One of International Soft Furnishers’ recent successes was to install curtain sets, roman blinds and three very long fabric pelmets at the Holiday Inn in Bromsgrove, England. Designed by Charles  Leon Associates, it fell to us to make and fit these hospitality curtains, blinds and pelmets.

Most challenging was the 12 metre pelmet to be made in one piece to run down the side of one corridor in this recently redecorated hotel. How would we transport this item if we made it in advance in our workshop in Bedford? The answer was to make it on site. Our upholstery team pre-cut the timber framework, joined the fabric, padded the front boards and set off with all these and more materials to the hotel to make them up on site. Fortunately Holiday Inn Bromsgrove’s main conference room was available for our upholsterers to make the 12 metre pelmet, another one of 7 metre length and a smaller one of over 5metres in the hotel. Which they did excellently.

The plan was that the curtain and blind fitters were to supplement the team the next day to lift this enormous pelmet onto its brackets and fix it into place. Amazingly, we arrived to see the 12 metre pelmet already fitted. The upholsterers had made it so light yet so rigid that two of them were able to lift it into place and fix it professionally to the brackets that they had prepared in advance on the first day. The rest of the job was fitted on the second day to the satisfaction of the client.

Another example of ISF’s Contract Soft Furnishings Making and Fitting Solutions

ISF MADE  AND FITTED CURTAINS, SHEERS, ROMAN BLINDS, PRIVACY ROLLER BLINDS and VENETIAN BLINDS TO 9 HIGH END LUXURY APARTMENTS in RECORD TIME. 

Ordered by our client just before Christmas 2011 to be made to their design, our workshop produced a complex assortment of over 3metre drop hand headed pinch pleat curtains, sheers, roman blinds and professionally bent aluminium tracks ready for 6 flats for fitting in early January.

 Our order control processors purchased the fabrics, wrote making up instructions for the workshop, cutters prepared the fabrics for sewing and seamstresses made the finished articles to deadline. They even worked through the year end break to get everything ready on time. In parallel, our track makers cut, bent to plan and assembled metal curtain tracks, sheer curtain tracks and roman blind systems ready for the fitting date.

 Our fitting team was organised to install up to 27 sets of difficult window furnishings on the appointed days required by the client. Everything went well to the client’s satisfaction to the point that they added three more flats which we were asked to deliver in just two weeks. Most items under our control were punctually delivered with a few ordered in blinds made by others arriving just in time for the major photoshoot to take place on time.

 ISF is exceptionally proud of having contributed to the success of this operation which was just one part of dressing out the apartments with smart furniture and accessories by our client to enable the developer to market these properties to this discerning market.

Sloping top electrically operated pleated blinds to fit two 4.7 metre high by 2.7 metre wide

windows were successfully fitted by International Soft Furnishers in bedrooms of a superbly

designed new house dressed to sell in the Surrey stockbroker belt in October 2011.

Opening the impossible to reach top blinds using a hand held remote control is simplicity

itself. The gentle opening movement of the bottom bar up the rectangular part of the window

then folding right up to the sloping head is beautiful to behold.  The Cosiflor system open

blinds are hardly detectable as the material folds into a tight package right up against the

top window frames. They can be stopped  at any level on the way down to achieve solar

control and near total blackout when fully down. The blinds can be operated singly or all

together by the press of a button on the controller.
 
Manually controlled lower blinds draw closed from the bottom upwards. They can be stopped at

any level to provide either partial shading or privacy with a view when drawn up to shoulder

level or near total blackout when drawn completely up to meet the top blinds.

Our team worked on high scaffolding to install probably the most impressive array of

electric and manual pleated blinds in just two days. Equally fascinating but on a smaller

scale, other rooms with pointed or sloping top windows were fitted with cord  controlled

shaped pleated blinds. Further windows had woodslat venetian blinds and aluminium slatted

venetian blinds in designer colours.

The window blinds installation throughout the first floor complimented the cutting edge

curtains treatments made and fitted by us at the same time in the principal ground floor

rooms.

The main living room 5.5 metres curtain track with full height curtains stretches across the

garden view picture window. Its ripplefold heading produces a superbly regular wave-style

finish which requires practically no assistance to look good throughout its life.

Complimentary roman blinds dress the two side windows.

A strong feature in the dining room is the imposingly modern 50mm Silent Gliss Metropole

with the same wave-style heading. Full height two layer curtains of a contemporary patterned

black sheer over deep colour tafetta background add to the breathtaking scene created by our

interior designer client.

International Soft Furnishers is partricularly proud to have contributed key elements to

enable the developer of this house to market it with confidence at the top end of the

market. We thank all those who have praised us for our achievements on this fine job.

Finance Manager Trudy George has settled in after afew months in post. She has contributed to the running of the company in particularly in banking, ledger management, pricing, margin scrutiny, cost control and in many other ways. She has already shown to be a great asset to our team.
Sales and Marketing Manager Kevin Lawrence has extensive experience in contract furnishings. Formerly National Sales Manager  with office furniture and office package deals companies, he brings us the extra resource we need to open new customers by spreading the ISF message of great quality and competitively priced window furnishings for all types of commercial and institutional situations.

Latest Job
How dow you make a garden seat cushions for a built-in semi-circular garden seat? Well, with the close attention and patience ISF brings to this kind of job. Not only does the back curve for about  4 metres but it slopes at the same time. It takes templates, foam cut to shape, testing and skilled cover sewing to achieve this result. I am glad to say that the great many of our people who were involved got a perfect fit the first time!

Just an example of our custom making upholstered furniture and cushion to order.

Williams and our own senior interior designer Rachael Ives to create these stunning window

treatments, fabric wall panel and fabuolus cushions. Even though the room itself is not

finished we are so excited by the soft furnishings we thought that it was worth posting this

news and images as an example of our work in response to this particular requested design

style.  Greg Kostin.

New school – new curtains! Soon after the  merger Bedford Girls’ School will be  rennovated. We were contacted to supply and install 200 blackout flame retardant roller blinds for the classrooms. An exceptional school deserves exceptional window dressing! Moreover, we were given the toughest deadline – roller blinds should be supplied and fitted in 4 weeks. With our track record of tackling tough deadlines, the school head teacher can have peace of mind: the new school will be dressed for a new school year!

We have come across a 17^th Century Manor House which has just been saved from complete ruination. The owners have carefully restored it and are now talking to us regarding the supply and fit of carpets and curtains appropriate to such a beautiful  historic house. More news as it happens.

With the wonderful theme ‘Marketing Fields Forever’ the conference united academics and practitioners. The practitioners were of a particular interest headed by the keynote speakers Rashik Parmar, IBM Chief Technology Officer and Richard Hayes, Warburtons Ltd Marketing Director. Rashik delivered an amazing presentation on the future of technology while Richard engaged everyone in his passion for  Warburtons brand. 

The special sessions were truly inspirational! Natalya attended ‘Work and Life in the City of the Future’, ‘Academic-Practitioner Divide Debate’, ‘Co-creation of Value in Practice’, ‘Whither B2B Marketing’. The last is particularly worth mentioning due to the fact that Malcolm McDonald himself was part of the expert panel! 

The hottest discussions as usual were around the most debatable topics :

• e-marketing and social media  (the winning research paper related to, consumer motivation in joining Facebook brand communities)
• co-creation of value (Graham Hill made furore!)
•  brand, identity and corporate reputation
• consumer research 

The conference   concluded  with a Gala Dinner in St George’s Hall which is a focal point for cultural activities in Liverpool.