Scenic Mesa - The Buffalo Collection Blog

Interior Designers

Scenic Mesa — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 20:07:31 +0000

Contracting an Interior Designer is a great way to make sure your expensive décor is tasteful, works together as a whole, and that you have the widest selection of furnishings, fabrics, and fixtures. Many resources are available “to the trade only” that are not available to the retail public. One of Designers’ most valuable functions is as general contractor for decorating, handling specifications, scheduling, shipping, and installation. People with busy lives find it much easier to work with an Interior Designer and Architect than to handle all the details of building and furnishing themselves.

That said, Designers increasingly find the savvy client asking to purchase furnishings themselves, hiring the Designer only for the actual design. Thus the customer takes on much of the role of the Designer, caught up in the inevitable hassles of scheduling, shipping, installation, and returns. This alternative model for using Designers does expand the potential customer base for Designers. It also forces the Designer to change their fee structure to charge enough for the design itself if they are no longer able to up charge the customer for furnishings and installation services.

As a manufacturer, The Buffalo Collection works with both Designers and the public. We specialize in American Buffalo leather furniture and home accessories. American buffalo hides are purchased in the Midwest, tanned in Mexico, and built into furniture by Hancock & Moore in Hickory NC. Furniture designs are from ranch tradition and western Designers. Local skilled artisans enhance our designs with braiding and appliqué trapunto coming from Western handcraft traditions of rein-making and leatherwork.

The Buffalo Collection works with both Interior Designers and direct retail customers. Price levels are set at wholesale for Designers and at retail. We are in the process of placing furniture vignettes in 20 showrooms across the country (7 are currently in place today). Prices to these showrooms are set at the wholesale level and they mark up to their retail price. Our website supports both price levels and can be accessed by certified Designers using an access code.

We are seeing the value of displaying a Scenic Mesa Style in putting together a complete room setting, including furniture, rugs, tables, and lamps. Local artisans work with our designer to develop complimentary pieces using material endemic to the American West. Understanding that Designers are always on the lookout for new resources, we are happy to work with them in selecting furniture pieces to fulfill their requirements and encourage them to consider the complimentary items we have found as well.

Want to talk more? Contact me at 970/872-3548 or julie@scenicmesa.com.

Julie Littlefield

The Buffalo Collection at Scenic Mesa, owner

Handcrafted, Made in America

Scenic Mesa — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 16:55:56 +0000

“High-tech/High-touch” – we used to say in the sixties. 21st century life full of mass-produced goods, technical communications gizmos, ever-changing software requirements, impersonal on-line shopping make hand-made, personalized, one-of-a-kind products that much more attractive to each of us. Logo t-shirts make bill-boards of our kids. Throw-away phones, adding machines, appliances, home furnishings add to the landfill and despoil the earth.

Another approach entirely features American handiwork – the “high-touch” of today. Look at the 20,000,000 quilters in America today. Consider the craft fairs in every community across our country. Look at the American ingenuity found in the labor-saving tools of yesteryear in our antique stores today. There is a wealth of handwork knowledge and skill in our past that could be lost if not used in our 21st century lives. Ironically the demands of those 20 million quilters support the textile and sewing machine industries in America today as American housewives no longer sew the family wardrobe. There is a large – and largely unmet – demand for personalized, hand-made goods today.

The Buffalo Collection in rural western Colorado features hand-crafted braiding and lacing from the western rein-making tradition as well as leather appliqué stitching in its furniture designs. We use only leather from the American icon – the American Buffalo. Hides come from the Midwest, are tanned by a European-trained tanner in Mexico, and are upholstered by the best in the business, Hancock & Moore in Hickory NC using designs drawn for the contemporary American West.

Our local skilled American artisans translate the handwork of the past into heirloom pieces made for today.
Imagine hand-braided welting edging your sofa. Imagine appliquéd raised designs on the back of a show-stopping sofa or chair in your living room. We’ve just found a collection of Western etchings to use in these designs. Your design suggestions and patterns are welcome for incorporation in a piece made for you.

Others in our area make wooden case goods, tables – coffee tables, side tables, console tables etc., blown glass lamps and chandeliers, turned wood bowls. Their works compliment ours and make a unique contemporary American West look. We include these local artisans’ goods in our showrooms and furniture vignettes places in 20 showrooms across the country.

I’d like to hear from you, tell me about your handcrafted wares.

And to learn more about leather check out…buffaloleatherstore.com to see the variety of American Buffalo leather available for your design projects such as reupholstering, stair runners, and wall treatments.

Hope to talk with you more.

Julie Littlefield
The Buffalo Collection at Scenic Mesa, owner