School Furniture Straight from the Warehouse to your Schoolhouse

Worthington Direct is a great resource for teachers and school administrators that find themselves needing classroom furniture before the tardy bell rings. Many times there are more students that enroll than there were originally planned and the Quick Ship program is just the thing for last minute furniture purchases. All classroom furniture essentials can be easily found by visiting their online store or by browsing through one of their 3 color catalogs that are free upon request.

One of the most essential classroom needs is a chair. Everyone needs a place to sit and Worthington Direct has plenty of chairs to choose from. Student stack chairs in all sorts of styles and colors are available in a range of sizes that can accommodate toddlers all the way up to college students. Teachers will also find many comfortable chairs; from traditional padded office chairs to super sleek stools that can stand above the crowd. While there are an endless array of chairs to choose from, Worthington Direct has conveniently grouped the fastest shipping of these classroom chairs into their School Chairs, Stools and Folding Chairs Quick Ship section.

Now that you have a seat, how about a nice desk or a table with a great work surface? Open front desks, combination chair desks and classroom activity tables can all be found within the Worthington Direct Quick Ship Desk category. Several laminate options are available, but the Medium Oak color can ship in 24 hours or less.

Worthington Direct welcomes purchase orders from all public schools and offers simple credit applications for other institutions that would like to open a credit account. Visit their website for freight quotes, helpful tips or to chat live with a customer specialist. Full color catalogs are also available that showcase all of their school furniture, church furniture or early childhood furniture lines as well as an online Catalog PDF.

Message Board Hits Prime Time

Take a look at this screencap of a recent episode of The Office, the hit TV show starring Steve Carrell (no relation to Smith Carrell, makers of study carrels) as Michael Scott. Kevin Malone (Brian Baumgartner) of The Office sure looks excited about something as he stands in front of a Ghent letter board. What isn't there to be excited about? His office's name is clearly displayed in the easy to read office park directory made by Ghent. Ghent makes a variety of boards, including letter boards, corkboards and combinations of the two, in durable aluminum (as shown), and timeless oak.




Ghent also makes a variety of easels, from oak-framed whiteboards to classic aluminum-framed chalkboards, suitable for any college, classroom or conference room. Looking for something more casual? Best-Rite offers their Rubber-Tak tackboards in a variety of colors, which allows quick posting by anyone in the office, without leaving ugly pinholes when the thumbtack is removed. Rubber-Tak boards come backed and framed, or can be purchased alone with an adhesive backing to create an entire wall of ideas.

Such a wide variety of ways to get your message across, how to choose what's right for you? Try contacting Worthington Direct, or visit their website at www.worthingtondirect.com for great deals on these boards and more.

Great Deals on Booktrucks for National Library Week

National Library Week is April 13th -April 19th, so go out and support your local library. In perfect time for this event, Worthington Direct is offering discount flat shipping rates for all of their Smith System booktrucks. Whether you need a new booktruck for the library with sloped or flat shelves, an Everything cart for the teacher who shares a classroom or the Gorilla Cart that hauls it all, buy from Worthington Direct and save! Order 1 or 2 book trucks and the shipping is $85, order 3 or 4 and the shipping cost is only $99!

Other great library furniture carried by Worthington Direct includes library tables, library chairs, library bookcases and library study carrels. Perhaps instead of outfitting an entire library, you want to create a reading area inside a classroom, well Worthington Direct can help their too. Browse their website at http://www.worthingtondirect.com/ for early childhood furniture that includes big book display cases, media book towers and the always fun reading train station.

The HON Company Revitalizes New York Showroom

Located in the heart of New York City, the company's Fifth Avenue location provided SmithGroup, a Chicago-based design group, with an ideal space to reflect The HON Company's core values—office furniture that is flexible, durable, and environmentally preferential.



HON’s most notable initiative, Nature Core™, takes center stage in the New York space. Designed for use inside the company’s Initiate® panel systems, Nature Core is made from an annually renewable crop, kenaf. This panel “filler” provides sustainable benefits and can improve indoor air quality when used in Initiate panel systems.

The showroom houses other products that fulfill stringent indoor air quality requirements. In addition to Initiate, more than 90% of HON’s seating line, laminate desking, and its Accomplish™ line of classroom furniture have received various levels of Indoor Advantage certification from Scientific Certification Systems (SCS). As a third-party auditor, SCS helps manufacturers, like HON, meet the highest certification of environmental and quality performance.

Other products that have a notable presence include HON’s Park Avenue Veneer line, Accomplish classroom furniture, F3TM seating with ilira® - stretch, 10500 desking series, Perpetual® Nesting tables, and TerceroTM conference tables.



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Find a Better way to Stack Chairs

Chair storage a problem? Have a furniture storage room that looks like this?



White Cube — Doris Salcedo

Visit http://www.worthingtondirect.com/ today for great storage solutions for all of your folding chairs and folding tables. We have Double Tier Chair Trucks, Lightweight Folding Chair Dolly's, Stack Chair Trucks and Table Toters. Perfect for church fellowship halls, school banquet rooms and any institutional facility.

Industrial Furniture Seem Overwhelming?

When you’re new to the responsibility of buying industrial furniture - whether you need a portable stage, drafting table, modular desks, school furniture, or office partitions - it’s difficult to quickly get a grasp of the range of products available, and even harder to determine which products will work best for your needs. Here’s a quick rundown to get you started:

Portable Stage: Portable stages come in a variety of heights, typically 8 inches, 16 inches, 24 inches, 32 inches, and 40 inches. They are also available in different widths and lengths, the most common being 3 feet by 6 feet, 3 feet by 8 feet, 4 feet by 6 feet, and 4 feet by 8 feet. The top of a portable stage is called a deck, and can be made from hardboard or polypropylene. Polypropylene decks can be carpeted to enhance their appearance.

Portable stages give you a wide variety of options. You can, for example, buy several platforms of the same height to form a flat performance stage. Or, you can buy several different heights to construct band or choral risers. When buying a portable stage, look for those that assemble quickly and that take up little room when folded and stacked. Finally, keep in mind that for safety reasons, guardrails should be used on the sides and rear of stages.

School Furniture: When selecting school furniture, the two realities are that kids grow and that they are hard on furniture. By all means, select desks that are height-adjustable and that have laminate surfaces that are easy to clean and hard to damage.

School desks are typically available with two types of openings: the lift-lid kind and the open-front type. If you select desks with lift-lid openings, be sure that they have sturdy steel hinges and dual closing devices for durability and quietness.

School chairs are usually available in four heights: 12 inches, 14 inches, 16 inches, and 18 inches. The chair legs are either tubular (for linoleum or other hard floor surfaces) or what’s called a sled base (for carpeted surfaces). Stackable chairs usually work best for school settings, since they’re easy to store and simple to move for cleaning.

Drafting Table: The most crucial element of a drafting table is height adjustability. The proper height is important to prevent back strain and injuries. The top of the drafting table should have a non-glare finish and a top angle adjustment of up to 50 degrees. In addition, a drafting table should include a tool drawer and a reference drawer.

Office Partitions: There are many different types of office partitions from which to choose. Look for those that feature panels with adjustable glides and quick connectors to combine two or more panels. Keep in mind that office spaces change, so the office partitions you choose should allow for flexibility.

For more school furniture and industrial strength furniture, http://www.worthingtondirect.com/ today!

Table Advice From Kevin Worthington of Worthington Direct

Tables

By Kevin Worthington

Need folding tables or banquet tables for your worship facility? How about a harder-to-find round folding table? In today's market, you can choose from plywood core, laminate, or plastic tops in a variety of attractive colors and finishes for your folding tables or banquet tables.

Need help getting started? Here are some of the most commonly asked questions by churches when evaluating and purchasing tables. Visit http://www.worthingtondirect.com/ today for a full selection of table options.

What are the various table top materials? Tables are available with a variety of tabletop options. High-Pressure Laminate (HPL), blow molded plastic, ABS plastic, and plywood are the primary materials for the majority of activity and folding tables.

High Pressure Laminate: HPL tops have a particleboard core and are superior to thermofused melamine and to non-thermofused melamine tops. HPL tops will not bubble up when exposed to water and are more resistant upon impact. Tables with HPL tops offer a variety of color choices and have a completely smooth finish. This is an added plus for classrooms, which would include writing and art projects.

Plywood-Core: These reliable tabletops have a plywood core at the center with a sheet of high-pressure laminate on top. They have the same benefits of the HPL tabletops, but they also have a superior core strength and stability. They are lighter weight than the full plywood top, which makes them much easier to set up and break down.

Blow Molded: The newest design to enter the production line is the blow molded tabletops, which are extremely lightweight and can be easily set up and stored. The lighter the weight of the table, the less likely damage can occur in delivery. The tabletop does have a slightly textured surface compared to a smooth HPL top.

What are the various table heights? Tables are offered in a fixed or adjustable height option. If a table has a fixed height, it is most likely to be 29 inches to 30 inches high for a standard adult height. Adjustable height tables usually move in one-inch increments for added flexibility when working with children or youth. Some adjustable tables offer a smaller height range just for smaller children.

What about the table legs? When choosing a table, consider the standard four-leg table, the T-Leg pedestal table, the standard classroom table, and the folding table. The legs and frames of a table are often made of steel. Remember, the lower the gauges of steel, the stronger the table.

How do you determine the seating capacity of a table? Choosing tables can be tricky. Since size is the most important factor, remember that the smaller the chair, the greater the seating capacity around a table. However, knowing how the table will be used can also determine the amount of room that each person around the table will need.

Seating capacity depends on the size of the person and the size of the chair. Full-size student stack chairs are usually 18 inches to 21 inches wide. If you are using a standard folding chair for seating, then plan for 18 inches of width per seat. Allowing for a liberal 26 inches per person gets the "comfortable" designation, while allowing a tight 20 inches per person gets you the "maximum" designation.

Kevin Worthington is president of Worthington Direct, http://www.worthingtondirect.com/.