Watching the Statton Furniture dining set roll into the showroom, Brian, our store manager, looked confused. I knew it was coming. After all, I'm the one who'd said pretty loudly a couple of months ago: "No more Queen Anne!" Queen Anne style furniture had its heyday in the 1980s and 1990s. Prim and proper, it was immensely popular among newlywed baby boomers. But today, the cabriole legs and pad feet say granny more than grandeur.
Still, when I saw this 2003 Queen Anne cherry dining set by Statton, I couldn't resist. Handcrafted, finished to perfection and made to last a lifetime, it's a classic. The set has the perfect blend of dark and light tones with a hint of red.
Okay, I'll admit it. I'm a sucker for cherry wood furniture.
The furniture world has changed a lot in the last couple years. Styles are churning faster than frappuccino machine at Starbucks. Rustic. Industrial. Ultra modern. And the D-I-Y crowd is slapping paint on every piece of secondhand furniture they find on Craigslist.
And yet, cherry remains the wood of choice for many American craftsmen. Joseph van Benten, Thomas Moser, Charles Webb, Stickley, Harden and Eldred Wheeler all use cherry. Why? For one, the ripples in the wood are aesthetically appealing. It's versatile. And it ages beautifully, darkening and gaining patina with time.
The Amish love cherry. Shaker furniture wouldn't be Shaker without it. Modern furniture artisans are finding ways to twist and bend cherry into amazing pieces of art.
For those who appreciate the extraordinary, check out the patina in the aged cherry furniture in our three stores. That's why I accepted the cherry Statton for consignment. I couldn't resist seeing it in our showroom.
