When it came to furniture, Lincolnshire accountant Howard Nelson wanted to get it Wright-as in Frank Lloyd Wright. That`s how he came to open his own home furnishings store, Right at Home, two years ago in Highland Park.
A fan of Wright`s furniture designs, Nelson went looking for some Wright reproductions for his own home and found the prices and the construction of the items not to his liking. ”They used different woods, like beech instead of oak, and the designs would be changed. They were also very expensive-a dining room chair, for example, would sell for $2,300,” Nelson recalled.
”I got it in my mind that there was a niche there for specialty furniture, at more reasonable prices,” he continued. Nelson found his own craftsmen who could reproduce Wright`s designs, using the natural prairie woods that Wright intended. The prices still are not inexpensive, but Nelson can sell a reproduction of the same dining room chair for $395. Although the shop specializes in Wright reproductions, it does carry the work of other designers as well, thus the choice of ”Right” rather than ”Wright,” in the store`s name.
”I wanted to leave myself open to do other things,” Nelson explained.
”Wright created these very modern houses, and then he was aghast when the owners tried to move in with their heavy, old Victorian furniture,”
Nelson said. Wright`s furniture is simple, angular, uncompromising and unbelieveably modern for the early 20th Century, when it was designed. Chair backs are very tall and very straight, and the seats are hard and narrow. Table legs are square and simply constructed, and woods are cut to best reveal the natural wood grain.
Pieces can be custom ordered, with different colored upholstery and wood, to suit a particular decor. Nelson`s shop also carries reproductions of some of Wrights wall decorations, lamps and other accessories, as well as designs and reproductions by other 20th Century furniture makers.
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Right At Home is at 2055 Green Bay Rd., Highland Park. For information about hours, phone 708-926-0026.
