My neighbor told me a few days ago that her mother and her aunt run a furniture restoration store in Queens, and that business is good these days because they are the only ones in their town who can do what they do. Go and spend an afternoon watching a woodworker work with their hands and it will send shivers down your spine. It’s a labor of love that takes an attention to detail that is a valued commodity in a world where speed and efficiency have overtaken the labors that take more time.
Today, people want to spend days indoors, painting their kitchen walls a soft pink hue, and their hallways off-white, and hours sanding down old furniture, but this would require realigning their lifestyles and commitments. It’s not just a question of having the know-how; it’s about freeing up the time in a hectic schedule.
If you can’t DIY, then the next best thing is to have craftsmen who love what they do, to help you design your own furniture in Queens or in five boro. Some people many baulk at what they imagine the costs will be. You want to remember that you will be purchasing a keep-sake that you’ll want to pass on to your children. And there really is not price-tag that you can attach to a dining set or bookcase or stool, which matches how it feels to be surrounded by furniture, made to match your taste. It’s the same feeling as wearing clothes that fit you well, or wearing your favorite colors. You’ll feel immediately at ease when you come in the hall and put your keys on the little stand in the hall.
The marriage between fine art tile and high end furniture has been a long time coming.
Customized imaging, a process with which you press images on tiles using a heat press, specially coated tiles and special dyes, has generally remained in the realm of Aunt Ethel’s photo on a tile (“We Love You Aunt Ethel!”) or the local football team on a tile mural. The process itself is rarely used for fine art.
Generally speaking, those who sell custom imaged tile and related substrates are not artists. The subtleties and skill required for quality tile creation, such as formidable digital art skills like designing from scratch, retouching, airbrushing, cropping, etc., are the exception rather than the rule.
When my husband and I opened our art tile company, we were intent on changing that tradition. Our numerous galleries of original art have succeeded in giving art-appreciating tile customers a formidable selection from which to choose, not to mention an unheard-of option: custom, “from-scratch” design.
What has also remained elusive was putting that custom imaged fine art tile on high end wood furniture. That option has never existed anywhere, because the very few available furniture pieces that are created to receive tile are made in a Pacific Rim assembly line. They are unexceptional, with boxy, uninspired lines. The wells routed out to receive the tile are never sized properly, often forcing the use of grout to awkwardly fill huge gaps on the sides. Additionally, tile furniture has been relegated to Walmart’s low end patio furniture department.