounded by rolling hills and green fields, it's so much nicer than being stuck on some crowded industrial estate.
When we do get customers coming to visit us and view our furniture they are always surprised to find us on a working farm, but they always tell us how lucky we are to be here. We have some friendly cows that often pop their heads over the fence for a look at what we're up to and although there are sometimes rather unpleasant smells drifting into our workshop, more often that not we love being here and wouldn't swap it for anywhere else.