Pictured left is Harry Richardson. The original founder of Richardson Seating and the creator of all Richardson Furniture. Richardson Seating manufactures Richardson's furniture in Chicago using an in house upholstery shop, metal shop, and wood shop. All of the furniture Richardson produces is made for commercial environments. It is just that many of our items also work in residential settings even though they could last years in a diner. Richardson Furniture is made with pride in Chicago and has been since 1975. Founded by Harry Richardson, Richardson Seating's line of Richardson Furniture has been a staple in the restaurant industry for almost 50 years.
When Harry Richardson started making his own brand of Richardson Furniture, he was a young man living in Chicago right before world war II. Harry Richardson's Furniture was all made with common every day items that you could get during the rations of war time.
You can make almost every piece of Richardson Furniture with common items like 2x4s, plywood, and cotton. Even during rationing, we should be able to make some version of our furniture.
I remember one day I walked into the factory and saw employees cutting garbage bags. I asked why they were doing this. They told me that they had run out of silk film. Rather than ask for more, they just keep going and improvise. Would you believe that cut up garbage liners work just as good as silk film for pulling vinyl over foam.
Here is another one you might not guess. In order to add nail head trim, sometimes we need the internal structure of the backrest to be thicker. We want to make sure that the nails don't come out and tear the vinyl or even worse hurt someone.
Rather than use a thicker curved plywood or thicker paperboard, we cut up corrugated and just staple it onto the plywood to make it thicker. it is very simple and very effective.
When you run a factory as old as ours, you learn how to make the same thing multiple ways just in case you lose access to something. The furniture made by Richardson or Richardson Furniture is top quality and has been made by my family for the last 45 years.