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April 17, 2001

Traverse City's 'relaxed' look furnishings

By KIMBERLEE ROTH
Special to the Record-Eagle
       With spring just around the corner, thoughts turn to throwing open the windows, organizing and sprucing up the house in time for summer.
      Jeff Sanborn, a paint specialist at Brown Lumber in Traverse City, says faux finishes are "extremely popular" world-wide right now. His seminars at the store - not offered again until fall - routinely attract a full house.
      He teaches a variety of techniques, from dragging and rag rolling to sponging, color washing, stippling and crackling, all adding texture, depth and contrast that liven up a room. Patina finishes that give surfaces an aged metal look are "quite masculine," he said, and popular with area businesses.
      Crackling and sponging furniture and walls are the two most popular application Sanborn said. There's the "weathered" look with a large crackled pattern, or a "porcelain" look with a small, web-like pattern. Both give a highly textured two-tone effect. Sponging using a sea sponge gives a "dabbled" two-tone look.
      "You can go up to three colors, but I wouldn't want to do any more than that," cautioned Sanborn.
      What's the attraction to faux finishes? They're relatively inexpensive and also easy to manage.
      "Hardly anything is oil-based anymore. It's all latex, soap-and-water clean up," said Sanborn. "People want something different, something other than wallpaper. Wallpaper is permanent. With faux finishes, you can do it yourself, you can start over if you want something different, and there are no seams to worry about."
      Once you've put down the paint brushes and picked up the drop cloths, check out Sheffield's on West Front Street. Owner John Fisher searched for over two years to find a high-end, handmade custom furniture line to carry in his shop.
      "It doesn't get any better than this," he said of the Charles Shackleton line he found in Bridgewater, Vermont.
      Each piece of Shackleton's furniture is hand- and custom-made without the use of machinery -not even power sanders.
      One of Fisher's favorite Shackleton items is a solid cherry dining room set, traditional / contemporary in style.
      "Everyday when you walk by to get the newspaper or a cup of coffee, you'll make it a point to touch the table. That's how smooth and perfect it is."
      Another popular item is a French Cheval mirror, also by Shackleton, that Fisher has sold to at least half a dozen area grooms as wedding gifts for their brides. "It's a big, heavy, full-length floor mirror that pivots."
      The store's bestseller is a hand-carved Shackleton sleigh bed in cherry, mahogany or walnut with the company's signature curl carved into the head and footboards.
      "It's unlike any other sleigh bed. I've got one in my own home," said Fisher.
      Handmade rugs, original watercolors, turned wooden bowls of burled elm and spalted maple, hand-blown Simon Pearce glass and pottery and, as summer nears, additional handmade pieces from northern Michigan craftsmen round out Fisher's collection.
      For outdoor furniture and accessories, Max's patio store right next door to Max's Service on State Street offers wicker furniture from Lloyd Flanders. The Menominee-based company has been in business for more than 80 years, according to George Rokos, a salesperson at Max's for the past 33 years. Flanders was the founder of the original wicker baby buggy, explained Rokos, and the company's furniture is still made on the loom he designed in the early 1900s.
      Lloyd Flanders furniture has a traditional aluminum frame, actual wood fiber buckets to sit on, different fabric options for cushions, and numerous styles and accessories to mix and match. The company also makes a full line of non-wicker furniture, says Rokos, crafted from PVC material and spun fabric for the seats.
      Rokos' favorite item is a Bay Breeze spring chair made of spring steel so that "it rocks without moving your legs."
      High-backed with a headrest and made from wood-fiber wicker, Rokos says that the spring chair is "most comfortable piece" in the collection.
      While you're relaxing in a comfortable patio chair, landscape sculptures and Dragon Wings from Meridian Landscape Art can set off your view. Owners Alison and Bill Arnold produce eight-foot-tall sculptures in red cedar from the designs of artist Tom Arnold.
      "They've been referred to as 'new American totems,'" said Bill Arnold.
      And vividly colored fabric Dragon Wings by northern Michigan artist Judy Mastick capture the summer sunlight and brighten the landscape.
      Meridian's most popular item is the Dragonfly totem, which depicts the life cycle of the insect.
      "They go well in a garden or as a dock marker," said Arnold. "At eight-feet high, their scale is unusual. They're unique; they're big and as the red cedar weathers into a silvery-gray color, they just get better with age."
      Kimberlee Roth is a freelance writer who lives in Old Mission.