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Finding new life in old wood

By Rick Holland/ Staff Writer

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Friday, March 24, 2006 - Updated: 10:35 AM EST

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PLAINVILLE - It has to be the hands: Thick, coarse, muscular.

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That’s what you notice first about Steve Staples, owner of Staples Cabinet Makers and creator of what he calls "fine rustic, artistic furniture" - all of it made in a shop tucked behind the old Whiting &

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Davis building on West Bacon Street.

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The rough exterior of his hands, however, belie a sensitivity for his work and the deep gratitude he still feels for his dearly departed mentor, Berger Johnson.

A conversation with Staples isn’t even five minutes old when his eyes become red-rimmed. He looks away and he knows he’s going to lose it if he continues to talk about Johnson, who he says taught him everything about how to build furniture and even more about how to live life.

"He taught me not only about woodworking, but about character. He was from a Yankee background ... he was so grounded he was nailed to the floor."

Even a glancing tour through Staples’ showroom provides ubiquitous reminders of Johnson’s influence. Perfect or conventional symmetry is studiously avoided in the assortment of tables, chairs, cabinets, and armoirs that Staples and his handful of employees - who he calls "artisans" - labor over.

"When I was getting started, we had a shop in Norton and I used to worry about imperfections in a piece I’d be working on," recalled Staples. "Berger used to (reassure) me ... he’d say, ’You can’t see it from Taunton.’"

After more than 30 years in business, it’s precisely the time-worn, natural, and decidedly imperfect aesthetic that Staples wants in every piece he sells.

"One time a customer looked at one of our tables and told me, ’I think what I love most is whatisn’t there,’" Staples recalled. "That was a great compliment."

There are unconventional methods - Staples and his crew run planes across the grain of various woods, a carpentry no-no - and proprietary concoctions for stains and finishes spring from Steve and his wife Christine’s first entrepreneurial venture, a wood stripping business. [continue]

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But Staples’ most important talent may be his vision, in seeing beauty where others see ordinary wood

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or odd antiques they’re ready to relegate to the salvage heap.

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Got an old house set for demolition? Staples wants a look at the attic floorboards before the wrecking ball swings. They’re ready to be transformed into a stunning farm table. Or after an historic home has

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been razed, Staples will spot the trap door to the old fruit cellar lying in the wreckage. In it, he sees a beautiful table top.

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On his shop floor, Staples ambles

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between several workstations, using a retractable tape measure with the same utility that a white-collar business person might use a laser pointer. He does not so much check up on various projects as he pollinates them - infusing the work with friendly suggestions or questions for his artisans. He gets the last look at every piece before it is delivered to a customer or is sent to the showroom floor.

Staples admits some customers come in, see what he and his craftsmen have done, and burst into tears of joy.

"You’ve never seen passion like this about pieces of furniture, but many times it’s because we’ve brought back Uncle Bill’s workbench, or Dad’s table," said Staples. "They recapture a part of someone in the pieces we produce for them."

Indeed, most of the items Staples sells come with "storyboards," brief descriptions of the history behind the wood or materials used to create a furniture piece. The anecdotes range from interesting to infamous - Staples said one of his early projects was commissioned by a jealous lover who got so angry he lit a bed frame and headboard on fire. Later, filled with remorse, the man came to

Staples shop to see if the piece could be salvaged. He and Johnson did the job.

"That headboard was just scorched though," Staples recalled.

Then, there was the table Staples made from floorboards believed to have come from the home owned by Lizzie Borden’s aunt. "In that case some people were fascinated by having the piece in their house, but others were a little nervous," Staples said. [continue]

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He says working with materials that have character and history helps fuel a passion to create items that

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are truly unique.

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Staples met his wife, Chris, when both were attending Attleboro High School. Graduating in 1969, the couple was married in 1971. After nearly 35 years of marriage, Staples jokes about the secret of

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staying together with his wife.

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"Misery loves company," he said.

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While he revels in the creative process, Staples says the commercial success of his company is all owed to his wife. He loves the artistic challenge of turning something ordinary into something beautiful, but confesses he can’t price the items he helps create. "If I were running the company alone, I’d probably give half of what we make away," said Staples. "(Chris) finds out how long we’re going to spend on a piece, and she prices everything."

The prices vary, but the pieces are labor intensive, all hand crafted, and Staples acknowledges that many of the customers who order custom furniture are more concerned about aesthetics than price. Farm tables are the company’s "cash cow," he says, and on the historic high end, he recalled one time a customer paid $7,000 for one of his tables.

But the success the couple enjoys today is tempered by the reminder of crushing disappointment when the company basically closed 16 years ago.

"We lost everything in 1990," said Staples. Having grown his home business to 25 workers in a 10,000 square foot shop in Norton, the bottom fell out of the architectural mill work company the couple had started more than a decade earlier.

"We went from 25 men to five men in a month," said Staples. "I dissolved the company, basically, and swore I’d never do it again."

The Staples’ two grown children have resisted following them into the business, and Staples thinks he knows why. [continue]

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Finding new life in old wood

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"I think it was too heart wrenching for them," he said. "The toughest thing for kids, probably, is to go through a divorce or having your parents separate, but right after that, I think it’s being around to watch a family business die."

While the Staples’ kids are successful in their own pursuits, the company remains family run. Staples’ mom, Jean, volunteers her time as a friendly and constant presence on the showroom floor, and is the person customers are likely to talk to first when they call the shop.

Contemplating his dreams for the future, Staples says it does not include growing the business. He still recalls the hubris of his youth, when he equated success with expanding his shop. Older - Staples is 55 - and wiser, he says the ultimate goal now is to be selective in the pieces he is asked to create.

He confesses to a lack of enthusiasm when a customer comes in with a mundane order. "They’ll ask for a plain cabinet, painted black," Staples says, ruefully.

Ultimately, he’d like to be able to sell all of his furniture "on spec," coming up with the concept and design himself. No matter what he and his co-workers create, however, Staples’ goal is to elicit the same reaction every time.

"I want people to see one of our pieces and say, ’Look! My God, where did you get that?’"

If you go: Staples Cabinet makers showroom is open from 11

a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday. The company’s Web site is www.staplescabinetmakers.com

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