From our early beginnings as a dining chair company we at Hickory Chair have continued our affinity for chairs of all types. Recently I discovered a blog that I had not visited before by Tracery Interiors. The story that I discovered titled Subtle Elegance, featured a beautiful home in Mountain Brook, Alabama. To my pleasure the designer had chosen Hickory Chair dining chairs for the beautiful dining room!
The Birmingham based designer, Doug Davis, worked with Hickory Chair to transform a set of simple Chippendale Side Chairs with graceful mahogany legs with stretchers to a soft and elegant form with the addition of to the floor kick pleat skirts. The graceful curve of the back posts that begin at the top of the back to the floor creates elegant lines with the kick pleat skirt. The side skirts were custom made to follow the swoop of the back legs. What is typical is to only make skirts for legs that are straight. Most would not have attempted a kick pleat skirt for a chair with this type of legs. The resulting chairs create a soft elegance in the room.
Another designer asked that we make a mini-skirt for their set of Chippendale Side Chairs. They wanted a box pleated skirt that was 6-inches long. In addition they asked that we add a contrasting welt down the center of the outback and apply a pair of buttons at the base of the back just above the skirt. The result was stunning! We ordered a set for the Hickory Chair showroom and added a graceful motif monogram to the inback. This mix of options created a unique personality for this classic.
Special construction comes easy for the talented craftsmen in the Hickory Chair workroom. Every day we are challenged with one of a kind requests. Every day we learn new skill levels as we say yes to the vast majority of requests. Every day our craftsmen leave the workroom knowing that they have more talent than when they arrived. They return each morning ready to embrace the new opportunities to learn and please the many designers who entrust their client's pieces to us. We know that as long as we can say yes, complete pieces in just a few weeks from order at a quality level that exceeds their expectations, then this humble 99-year old furniture company will be able to reach its 100th anniversary in 2011 and beyond making one of a kind pieces in Hickory, North Carolina.