A World of Productive Jubilation

Wise business owners know that happy employees are productive employees. These prudent bosses understand that the best training, high-tech equipment, and clever marketing will fall flat without the right work environment. With a pleasant work space and good team morale, the phone rings. Sales are made. Profits are earned. The company grows. Bonuses are given.

 

Long aware of the positive impact that work environment can have on employee morale -  and his company’s bottom line -  Ink Floyd owner Dave Collier might well be considered a sort of guru in this regard ; an expert in pairing just the right balance of clear production goals and the conditions for their accomplishment, AND the fun work environment that keeps workers happy, and the Ink Floyd machine humming.

 

In fact, Ink Floyd’s artistic blend of fun and productivity in the workplace is so unique - so creative, that some have even called Dave Collier the Willy Wonka of screen printing.

Now that’s a bold statement. And, yet with an after hours recreation area that includes a tiki bar, cedar dart board cabinet, oversized dining table with benches, jacuzzi - even a bench press with weight set - it’s no dubious exaggeration.

 

The Ink Floyd team already seemed to have everything they could possibly need. 

But the after-work fire pit gatherings had grown in size and popularity - underscoring the need for seating more substantial than the whimsical collection of beach chairs, hay bales, 5-gallon buckets, and other improvised outdoor furniture.

Team Floyd needed proper outdoor seating for their fire pit area, and Dave quickly gave the green light to an outdoor sectional sofa design made with red cedar.

 

We found the plans for this excellent outdoor sofa design at realcedar.com  - a trade association website that promotes Western Red Cedar. This tree species grows and is harvested primarily in Oregon, Washington, and in British Columbia, CA. 

Here in Charlotte, though, and our preferred lumber for outdoor projects like this is Eastern Red Cedar ; another red cedar species that’s equally durable outdoors, and when purchased rough-sawn, costs much less than kiln dried, dimensional red cedar lumber from a retail store.

For outdoor projects that don’t require kiln-dried red cedar ( like this sectional sofa, for example, and the cedar garden beds, cedar-framed greenhouses, and cedar chicken coops we build ) rough-sawn Eastern Red Cedar is our first and only choice.

We built Ink Floyd’s outdoor sectional sofa with a combination of red cedar 2”x6”, 2”x4” and 1”x6” - carefully following the step-by-step building plans. 

Now, it’s worth noting here that most building plans - including the plans available at realcedar.com - are created using nominal lumber sizes. In other words, the plans assume that the 2”x4” you’re working with was purchased from a retail store, and actually measures 1.5” x 3.5”. 

This may seem like a trifling detail, but your project can quickly get sideways if the 2”x4” lumber you’re working with actually measures 2”x4”. So if you work with rough-sawn lumber, like we do, small but crucial adjustments must be carefully made along the way in order to create the project in the correct scale and proportion. 

Careless miscalculations, or worse - completely ignoring these seemingly small differences in lumber size - can result in a table that’s too low with benches that are too high. Chairs that are too deep and uncomfortable, etc.

Once the size adjustments were carefully calculated, the cedar sectional sofa quickly began to take shape. We used high-strength structural steel screws in a few places - just to make sure our sofa would stand up to any of Ink Floyd’s raucous after-work celebrations. 

 

And when the cedar sectional sofa was finally completed, we thoroughly sanded all of the edges, corners, the seat, backrest, armrests, etc. - removing any chance of a party foul delivered by an unwelcome wood splinter jabbing someone in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

With the sanding completed and the sawdust blown off, we next applied a heavy coat of 

water-based spar urethane wood sealer to help preserve the cedar sofa. The satin finish gives red cedar projects like this a more polished appearance and helps if weather and age more gracefully. It also keeps the wood looking cleaner over time - and easier to clean when needed.

A set of outdoor cushions for added comfort and a fun pop of color, and it was time for the Ink Floyd crew to put their new cedar sectional sofa to the test. 

Is it comfortable enough? Will it pass muster with Team Floyd?

it sure seems that way. 

And it doesn’t look too bad out there beside the tiki bar, either. 

But, just like Willy Wonka, Dave Collier somehow vanished the moment we turned to ask him if he thought the new cedar sectional sofa would help the company’s bottom line. 

So, we’ll just have to humbly imagine that Dave’s answer might have been , “Why, yes, my good man - Of course it will!”

And that our new cedar sectional sofa does complement Ink Floyd’s thoughtfully curated, and refreshingly original workplace.