Stickley finds Dallas home in Aneita Fern
By Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, July 9, 2007
Dallas — Businessman Christopher Walthall and his father have opened Aneita Fern/The Home of Stickley, an 8,500-square-foot store here dedicated largely to Stickley Furniture.
Walthall said the store is filling a void left when Stickley dealer Gabberts exited Texas last year.
The high-end store — named for Walthall's late grandmother, who figures prominently into the store's theme — features a mix of modern styles and classic Arts & Crafts. Located in a shopping center across from the Galleria Dallas mall, Aneita Fern is sandwiched between high-profile retailers such as the Container Store, Restoration Hardware, Crate & Barrel and Z Gallerie.
Walthall, general manager of the family-owned business, wouldn't disclose his investment. But he said he's taking a gamble by locating in a high-profile area and spending above the industry average for space to ensure maximum exposure and great foot traffic from target consumers.
He said the company has gone to great lengths to make sure Aneita Fern is in the same league as the other high-end retailers in its neighborhood.
"I don't see us as a furniture showroom," he said. "I see us as a lifestyle store brand that sells an experience much like you would get if you walked into a Restoration Hardware or Crate & Barrel or Pottery Barn."
With careful attention to architectural detail, signage, lighting and display, Walthall said the company felt it could bring a unique shopping experience to Dallas as well as expose the Stickley brand to more than "the usual suspects," the people who already know and love Stickley furniture.
In her day, Walthall's grandmother was a collector of antiques (although not any Stickley), many of which the extended family still owns.
"Her love for quality things and antiques led me to want to name the store after her," he said. Walthall, who has a background in marketing and management at companies including Restoration Hardware and Smith & Hawken, said Fern's antiques "have been passed down through the generations the way many Stickley pieces have been and will continue to be."
Several of his grandmother's favorite pieces are displayed under glass in the store, with signs telling stories about them. Her image appears prominently in two wall-size murals replicating photos from her 1923 wedding.
"The idea here is to connect the store's name to a real person who has a back-story just like Stickley," Walthall said. "Not only do you have family-run company manufacturing furniture, but you have a family-run store with a history selling it."
Each piece of furniture has a hangtag that the retailer refers to as "the silent salesperson," on heavy cardstock with the price as well as details of how it was made and when it was initially designed.
"You are purchasing more than a sofa or a dining table. You are buying that antique for the future," he said. "We see this store as having almost a museum-quality to it."
In addition to Stickley, the store carries Copeland's Frank Lloyd Wright collection, art glass and sculpture by Blenko Glass, and gifts and accessories from the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.
"This is a crucial part of our business, which will provide the necessary giftable part of the store," Walthall said. Stickley may be too expensive for some shoppers, but there will always be affordable cash-and-carry items such as lamps, candles and accessories, he said.
"The biggest word-of-mouth will come from seeing our distinctive bags ... carried all through the surrounding stores and across the street at the huge Galleria mall," he said.
The Walthalls hired Dallas architect Ann Abernathy, an authority on Frank Lloyd Wright, to design the store, which features a modern take on Wright's design elements.
While some 50% of Stickley's business comes from the classic Mission oak style, the manufacturer has reached out to a broader audience with lines such as Widdicomb, Metropolitan, Antiquities and Pasadena Bungalow. Aneita Fern has dedicated the southern side of its store — exposed to the busy Galleria — to these lines, which largely show off Stickley's contemporary side.
The north entry features Mission oak and is bordered by a patio with a fountain.
Aneita Fern even went the extra mile in its restrooms, purchasing Stickley pieces that were transformed into sinks.
Kevin Curtis, national sales manager of Stickley, credited Walthall for the showroom's unique perspective and the "excellent job merchandising the Aneita Fern brand with ancillary items."
He noted touches including the high-quality tags with historical information under Lucite panels and several large flat-panel TV screens throughout the store that tell the Stickley story.
"We're proud of what he has done and the manner in which Stickley products are being displayed and sold," Curtis said.
Aneita Fern is not a factory-designed, dedicated store, but "some of the concepts that Christopher has embraced are similar to ones that we are exploring" for Stickley's own upcoming store program, he added.
Walthall wouldn't provide sales figures or projections, but said Aneita Fern had "an excellent opening" this spring, with better than expected sales. The company plans to expand beyond the first store, beginning with a Fort Worth showroom within two years.
