Custom Furniture: Artful Arts and Crafts

Reviewed by:
The Old House Web

This small company in Vancouver makes old fashioned Morris chairs the old fashioned way -- by hand, with dowel-pinned mortise and tenon joinery, and a hand-rubbed tung oil finish.

Model No. 322, shown here, is based on a 1901 design by Gustav Stickley, and is made from quartersawn, recycled old growth Douglas fir. Chair back slats are steam bent, not laminated, and the chair is upholstered in a cotton/polyester fabric with a reproduction of a pattern designed in 1895 for William Morris. In a faithful rendition of Stickley's elegant functionality in design, the chair arms slope slightly. The back is adjustable to four positions.

Optional leather upholstery and a coordinating footstool are also available, as are other reproduction Morris upholstery patterns. As pictured, this chair sells for $3,050 (Canadian dollars). The footstool is $705. (January 2005)