Ponte Vedra Inn & Club has been on this stretch of coast since 1928, and it is part way through the largest reinvestment in its recent history. We were brought in on the seating. This is a look at two of the rooms.
Key takeaways
- Two rooms at Ponte Vedra Inn & Club: the Inn Dining Room and The Tavern.
- Commercial seating is specified well above residential abrasion ratings and has to meet fire-code requirements for public assembly spaces.
- A directional pattern on curved work has to be planned across every panel before anything is cut. You cannot correct it on site.
- A fixed banquette is made to the wall as built, not as drawn, which means measuring the finished wall.
- The work lands in a fixed window between the other trades. Several of these photographs were taken before the flooring went down.
Commercial work is not residential upholstery with a bigger fabric order. It gets scheduled around a construction programme, it has to satisfy contract-grade durability and fire-code requirements, and it has to be finished and installed in the window between the trade ahead of you and the one behind. Several of the photographs here were taken before the flooring went in. That’s what the window looks like from the inside.
The Inn Dining Room: Flame Stitch and Green Leather
The Inn Dining Room sits inside the Historic Inn, under an open-beamed ceiling, with a hand-painted mural of palms and low Florida buildings wrapping the walls. It’s a strong room. The seating had to hold its own in it without competing.
The banquettes are curved, freestanding booths built around round tables and upholstered in a large-scale flame stitch. The armchairs beside them are done in a flat green leather that picks up the planting in the mural. Those two fabrics together are what make the room read as one scheme instead of a set of furniture standing in front of a wallpaper.
The curve is the demanding part. A flame stitch is strongly directional, so on a curve every panel has to be cut and set so the repeat carries cleanly around the bend and stays level with the panel beside it. That gets planned before anything is cut, because there’s no fixing it on site.
The Tavern: Teal Banquettes and Panelling
The Tavern is the lounge off the Inn lobby, and it’s a darker, more enclosed room. Coffered ceiling, panelled walls, framed pictures with sconces between them.
The seating is a long teal banquette that runs the wall and returns around the corner, with loose barrel chairs in a small repeating pattern and scatter cushions in a woven stripe. Three fabrics doing three jobs. The banquette takes the wear, the chairs carry the pattern, and the cushions break up what would otherwise be a very long unbroken run.
A banquette that length is the one piece in a room like this that cannot be delivered and nudged into position. It’s made to the wall it sits against, which means measuring the wall as built rather than as drawn, and it has to arrive at the point in the programme when that wall is finished but the carpet is not.
What Commercial Work Asks For
- Contract-grade materials. Hospitality seating is specified well above residential abrasion ratings and has to meet the fire-code requirements that apply to public assembly spaces.
- Pattern discipline. Directional fabric on curved and returning work is planned across every panel before the first cut.
- Built to the room. Fixed banquettes are made to the space as it actually stands.
- Scheduled to the programme. The install window is fixed and it does not move for you.
Commercial Upholstery on the First Coast
We’ve been doing this out of the Atlantic Beach workshop since 1999, for restaurants, bars, hotels and clubs across Jacksonville and the beaches. The same workshop does the residential work, and that’s the reason the commercial work looks the way it does. You can see more of it on our commercial upholstery page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you take on commercial upholstery projects in Jacksonville?
How is commercial upholstery different from residential work?
Can you work around our opening hours?
Are fixed banquettes made to measure?
Do you handle patterned and directional fabrics on curved seating?
Planning a fit-out or a refresh? We quote commercial seating in writing, work to your programme, and can phase the work so the room stays open where that matters. Call (904) 242-8778 or visit the showroom at 1079 Atlantic Blvd #7, Atlantic Beach. See more of our commercial upholstery work.