“We’re very unique in the re-upholstery world. There isn’t really anyone doing what we do… I think in the whole country,”
says Kriss Kokoefer, the fourth and current owner for Oakland-based Kay Chesterfield. An industry veteran of 18 years, she says she can’t seem to find any companies quite like Kay – companies that have the ability and ambition to focus on re-upholstery on a commercial scale. Reduce, reuse, recycle, and now there’s “re-up.”
Stationed across from the Oakland coliseum, the once-neon, now slightly rusted and entirely charming “KAY” sign evokes Americana-sentimentality and local nostalgia. Celebrating its 100th year in business, Kokoefer sees a gap in the market, one that she believes if could be filled, could create another gap where we actually need it – in landfills.
“I think there’s going to be a huge new wave of re-upholstery”
Kokoefer believes that if companies committed to re-upholster just 10-20% of their existing furniture, the positive environmental impacts could be substantial. While most corporate furniture is BIFMA certified, the upholstery is not. Massive amounts of furniture end up in landfills every year simply because the upholstery wears out.
Kay Chesterfield’s namesake origin is twofold – Sam Kay being the original owner, who established the furniture making business in 1921 in Oakland, and Chesterfield being the classic sofa style of which the company produced. Creating living room suite furniture from scratch, re-upholstery was built into the business model. New furniture was rarely purchased and kept in families for generations.
Fifty years in, Kay couldn’t compete with furniture production in Highpoint, North Carolina and eventually China. They shifted their model, focusing entirely on residential re-upholstery, only to shift yet again, recognizing the market demand for commercial furniture.
Kokoefer bought Kay in 2012 and estimates that the business they bring in today is approximately 75% commercial. It’s also within the commercial market that she sees the opportunity – you can make a bigger impact re-upholstering 20 chairs as opposed to a few.
Kay operates out of a 10,000 square-foot space with 16 employees, 10 of whom are upholsterers. Their lead upholsterer, Gonzalo Torres, worked for Marvin Kay, who inherited the business from his father. Several others have been with the company for over a decade.
You don’t have to sacrifice your design vision to be environmentally responsible.
I recently had a friend ask me for recommendations for a tailor. Being lost in the wave of the new and the cheap, many of us are looking back to slow craft to truly care for the products we buy. We’re seeing huge trends in buying vintage and used.
Innovation doesn’t always mean outfitting spaces with all the newest trends. Now more than ever, it means finding ways to be socially and environmentally responsible. For Kay, that’s looking back at 100 years of craft, doing their part to help ensure the next 100 years for our planet.
