A Clever System Turns Nearly Anything into a Shelf

A boon to frequent movers, tables created using the Floyd Leg can be assembled and disassembled in a matter of minutes. Hoff and O'Dell got the idea after they set out to design and build a table for themselves. The legs proved to be the challenging portion; they had little time to fabricate the components and limited access to the right tools. They also recognized that legs pose a challenge when it comes to moving since they often make it difficult to negotiate tables around tight corners and to transport in a car. "We think good design should react to the living patterns of the people engaging with it," says Hoff, whom we met at the 2014 Detroit Design Festival. "We live differently today than we did 50, 20, even five years ago—people reside in smaller spaces, we're moving more, and we want products that last. Not a ton has changed about furniture in the last 100 years beyond how we produce it, while a lot has changed about our lifestyles. We think that there is opportunity to reimagine how people purchase and engage with their furniture. And when it comes to good design, it should all be more accessible."

The new Floyd Shelf operates similarly: mount the brackets onto a wall and clamp a board in place. "We really wanted to refine the leg first as a pilot piece before jumping to a wider line," Hoff says. "Once that was in place, it was a pretty natural evolution to the shelf and the utility set, since both of these pieces utilize many of the same manufacturing processes."

Here's a shot of the Floyd Shelf ($85) in action. It supports up to 50 pounds and, like the Floyd Leg, it's 100 percent made in the United States from steel sourced Stateside.

Part of the company's success lies in the fact that everything is manufactured within a few miles from where Hoff and O'Dell are based. "Scaling to meet the demand of Kickstarter was by far the biggest hurdle in launching the Floyd Leg," Hoff says. "Before we went live, we had all the pieces of the supply chain in place; however, we soon found that we had to scale up by 14 times our initial goal. That can be a pretty nerve-racking moment for a company. Fortunately, all our manufacturers were within a 15 minute drive so we were able to appropriately scale where we needed." Both the leg and the shelf follow a similar manufacturing process, but we're tracking the leg's steps here. Each piece is laser cut, form bent, welded, blasted, and powder coated. "Thinking about design and manufacturing as parallels has allowed us to create a simple piece with a simple manufacturing process," Hoff says.

Hoff and O'Dell work with a few different fabricators in Detroit and the connection with them is something Hoff likes the most about manufacturing in the city. "These companies have really great stories that go back multiple generations, but most importantly, they value quality and are enthusiastic to work with us on developing new products and the processes that go with them," Hoff says. "This allows us to keep new things coming and stay nimble if we run into any pinches." This photo was snapped at the manufacturing facility that produces the raw leg. "Here, they are brushing off weld splatter as it nears completion of the first stage," Hoff says. "At this facility they cut the three pieces for the leg from cold-rolled steel, bend, then weld the components. From here the legs will go to a sand-blasting facility that preps the steel before being powder coated."

"By minimizing the number of pieces cut out, we minimize the amount of labor it takes to create each shelf," Hoff says.

At the powder coating facility, the legs are hung on a conveyor belt that takes them through a powder booth. Then they go into an oven to cure the paint.

This is what the finished leg looks like.

The legs are then wrapped for shipment. "We teamed up with a fulfillment company that handles all of the order processing from inventory to delivery—which is one of the best decisions we've made," Hoff says. "This allows us to bring the attention back to the business, develop new products, and build relationships with our customers."

"One the best parts of this whole endeavor is seeing what people create with our products," Hoff says. "Images come back to us daily and you can tell a lot about a person from the piece they've made and the objects they choose to place on it. We're excited about other projects in the pipeline that continue to allow furniture to adapt to people's lifestyles and not the other way around." At the Detroit Design Festival, Hoff and O'Dell debuted an early prototype for a system to support a ping-pong table. We're eager to see what they come up with next. Visit thefloydleg.com for more about the product and to order.