Tuesday, June 09, 2009
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Try this at home sometime...
If you google the terms "cola" and "rust remover" you'll find lots of information. But if you google the terms "cola" and "good for dining room table" you may not find much at all.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Go on, drop the wand again!
Here's a magical offer you can't refuse. Visit Superior Table Pad or call 1-800-595-2292 to take advantage.
Monday, September 08, 2008
Nice to be talked about in a great newspaper!
Here's a very complimentary article about Superior Table Pad Company written by the Chicago Sun Times' most promising up-and-coming new columnist! (Just remember, you have to scroll down past the political stuff to get to Superior Table Pad.)
UPDATE: These things go to archive very quickly, so here's the article reproduced with full copyright notices:
Following (c) 2008, Neil Steinberg and Chicago Sun times
An adult reaches for protection
When do you become an adult? The traditional coming-of-age ceremonies, like bar mitzvahs and quinceaneras, are pegged too early to mark true adulthood, but are remnants of cultures where you had to become an adult quickly because you'd be dead by the time you were 40.
Voting and drinking, at 18 and 21, are popular candidates, but there's more to being grown up than quaffing a beer or casting a ballot, and the truth is, despite what those in their mid-20s might think, the full weight of adulthood usually hasn't yet settled upon their shoulders.
Some say that you aren't really, truly an adult until both your parents die, but with people such as John McCain, 72, enjoying a living parent, that seems late in the game.
Myself, I pinpoint the onset of true adulthood to a specific consequence of our honeymoon -- table pads.
My wife and I honeymooned in New England, and were drawn into a lovely woodworking shop on a winding road in Maine. We ordered a magnificent spoon-leg dining room table out of honey-stained bird's eye maple -- 5 feet across, nearly 10 feet long with the leaves in.
A table like that costs a fortune, and needs protection. It needs, I realized, despite my relative youth, table pads, to guard it from the spills and scuffs of years to come.
So I phoned Superior Table Pads, and they sent out a salesman. I still can see him with his sample case, carefully explaining the various qualities of pad, from the top of the line, which would protect the table from a hot rivet -- more pad than I needed, he confided -- to the cheapie pad, which of course I didn't want.
Like any good salesman, he made the transaction effortless. I ordered the middle range pad, feeling both extravagant and frugal, not to mention an adult, finally, the kind of responsible person who would purchase something so practical.
The Superior Table Pad Co. is located in a modest brick factory in the middle of the 3000 block of North Oakley. It was founded in 1937 by Joe Antler and his wife, Molly. He died in 1989, but she still works in the dark-paneled office at the age of 91.
Her son Steve runs the company and is also a professor of economics at Roosevelt University. Like many children of businessmen, he had no intention of entering his father's business -- initially. He studied economics and became a professor in St. Johns, Newfoundland.
"I taught for 20 years in Canada's largest and least prestigious state universities," says Antler, 63.
The prospect of helping his father make table pads was, Antler says, "a nightmare."
"I was very conflicted about it," he adds. "My dad talked me into coming back to Chicago, and here I am."
Superior is one of perhaps five table pad companies in the country.
"Let me show you the business," says Antler, ushering me into a large, airy, clean workroom, filled with cutting tables and rolls of vinyl. The production crew -- numbering three persons -- is just returning from break, and we watch Booker Banks assemble a table pad, basically a sandwich with heat-proof felt in the middle, velvet on one side and woodgrain vinyl on the other.
"A machine can't do that," says Antler, as Banks manipulates a three-fold pad.
I observe that the factory floor is not precisely a hive of activity, and Antler explains they are just entering into their busy period.
"The business is very seasonal," he says. Orders are concentrated between Labor Day and Easter, when people realize they have guests coming over for big dinners and unprotected wood tables.
Superior sells four levels of pads -- the Athena, the Elite, the Select and the Budget -- which differ based on how many layers of heat-insulating felt are in them and the quality of the fabric underneath. They range in price, for an average table, from $90 to $250.
Measurement is key to the table pad business. The company sells table pads nationwide, and most customers reach them online, taking their table dimensions themselves using brown paper and a crayon from the kit Superior mails out.
However -- and this struck me as the most novel aspect of the business -- if you don't live too far away, Superior will send one of their staffers, meaning Antler, his wife, Sally, or his nephew Geoff, to your home to measure your table for no additional charge. Home visits are the best part of the job.
"I feel like I have a wonderful job because I get to see these beautiful, beautiful tables," says Sally Antler. "I love it."
"It's what we've been doing for years," says her husband. "I visit people's houses and sometimes see a table pad that's stitched in a certain way and know my grandmother worked on it."
(c) 2008 Neil Steinberg and Chicago Sun Times
UPDATE: These things go to archive very quickly, so here's the article reproduced with full copyright notices:
Following (c) 2008, Neil Steinberg and Chicago Sun times
An adult reaches for protection
When do you become an adult? The traditional coming-of-age ceremonies, like bar mitzvahs and quinceaneras, are pegged too early to mark true adulthood, but are remnants of cultures where you had to become an adult quickly because you'd be dead by the time you were 40.
Voting and drinking, at 18 and 21, are popular candidates, but there's more to being grown up than quaffing a beer or casting a ballot, and the truth is, despite what those in their mid-20s might think, the full weight of adulthood usually hasn't yet settled upon their shoulders.
Some say that you aren't really, truly an adult until both your parents die, but with people such as John McCain, 72, enjoying a living parent, that seems late in the game.
Myself, I pinpoint the onset of true adulthood to a specific consequence of our honeymoon -- table pads.
My wife and I honeymooned in New England, and were drawn into a lovely woodworking shop on a winding road in Maine. We ordered a magnificent spoon-leg dining room table out of honey-stained bird's eye maple -- 5 feet across, nearly 10 feet long with the leaves in.
A table like that costs a fortune, and needs protection. It needs, I realized, despite my relative youth, table pads, to guard it from the spills and scuffs of years to come.
So I phoned Superior Table Pads, and they sent out a salesman. I still can see him with his sample case, carefully explaining the various qualities of pad, from the top of the line, which would protect the table from a hot rivet -- more pad than I needed, he confided -- to the cheapie pad, which of course I didn't want.
Like any good salesman, he made the transaction effortless. I ordered the middle range pad, feeling both extravagant and frugal, not to mention an adult, finally, the kind of responsible person who would purchase something so practical.
The Superior Table Pad Co. is located in a modest brick factory in the middle of the 3000 block of North Oakley. It was founded in 1937 by Joe Antler and his wife, Molly. He died in 1989, but she still works in the dark-paneled office at the age of 91.
Her son Steve runs the company and is also a professor of economics at Roosevelt University. Like many children of businessmen, he had no intention of entering his father's business -- initially. He studied economics and became a professor in St. Johns, Newfoundland.
"I taught for 20 years in Canada's largest and least prestigious state universities," says Antler, 63.
The prospect of helping his father make table pads was, Antler says, "a nightmare."
"I was very conflicted about it," he adds. "My dad talked me into coming back to Chicago, and here I am."
Superior is one of perhaps five table pad companies in the country.
"Let me show you the business," says Antler, ushering me into a large, airy, clean workroom, filled with cutting tables and rolls of vinyl. The production crew -- numbering three persons -- is just returning from break, and we watch Booker Banks assemble a table pad, basically a sandwich with heat-proof felt in the middle, velvet on one side and woodgrain vinyl on the other.
"A machine can't do that," says Antler, as Banks manipulates a three-fold pad.
I observe that the factory floor is not precisely a hive of activity, and Antler explains they are just entering into their busy period.
"The business is very seasonal," he says. Orders are concentrated between Labor Day and Easter, when people realize they have guests coming over for big dinners and unprotected wood tables.
Superior sells four levels of pads -- the Athena, the Elite, the Select and the Budget -- which differ based on how many layers of heat-insulating felt are in them and the quality of the fabric underneath. They range in price, for an average table, from $90 to $250.
Measurement is key to the table pad business. The company sells table pads nationwide, and most customers reach them online, taking their table dimensions themselves using brown paper and a crayon from the kit Superior mails out.
However -- and this struck me as the most novel aspect of the business -- if you don't live too far away, Superior will send one of their staffers, meaning Antler, his wife, Sally, or his nephew Geoff, to your home to measure your table for no additional charge. Home visits are the best part of the job.
"I feel like I have a wonderful job because I get to see these beautiful, beautiful tables," says Sally Antler. "I love it."
"It's what we've been doing for years," says her husband. "I visit people's houses and sometimes see a table pad that's stitched in a certain way and know my grandmother worked on it."
(c) 2008 Neil Steinberg and Chicago Sun Times
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Wax for your table
We have a friend who refinishes furniture. He has a refinishing business. We have had some furnniture refinished by his shop. When he returns the furniture to us he waxes it after he brings it into the house. The wax he uses is water based and he gets it from a supplier that sells products to refinishers. He does not use a petroleum based wax. He also mixes the wax with about one part wax and two parts water. If you know a refinisher ask him for what wax he uses and ask if he has a water based wax. If he does you should ask him for a bottls.
Monday, November 05, 2007
Refinishing a damaged table
Have you ever compared the cost of refinishing a damaged table to the cost of a table pad? I made the comparison and find that refinishing a table costs two to three times the cost of a table pad.
Saturday, November 03, 2007
You can't not find something handy here...
This is what I'd call the ultimate countdown to Thanksgiving list.
Don't you just love this new age of cyberspace?
Don't you just love this new age of cyberspace?
Thursday, November 01, 2007
Come (to the blog) for the videos, stay for the comments...
Bill Quick, who posts regularly at the fascinating blog Mid Century Modern Interiors, has some surprising thoughts comparing clunky old redbrick Chicago to sleek, ever-new-and-more-sophisticated-than-you San Francisco:
I've lived in both Chicago and San Francisco (SF is where I make my home today). In terms of urban amenities, I think Chicago comes out ahead. Weather is, of course, a problem, but there is also something attractive about putting your feet up in front of a toasty warm fire while the snow swirls outside.
He might have added another advantage to Chicago: it is the home of the best and most friendly maker of table pads in the whole U.S.
I've lived in both Chicago and San Francisco (SF is where I make my home today). In terms of urban amenities, I think Chicago comes out ahead. Weather is, of course, a problem, but there is also something attractive about putting your feet up in front of a toasty warm fire while the snow swirls outside.
He might have added another advantage to Chicago: it is the home of the best and most friendly maker of table pads in the whole U.S.
Earth to Miss Manners: anything left out collects dust!
Miss Manners once again comments on what's appropriate to leave on your dining room table on a day-to-day basis. (The last time we recall her comments in this area it regarded table pads -- okay to leave them on all the time if you want to, she said -- but we can't find a link to that pre-internet clipping.)
We hate to be too obvious in the matter, but let's just point out it is easier to quicly wipe the dust off a beautiful set of Superior Table Pads than virtually anthing else you might use to cover the table on a day-to-day basis.
We hate to be too obvious in the matter, but let's just point out it is easier to quicly wipe the dust off a beautiful set of Superior Table Pads than virtually anthing else you might use to cover the table on a day-to-day basis.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
How many more of these are out there?
Here's a great new interior design blog -- with a Chicago orientation, no less.
Now if we can just get them interested in table pads, things will be even better!
Now if we can just get them interested in table pads, things will be even better!
Monday, October 15, 2007
New uses keep cropping up (no pun intended)...
Don't forget -- for all your indoor gardening needs -- protective Superior Table Pads!
UPDATE: Perhaps we ought to consider a special model just for tomato plants?
UPDATE: Perhaps we ought to consider a special model just for tomato plants?
Friday, October 12, 2007
Can't help but like this guy...
Here's a "step-by-step single man's guide to cleaning your home using all the latest gizmos."
And please don't forget to put the Superior Table Pads back on the dining room table when you're done!
UPDATE: And this, from someone who remembers the good old days (in Germany no less) when hanging out laundry to dry on Sunday was against the law.
And please don't forget to put the Superior Table Pads back on the dining room table when you're done!
UPDATE: And this, from someone who remembers the good old days (in Germany no less) when hanging out laundry to dry on Sunday was against the law.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Perhaps we should have known...
I continue to be amazed at the friendly, symbiotic relationship between table refinishers and the table pad industry.
Economists call some goods "substitutes" (we use these instead of each other) and others "complements" (we use these with each other).
I used to think table refinishing and table pads were substitutes. Evidence continues to emerge suggesting they're complements. Go figure.
And just by the way, the best place to buy custom table pads can be found by clicking on this link.
Economists call some goods "substitutes" (we use these instead of each other) and others "complements" (we use these with each other).
I used to think table refinishing and table pads were substitutes. Evidence continues to emerge suggesting they're complements. Go figure.
And just by the way, the best place to buy custom table pads can be found by clicking on this link.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
No, our table pads are real, not virtual....
Silly me. Never in a thousnd years would I have believed there could be a restaurant-owner/manager themed videogame!
Anyway, if anyone wants to buy table pads for their virtual restaurant, please contact Superior Table Pad Co.!
Anyway, if anyone wants to buy table pads for their virtual restaurant, please contact Superior Table Pad Co.!
Monday, October 08, 2007
Ikea rules...
Here are lots of great hints on furnishing a starter apartment on a close-to-zero budget, but take note: (a) we know more about microbes now that we knew twenty five years ago, and (b) owing to the global revolution in international free trade, it's now hard for even the best furniture from Salvation Army or high-end hospital fund-raising thrift shops to compete with big box stores.
The "new hearth"
Here's a new twist on the old kitchen table: adjustable height to transform it from a counter to a breakfast table. It even works as a dining room table!
Call us if you'd like table pads for your model.
Call us if you'd like table pads for your model.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
She will love you if...
...before the next dinner party you help out by setting up your Superior Table Pads!
Friday, July 06, 2007
Six common mistakes...
Buying? Selling? Either way, this article offers lots of good food for thought.
Sunday, July 01, 2007
Even now we're gearing up for Autumn...
Sad but true -- not everyone can afford the luxury of fully enjoying the summer. Here at Superior we're already getting ready for the busy Fall season. This involves planning our inventory, working on new designs, and generally re-tooling and re-thinking so we can provide the best possible products and service to our valuable customers.Anyway, best wishes for a happy summertime to all of you.
Saturday, June 30, 2007
It was a nice table...
...before his one little mistake ruined it!
Better remember to get Superior Table Pads before this happens to you!
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
New Tables
Some great new designs from Furniture World magazine. (The PDF takes a little while to load, but worth it.)
And don't forget to order table pads from Superior Table Pad for any of these great new tables!
And don't forget to order table pads from Superior Table Pad for any of these great new tables!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
