Labels and rules
Turn over a sofa cushion sold in the United States and you find a small label that names TB 117-2013. Here is how to read it on a Giorgetti sofa built in Italy, and what the tick box on it means.
TB 117-2013 is the name on a small label that you will find on almost any upholstered chair or sofa sold in the United States. It comes from California, and the furniture trade follows it across the country. Giorgetti builds its sofas in Meda, Italy, for buyers all over the world, and a sofa bound for an American living room ships with this label sewn on. This guide explains what it says and what to look for.
TB 117-2013 is a flammability standard for upholstered furniture, written by the state of California. It applies to the upholstered piece as sold: the sofa, the armchair, the pouf, the upholstered headboard. Makers who sell nationwide apply it to their whole range for the United States, because a separate California version would make no sense.
The rule matters to you in two ways. It shows that the maker tested the cover and filling combination, and it tells you whether the maker added flame retardant chemicals to reach the result.
Its size is fixed at 2 by 3 inches or more, and it stays on the piece for good. It names the standard, and it carries a box that the maker ticks to say whether the product contains added flame retardant chemicals.
Many buyers look for that box first. Some want a sofa made without added flame retardants, for a nursery or for their own reasons. Ask us before you order, and we get the answer for the exact cover and filling you chose, since two coverings on the same frame can differ.
The label covers the whole piece, so it helps to know what the piece holds.
Giorgetti Vittoria, by Carlo Colombo, has a backrest frame in profiled steel and a seat in poplar plywood. Cold foamed polyurethane wrapped in fiber pads the frame. The back and seat cushions are goose feather, and the seat cushions hold inserts of expanded polyurethane. The cover comes off, in fabric or leather, in one color or two. See the Vittoria collection.
Giorgetti Urban, also by Colombo, builds the back and arm frame from solid Canaletto walnut coated in fiber, and the seat frame from steel painted black and clad in walnut. The cushions are goose feather around multi-density polyurethane, and the feet are metal in shiny black nickel. The upholstery is removable here too. See the Urban collection.
Feather, foam, fiber and the outer fabric all count toward the test. Change the fabric and you change the combination the label describes.
Both families have covers you can take off for cleaning. Keep the label with the piece, and do not cut it off when you wash a cover or reupholster. If you ever sell the sofa, the next owner will want to see it, and a retailer who takes the piece in trade will ask for it.
If you send a Giorgetti cover to a local upholsterer for a new fabric, ask the upholsterer about the label for the new combination. A fabric from a local shop changes what sits on the frame.
Vittoria and Urban both come in a two color version, with leather on the outside and fabric or leather inside. That makes two coverings on one frame, and the label describes the pair. If you plan leather outside and a fabric inside, ask for the label wording on that exact pair.
A living room set is several products on paper. The Vittoria three seater, the two seater and the armchair each carry a label of their own, and so does a stool or a pouf. If you order an Urban sofa with a matching armchair, you receive two labels. Check each one on delivery, and photograph them for your records along with the invoice. That photo saves a search later if an insurer, a building manager or a buyer asks.
TB 117-2013 is one of three rules that follow a sofa into an American home. A wood frame brings a Lacey Act declaration at import, and Proposition 65 asks for a warning where a material passes a chemical threshold. We cover those in their own stories. For a plain answer on a piece you like, the form below works best.
Choose the frame, then the covering, then ask for the label wording on that exact combination. Ask about the flame retardant box if it matters to you. Keep the label on the piece after delivery.
Name the Giorgetti sofa or armchair and the fabric or leather in the form below. Our answer gives the label wording for that version, the lead time from Giorgetti and a price.
Collections
Journal
The workshop slip
Tell us which Giorgetti pieces you have in mind and the room they are going into. We come back with pricing, finishes and a lead time.
