Manufacturing a dining room chair, arm chair, or sofa involves more than most people think. The frame needs to be formed completely, fabric and leather need to be cut and sewed together to create upholstery, and the foam needs to be cut and placed.
And lastly, the upholstery needs to be stretched over the frame. This makes manufacturing one chair or armchair an extremely labour intensive process, which involes a lot of craftsmanship.
A while ago, we got a proverbial behind the scenes look at H.E Design, and we were able to document the entire process for you, to show you the labour and craftmanship that is involved. In this blog, we will take you along in this process.
The manufacturing process of a dining room chair starts with the frame.
The frame of the chair starts as long, straight tubes, that will be cut to size and bent. After this, the tubes will be sent to the welder, who will combine these separate tubes into a fully formed frame for your chair or armchair. In the picture, you can see the welder at work: he places all the separate tubes into a mold, snaps them into place, and welds them to create the frame.
Welding isn’t just done manually: H.E. Design also utilises a fully automatic welding robot. The tubes do still need to be placed manually, but the robot will then weld the frame together. In the video below, you can see the welding robot at work.
Once the frame has been welded together, the springs and the wooden base of the seat will be placed.
• In the top left photo, you can see the welded frames of armchairs
• In the top right photo, you can see an employee place the springs into the frame.
• In the bottom left photo, you can see the wooden frame that will become the seat of the dining room chair.
• In the bottom right photo, you see the wooden base, mounted to the steel frame of the chair.
When the springs and the seat have been mounted, the foam filling is placed on the frame.
• At the top left, you see a stack of foam fillings for chairs, armchairs, or dining benches. These have already been cut to size, and need to be glued to the chairs.
• On the top right, you see an employee placing a foam filling on a dining room chair.
• On the bottom left, you see a chair with a foam filling and a dacron top layer. Dacron rounds off the sharp corners of the foam. This creates a beautiful, finished corner.
• On the bottom right, you see an employee place foam onto a Mareina Armchair.
In the video below, you can see how the foam filling is stretched over the frame.
Next, we are taking a look at the leather cutters and the sewing workshop.
• On the top left picture, you see the sheets of leather before they are processed. All the types and colours that H.E. Design has are in stock here, as full skins, ready for use once they are ordered.
• On the photo on the top right, you see an employee cutting the leather to size. This is done using molds, which are placed on the leather. Afterwards, they cut around these molds to get the perfect size.
• On the bottom left photo, you see the sewing workshop. This is where all types of leather and fabric are sewed together to form a full sleeve, which can be stretched over the chair or easy-chair.
• On the bottom left photo you see all the fabrics and leather types, ready to be sewed together.
And lastly, we see the upholsterers at work. Here, the upholstery is stretched over the chair and fixed to it. 
• In the top photo, yoOpu see chairs ready to be upholstered. The sleeve is placed over the chair at the top, and then the upholsterers pull and stretch it over the entire chair. In this picture, you see a Looq dining room chair ready to be upholstered.
• In the photos on the bottom, you see upholsterers stretch the fabric and leather over the chair. Fun fact about this: this work is far more intensive than most people think. Because you want to stretch the fabric nice and tight around the chair, sometimes two employees are pulling on the fabric to get it tight enough around the frame!
And finally, we want to give you a little sneak peek of the newest collection from H.E. Design, which will soon enter our showroom and website.
• In the top left photo, you see the Mila easy-chair in a coco fabric with a leather back.
• In the top right photo, you see the Uniq dining room chair. This chair is available in a large range of fabric and leather types. In addition, it’s available with or without armrests, and a swivel leg.
• In the bottom photo you see the Madrid sofa. This sofa will be available as a corner sofa, or as a separate sofa. Thanks to the sturdy, comfortable seat and the sleek design of this sofa, you will enjoy it for many years!