The Sale Niche

The Sale Niche is the place to shop for that special customer who wants a unique Patina piece with the added advantage of immediate availability.

In addition, you’ll notice that not only are the pieces special, so are the prices. These pieces are available at these prices for a limited time and will be sold or removed from sale after 30 days.

This month we are featuring a coffee table and a double chest of drawers:

Firenze Chest (C70/ST/DW/BK/30):
Savonna Tall Chest (C27/ST/DW/SS/02):

For pricing and other information about these very special pieces, visit the Patina web site at https://www.patinainc.com/sales.php (free registration required)

Winter Market: San Francisco

Winter Market is San Francisco’s premier interior design show. This year’s Winter Market, held, as always, at the San Francisco Design Market, took place from January 25 - 27 and Patina, Inc. was well represented.

National Sales Manger Jane Cumming attended, using the opportunity to reintroduce Patina to S.F. designers in its new “Patina Boutique” section of the McRae & Company showroom.

“It was probably the best turnout we’ve had at Winter Market in the 5 years I’ve been going,” says Jane, “It was exciting. People were literally coming to the showroom, specifically to see Patina.”

“Everybody was really enjoying themselves this year. The atmosphere was great. The parties were amazing. The attendance was way up. There was just something different in the air this year.”

McRae & Company and Patina jointly hosted "Italian Painted Furniture: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow," a presentation by Lee Ann McElderry, lecturer and former associate at Sotheby’s Auction House.

In her presentation, Lee Ann explains how Patina furniture pieces are made today, exactly as they would have been in the 18th or 19th centuries in Italy. Following the presentation, an Italian luncheon was served to the 80 or so attendees.

“The presentation was a big success. Many of the designers told us they had learned a lot about painted furniture that they hadn’t known. It’s a great way to showcase Patina and at the same time educate designers about painted furniture in general.”

This Winter Market was the first for the new combination of McRae & Company and Patina, Inc. and everyone agreed that it was a great success.

“We’re very happy to be represented in San Francisco by McRae & Company,” says Jane, “Their new showroom is beautiful. The sales staff is great. Change definitely is good. I think it’s very exciting for the company.”

McRae & Company is located at the SFDC, Galleria 480, 101 Henry Adams Street, San Francisco, CA 94103 - 415-626-2726

And presenting...

New Los Angeles Rep!

Patina is proud to announce that it has chosen Bausman & Company, as its exclusive representative in the Los Angeles area.

Bausman & Company was founded in Ontario, California in 1971. Since then, steady growth has enabled the company to become one of the leading manufacturers of French and English reproduction furniture on the West Coast.

In their Los Angeles showroom they rep their own line of furniture, as well as select offerings by other companies including Lambert Bloomfield, O'Brien Ironworks and now Patina.

"We’re delighted that Bausman & Company - LA will be part of our family,” says Patina president Marylu Stevens, “ I’m looking forward to this new relationship and working with Wendy Kneedler. I’m excited to see what we can create by joining forces. It’s going to be marvelous to see this relationship develop over the next few years.”

Bausman & Company, Inc., Los Angeles, is located at:

921 North La Cienega Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90069
(310) 659-9459

Calendar Of Events

March 15 & 16 - Seattle Design Center - 2006 Northwest Designers Expo (NORDEX) *
The event provides design professionals the opportunity to view new products, hear keynote presentations from nationally recognized designers and take part in a host of showroom-sponsored seminars and events.

* Patina Exhibiting

April 27 - May 3 - High Point - The International Home Furnishings Market *
With a history of excellence and unparalleled service, High Point is the primary destination for buyers and manufacturers of home furnishings and accessories. Twice a year, High Point becomes home to more than 80,000 attendees and buyers from around the globe for a week dedicated to sourcing product from the industry’s top manufacturers.

Designer Profile

Nancy Eslick

Nancy Eslick is a veteran San Francisco interior designer who specializes in residential design. She says she often finds herself working with the same clients for long periods on design projects. This often leads to a great working relationship, one that she enjoys returning to year after year.

“Some projects just take that long. I sometimes start working with the architect of a project and work straight through the construction process making design decisions along the way,” says Nancy, “I really pride myself on getting to know what my clients like, what they want. We spend a lot of time getting to the point where we are both comfortable with the design process.”

Recently, Nancy teamed with Patina to create a custom full-length mirror for a client. The process began with her registration at the Patina web site’s designer section.

“I was looking for a small table and a mirror for a client. They saw that I had gone to the web site and registered and then Tina Marion, Patina’s customer service manager, contacted me. That made it really easy and comfortable to deal directly with Patina.”

The mirror is full length, seven foot by two and a half feet, and designed for a large walk in closet. The room itself has a dark wood trim and Nancy felt that the painted mirror would add an interesting contrast.

“We’re using a Greek Key motif that mirrors the tile design in the client’s bathroom. Once we settled on the design Patina sent me a line drawing that showed the proposed design, we used that as a starting point and altered the design to fit our needs.”

“Now that the design is finalized I’m waiting for a strike off of the design. Once that’s approved, Patina will go ahead and fabricate the piece.”

While she was familiar with Patina and had bought pieces for other clients, this was Nancy’s first custom piece with Patina and she says she’s enjoyed working with Patina’s staff and artists.

“They’re all just wonderful, friendly people. They just make it really easy and they’re great to work with.”

Nancy Eslick can be reached at:

Nancy Eslick Interior Design
216 Frederick Street
San Francisco, CA 94117
(415) 242-0744

Historical Perspective

Construction and Finish

In the next few issues, we thought we’d take a look at some of the construction and finishing techniques that Patina uses today and compare them to the old world techniques artists have used for centuries to created fine hand painted furniture.

The first thing you need to look at with any piece of furniture is the quality of the wood used in construction. In the 18th century, finding abundant quantities of wood was a difficult process. Often a single piece of furniture would be constructed from many different types of wood, all with different grain patterns and degrees of quality.

To mask the inconsistency of the wood, artists would first cover the piece with a light gauze and gesso the entire surface. They would then sand the gesso to create a smooth, uniform surface on which to paint their designs.

This process made the furniture look good but often disguised issues that later caused great harm to the furniture itself. As the different types of wood aged and dried over the decades, they often split apart.

Today, Patina uses only high quality woods of the same type in the construction of all its furniture assuring that the piece will withstand the test of time without cracking and splitting. The grains are matched so there is no need to disguise the surface with gauze.

Patina does still use a gesso based on the traditional gesso used for centuries by Italian artist and we’ll look at that process in our next issue.