Cutting for Matching

Hello Duane,

Just when we think we understand everything something else comes up!

We were talking to another dealer of H&M about 50 miles from our house where we shop sometimes. While I would not buy H&M from them, they said something interesting I hadn't heard before.

In the T&C program, if a chair is say $1200 and a couch $2500 in Doc Chestnut, if the buyer wants a cutting in Doc Chestnut to make sure the pieces all match, then the price of each piece goes up to say $3200 for the couch and $1600 for the chairs.

I read on your T&C page g) No cutting for approval or color match on married cover items. I guess the dealer was saying that if we want color matching then it's not a married cover and H&M sews the kits here. The question is how much variation should we expect in Doc Chestnut between the chairs and couches if we go the married cover version on all pieces? Does H&M try to match up the colors on the various pieces made using the pre-made kits so the color difference between the pieces is less noticable?

I'm guessing this is why you said the Ottoman in Doc Chestnut wouldn't be exactly the same color as on the sofa and chairs. The Ottoman's are probably made here.

That dealer is correct. Town and Country Married Cover is cut and sewn in China where the Document hide is sourced. Therefore there is nothing to get a cutting from as there are no scraps - its a made-up kit.

To get matches and cuttings it all has to be 100% put together in Hickory NC and then you lose the nice pricing.

Document Chestnut, being a finished (pigmented) leather does not vary much from hide to hide, but ultimately it depends on how keen an eye one has for that. If a slight dye lot variance would bother you or your wife, then the only way around it is to have it all made from the same batch of loose hides in Hickory NC.

Yes, that one Ottoman would be cut and sewn in Hickory from loose hides.

The married document chestnut is probably fine. We're reasonably casual about things.

You mentioned that extra doc chestnut is $12 a sq ft. I saw a document from the warranty and replacement pricing page you posted that mentioned $8 a sq foot retail. Is that for the whole hide? If there's a better price for a hide, I can use between one and four hides. One for back up and repair and four for recovering a couple of mission recliners that take 2 hides each.

Let me know if the hide price is cheaper per sq ft.