Quality Made Sylvia Sewing Furniture
Our commitment to quality extends to, what some might consider, even the most mundane items. I’m talking about the hardware we use in all of Sylvia’s sewing furniture. In the past few blog posts, I’ve talked about how we assemble our furniture and the sewing machine lift we use in those cabinets that the machine is lowered when you fold up the cabinet. So when we designed some of the cabinets with drawers, we knew we wanted the quality to extend here as well.
Our early design of the drawers in our sewing cabinets were merely drawer glides on the side of a wooden “box-type” design. Very basic. While the drawer opened and closed fine, it was just “acceptable”. At Sylvia, we strive to be the best so we redesigned the drawers. Gone were wooden “boxes” and “in” are metal drawer sides that are very strong and have a 
fluid sliding movement. The fluidity of motion is due to the use of a roller slide system. Further, the epoxy paint on the drawer slides make for quiet operation. The drawers are designed to handle the load of almost anything you want to put inside of it. Even when the drawer is open the overall appearance of the drawer is improved by these sleek metal drawer sides.
On every drawer we have gone through a number of handle designs. Why? We simply want best quality on our furniture. The handles we use now are a glossy black metal. We don’t use plastic and believe that the color black best compliments all the 
color finishes we use. Except of course those cabinets that are finished in white - those drawer handles are glossy white metal. On our older models we used a utilitarian-type of handle. Functional? Yes. Attractive? Questionable. The ones we use now are more stylish and more fitting to the overall look of Sylvia.
Flush mounted hinges are used by Sylvia. Why? Simply, they are better. When this type hinge is used, fabric or large quilts will never snag. Nothing sticks up or protrudes with this hinge. The way these hinges are designed, they are attached to the face of the wood, not the end. Why does this matter? Because when a screw is attached to the face or surface, it is stronger and more secure. Putting screws in the end of a piece of wood, especially particle board, is weaker and with use will loosen the screws securing the hinge to the wood. This is precisely 
why we don’t use this type of hinge. What we use costs us a bit more and requires a bit more work, but it goes to the Sylvia overall commitment to quality.
We have a specialty hinge on the door of our model 1520. This cabinet has a door that opens from right to left and it is the support provided by the door that allows the handy little 
shelf on the right. But listening to customers’ comments, we improved this hinge and now use one that allows the door to swing almost all the way to the back. This provides better support and takes up less room.
It’s this type of commitment to quality that makes Sylvia different. Quality, right down literally to the very nuts and bolts we use.
Until next time,
Horst