John Colabella, owner of Colabella Furniture Inc., took over his father’s business in Los Angeles instead of pursuing a career in architecture. He’s been working with wood since he was a boy and says he especially likes to make anything that can swivel, turn or twist.
“(My dad) started in Italy. He started making coffins during the war and then they made furniture after that. In 1958 he came to America as a specialist woodworker. He worked as a woodworker during the day. He probably worked seven hours at night in our garage (on his own projects) until he saved up enough money to purchase a building. He opened up his own shop and got incorporated in 1968.
“I’ve been doing it ever since seventh grade. I’d come to work after school and stay in the shop until it closed. Even in college I would go in a little bit just to make some money. I went to California State University, Northridge for architecture. Then my dad said: ‘You’d better take over the shop or I’m going to close it down.’
“For the past couple of years I’ve been doing most of the work myself and now I hired two guys. One is full-time and the other is part-time. We do anything custom-made out of wood; mostly furniture. We don’t do the staining part. It goes to a finisher after it leaves us.
“I mostly work for decorators. One decorator gives me about 90 percent of my work. I’m very happy with him and he’s very happy with me and we’ve been working together for almost 20 years.
“I do every once in awhile have people calling out of the yellow pages but often they can’t afford it. A chair costs $600 from me, whereas you can buy a whole set with chairs and tables from Ikea for that amount. I have to charge more because it’s one-of-a-kind, and it’s better than one you can buy from a manufacturer.
“Chairs can cost $600 a piece and beds can cost $1,000 to $4,000. Pop-up TV stands are $4,000 to $6,000. Tables can cost $3,000 and up. But it depends on the style; if there’s carving or expensive wood, then it’s more. I gross annually more than $100,000.
“I like making the pop-up TV stands. Pop-up TV stands can be in a cabinet, dresser or box at the end of the bed and an electric mechanism makes a box pop out with a TV inside and sometimes it can even swivel. Also, I like the ones that spin around. I like making something that most people never see.”
Kim Holmes
