THE EVOLUTION OF A FURNITURE LINE

 FROM SHAVER/MELAHN CLASSICS TO THE PRESENT

In any discipline there's a learning curve and an evolution of constant change and reinvention. Our furniture design has not been an exception to this rule. Rick started out as the primary designer launching our first Shaver/Melahn line at ICFF in 1998.

It began with a series of side and cocktail tables all named after our daughter.

The Emmy line came naked or dressed in skirts of various lengths: mini, knee-high and maxi.

The skirts were the marketing devise that got the line noticed by the high end furniture industry.

Quickly the line expanded into casegoods, lamps, beds and metal trolleys and trays. The line was quickly picked up by a half-dozen showrooms and it was at this point that we realized there was a whole lot that had to be addressed beyond the design and marketing.

We continued on this path for as long as we could before we realized we needed to change.

The next phase in our furniture design's development was adding licensing through a PR rep. This attracted some major players the size of Crate&Barrel. The problem with the major players was the percentage return on sales of work containing our name. It was so small it wasn't worth the effort, but we finally decided on Crescent Fine Furniture and developed a line for them under the name Crossings. 

Always evolving we moved to creating more lines to complement the Shaver/Melahn Classics:

some with success like our Mendota Collection,

others only making it to the conceptual stage

and some that were just plain failures. We did learn the lesson of you can some times learn more from your failures than from your successes.

We're still developing new lines and adding pieces to our existing lines

but we've now evolved into selling direct to clients and doing custom work within our projects.

And now the evolution continues and the sketching of new ideas doesn't seem to lose its ability to imagine with age. It only gets better.

FAVORITE POSSESSIONS

 AUDUBON'S TRUMPETER SWAN

The history of John James Audubon dates back to the early half of the eighteen hundreds when America was still mostly a wilderness and the wilderness was filled with bird life.

Audubon took it upon himself to record through illustration every one of them from the tiniest chickadee to the amazing greatness of the American eagle. His time was spent traveling America but our association with him is linked to the Hudson Valley. 

When we first started looking for a weekend home our search centered in the area west of the Hudson River and finally stopping at small hamlet in Delaware County. We've always been collectors and fascinated with all things antique and vintage.

Now with a six-bedroom house we had plenty of reasons to feed our obsession and buy what we wanted for our new home.

It was on one of the many trips to the country when out of habit we would stop at any place with a sign for pizza and antiques. Route 28 had several but only one with the combination of a Pizzeria and Antique Mall. That's where we found a smoke covered painting of Audubon's Trumpeter Swan hanging on the wall. It immediately went home with us.

We had the painting restored and that is when we discovered the signature "After Audubon". The Trumpeter Swan has become one of Audubon's most famous images.

It is also one his most copied images. Our best guess is this is a wonderful copy done by a weekend painter back in the late eighteen hundreds.

Given its condition it probably lived on a wall in a gentleman's smoking parlor or in bar for decades until ending up on the wall of the antique mall where we found it and bought it.

The painting is one of my favorite possessions.

It has moved with us from the Catskills to the city to Madison.

Its value is in memories and that's the way we should all feel about the things we surround ourselves with.

THE COHESIVE HOME

 COHESION THROUGH STRUCTURE OR THROUGH THE HEART

This isn't a hard and fast rule but when it comes to picking sides we veer toward continuity in design. It would be hard to look at these images and not imagine they are all in the same space and of course they are. Like we said, this isn't a rule but nine times out of ten linking all your spaces together just feels right.

This rule of continuity is most easily employed when the spaces are in an open arrangement. In this case the open arrangement is only partially true. The living, dining and kitchen are all open to each other so it almost demands that the scheme is tied together with color and form.

The bedroom is a separate enclosed space but carrying through the color scheme just seems right. 

But just to prove that we're just as good at breaking the rules here's a peek into our own home. Our home not only bounces from color scheme to color scheme but moves from style to style within each room. It's all a bit schizophrenic but somehow it seems to work.

From the open space that unites on color but bounces from transitional in the living room to country in the kitchen

to moderne in the dining room

to eclectic in the snug there's still a unity in the personal touches that speak to who we are. Sometimes that can be enough. We're good with keeping you on the right path to unifying your home into a cohesive whole either through its envelope or through its heart. No one wants their home to be a jigsaw puzzle of pieces that don't seem to fit together.

A DESIGNER IN TRAINING

DAUGHTERS

I think the adage is "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree". Our daughter would never call herself a designer. She says she has no interest in taking over our business yet you have only to look at her room to know she has the potential to be a great designer. So for now she only works for herself but that doesn't stop her from doling out little side comments of advice for her parents.

Emmy's style is an amalgam of what we've exposed her to and her own youthful take on design. If I had to describe her style I'd call it Bohemian Chic.

It's a style she expresses from the design of her room to the items in her closet. She's definitely inherited the quest for a good vintage hunt.

It started out with her as a child rummaging around in our wake as we sought out the newest flea market trend and she hunted for the booth with the most Breyer horses to inhabit her play stables.

Her quest for a bargain only she can uncover has now grown to hunting out vintage clothing stores in places from New York to Madison to Rome

and she is the one who now insists on weekend outings to Antique Malls where she hunts for framed art featuring strong women, sixties album jackets and little objects from decades we lived through but she considers antiques.

Her room is a breath of cannabis air with color and texture and pattern all combined in a way, way beyond our capabilities. It's intuitive and that's a gift but it's all well researched and that's passion. About four times a year the call goes out for help pushing around furniture to test out a new arrangement of her room. I love that she has this interest. It gives us something to do together, and what rarer gift is there than time with your kid.

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