From Forest to Finish

From a forest canopy in the Philippines to a bedroom in Texas, the Four Seasons in Hawaii, or a den in Durham, a piece of rattan furniture by David Francis always stops in Vero Beach first for its finishing touches.

Literally.

Housed in a brick building on U.S. 1 down the road from a citrus processing plant, the 18,000-square-foot David Francis showroom and factory fills custom orders exclusively for designers and their clients. From 150 proprietary designs, 35 different finishes and lacquers, 10 drawer pull options, and performance fabrics in a plethora of colors, the raw Philippines-made furniture is transformed into unique pieces for both residential and hospitality destinations. Last year, around 4,000 pieces shipped from the factory, not including the hospitality customers.

Twice a year when the factory opens to the public for its sample sale, a feeding frenzy ensues every time. What is it about David Francis furniture that resonates with its devotees and keeps them coming back year after year?

“It’s ‘the look,’” says Catherine Blüm, co-owner of David Francis. “We pride ourselves on customization. Not only are our clients getting an exclusive design, but with the finish they specify and the fabric they specify, each piece is very much one of a kind.” ‘The look’ graces the Grand-Hotel du Cap-Ferrat on the Cote d’Azure, The Colony in Palm Beach, and private homes across the United States. The permutations for distinctiveness are endless.

Depending on the finishes and hardware a designer opts for, the rattan frames can shape-shift from traditional to modern. “It’s transitional,” says Blüm, seated at a table in the showroom. “You can go from the more traditional setting to a contemporary setting.” Skewing to the more modern, Blüm’s client designers are asking for mixed material—rattan paired with other materials such as sustainable hardwoods and metal. Every spring Blüm and her team start working on new designs; it takes a year from concept to production.

The most popular color trend in recent years is “everything blue,” according to Blüm. “Every six months we run a trend report. In the past two years it’s blue first, then white, black, and natural. Natural is one of my favorite finishes; it shows the beauty of the natural wood material, the highlights, the lowlights of the different woods. Stained finishes are coming back. We’re getting quite a lot more requests from both hospitality and residential designers.” All the finishes are mixed in-house at the factory, and 15 percent of the orders are custom colors.

Blüm has an extraordinary appreciation for the wood. She has been visiting the Philippines, where the rattan is harvested, and the five factories where the furniture is made, since she was 13 years old with her parents, who owned the company. In 1997, David and Theresa Francis Swett—ergo the combo name—purchased The Trading Company, which had been in business since 1979. They changed the name in 2000, moved a few times from the original 4,000-square-foot factory to the current location, and grew the business.

There were originally 20 to 25 designs. The “X & Diamond” chair is still the company’s most popular design with both residential and hospitality projects. The Swetts continued the relationships with the factories in the Philippines that the previous owners had established, focusing exclusively on rattan—a beautiful, sustainable, and durable material.

“Rattan is solid throughout, versus bamboo, which is hollow,” explains Blüm. “Rattan is actually a palm vine. There are over 300 species. It grows in the forest canopy horizontally. It’s fast-growing, extremely sustainable. They harvest it in certified forests, split the outer layer and peel it off to reveal the core rattan, and clean the loose stems and fibers. It’s then air-dried and allowed to cure. Finally, it goes through a fumigation process and is shipped off to various businesses and factories.”

Blüm visits the factories every other year to maintain the relationships and to see what’s new. “We have a little bit of everything: dining chairs, end tables, lounge chair collection, bedroom collection, case goods collection, desks, coffee tables, headboards, bookshelves, and more.” Blüm makes sure the warehouse is always well stocked with all the inventory, monitoring it every two weeks.

Growing up around her parents’ business, surrounded by her father’s furniture sketches and being immersed in the process of the realization of those ideas, prepared her for taking David Francis to the next level going forward. Additionally, after graduating from college, Blüm spent five years learning about the operations, from shipping to creating her first design—which became an instant bestseller—in 2012.

As a Vero Beach High School student, Tim Ledford apprenticed with an antique restorer in Vero Beach as part of a teen work program. He went on to become an expert furniture restorer and finisher, an “ingenious” carpenter, and a downright alchemist with paint finishes. He joined David Francis 26 years ago, leading the production team. On July 1, 2020, he and Blüm became co-owners of the company. Blüm says, “Tim has such a wonderful eye. He’s our mixologist.”

Ledford can be found in the factory, which is adjacent to the showroom. He and Blüm oversee 15 full-time employees, all of whom are local, and many of whom have been with the company over a decade. With soaring ceilings, big fans, two paint booths, and plenty of room to spread out, the orders are filled, beginning with inspection, repair of any imperfections, sanding, tinted priming, more sanding, and painting multiple times until the four to seven coats of lacquer are completely dry. The item then goes next door into a massive shipping area, where custom packaging is created for each custom piece. Start to finish takes 10 to 12 weeks. And off it goes.

With its high ceiling and massive fans, the factory doesn’t have air-conditioning. Ledford explains: “A lot of furniture factories don’t have air-conditioning. We monitor the humidity with a gauge. We work with the environment. The material is happy here because the climate is similar to where the rattan comes from. One hundred percent humidity is bad, 65 percent is good. If it’s too high, the paint combats the humidity. We don’t force-dry anything.”

Ledford estimates that between seven and eight David Francis artisans touch a piece of furniture, and 40 to 50 people overall when you factor in those in the Philippines who cut, cured, bent, built, and loaded each piece of furniture into its shipping container. Ledford enthuses, “From start to finish, all this is art!”

So, if you are in a Lilly Pulitzer store reposing on a crisp, white-lacquered Chippendale Collection chair upholstered in an exclusive-design Lilly fabric, remember that this David Francis chair stopped in Vero Beach first, to receive its finishing touches.