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Couple bet it all on upscale furniture market Mail Tribune / Drew Fleming The Furniture Depot, a 10,000-square-foot, two-story stone-block structure at Oak and Hersey streets in Ashland, has won the annual Most Historically Compatible New Construction award from the Ashland Historic Commission. Owners Loren and Cheryl Clear said they bet everything they had on building a new store for their upscale furniture. By JOHN DARLING ASHLAND - The Furniture Depot is not for everyone. Its owners, Loren and Cheryl Clear, are aiming at a clientele that knows Craftsman, Mission and Shaker styles, loves solid wood and doesn't mind spending money on furniture that's probably going to get passed down for several generations. The Clears bought Furniture Depot from its founders, Frank and June Papen, in 1994. They changed it from an unfinished furniture store to upscale home furnishings. "Betting every penny we had," the two built their own store, a 10,000 square-foot, two-story stone block structure at Oak and Hersey streets that just won the annual Most Historically Compatible New Construction award from the Ashland Historic Commission. The store, named for the historic train station nearby, offers a tony line of cabinets, tables, beds, entertainment centers, sofas, desks and lamps. The pieces are built in maple, cherry and oak, accented by bronze or wrought iron, and made by small West Coast craftsmen that Loren knows personally, he said. Mission, Craftsman and Shaker styles share the qualities of strength, simple lines, emphasis on function over form and a classic look that blurs the line between antique and modern, Clear said. The adherence to old styles still allows new features, said Clear, pointing out the scanner/printer shelves and keyboard tray secreted away in a large-boned Craftsman desk. A large, cherry Mission entertainment center sells for $3,500, a Craftsman lamp with Tiffany-style glass shade is $400, a tall Mission curio cabinet is $699. A custom-made maple-figured maple coffee table is $559. Figured means a curly, quilted or bird's-eye pattern peculiar to maple. "Our customers are from all over Southern Oregon and Northern California, but we do aim at the slightly more urbane, sophisticated taste in Ashland, because it's what I understand," said Clear. "It's people who know what they're looking for, not what's available at the lowest price. We're not competing with anyone here." Clear worked in the railroad district of Ashland in the late 1970s, building furniture in partnership with Bob Monroe at the still-operating A Street Cabinet Works. He and Cheryl Clear, an established office manager, ran Medford's Scan Design for five years before fulfilling a longtime vision of owning their own store. In partnership with their friend, John Fields of Golden Fields Construction in Ashland, they built their Mediterranean-flavored, L-shaped building, with a fountain courtyard between the building's two arms. The building also houses offices for Fields, an attorney, a hair salon and an investor. Clear and Fields kept the building as an Ashland project, using Jerome White as architect, Doyle Brightenburg for building design and Fields as builder. Epic Welding created custom door hardware and the Ashland Historic Commission stayed in touch, advising on how to keep the building in tune with the neighborhood's older residences and the business district. Clear consults with buyers on interior design, often visiting homes to help buyers blend new pieces in with existing furniture, "so they don't get the idea that, just because they have a new, central piece of furniture, that they have to throw everything away and start over." John Darling is a free-lance writer living in Ashland. E-mail him at [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.