Hendrixson's
by Bob Waite
Sitting on beautiful contemporary Norwegian furniture with the Hendrixson family in their Furlong store seemed a little odd to me. Hendrixson’s has always been known for Colonial, country and fine traditional furniture that would be used to furnish the fine centuries-old homes that this area is known for. And, of course, they still sell much furniture that is traditional, but people have changed their tastes to more eclectic ways of furnishing their Bucks County farmhouses and townhouses. Younger buyers for a while were interested in lighter colors and national trends bring changes in the manufacturing of high-grade furniture.
Hendrixson’s Furniture for Distinctive Living began 50 years ago when Paul and Virginia (Ginny) Hendrixson opened the store with the dream of selling high quality Colonial and Early American furniture. Jonathan explains, “When my parents started this store they were focused on Colonial 18th-century furniture, which was very popular at the time and still is. That grew into the more ornate English and American 18th-century furniture.” Bucks County, Jonathan explains, has always been rooted in this kind of furniture, but recently people have updated these old forms, using cleaner lines, using more updated fabrics and so on. Even traditional styles change over the decades.
All year the Hendrixson’s are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the store, which corresponds with Paul and Ginny’s 50th wedding anniversary. They are proud of the fact that, not only are they still carrying the highest quality furniture available, but that they are a family business, now including a new generation. Now besides Paul and Ginny, there is their son Jonathan, daughter Lauren Hendrixson Ford and her husband Damien Ford.
Keeping up with changes in taste without giving up the kind of quality they are known for is what this family is all about. Although for a while, even in Bucks County, people sought a cleaner look in homes with white kitchens, brighter colored furniture and maybe a more minimalistic look. However, Ginny says, “Some of this has backed off a little and we are seeing the need for traditional again.”
Jonathan steps in. “Since we are high end we still have people appreciating the more beautiful traditional things. The more ornate china cabinets, the things like that. In 1989 the Mission furniture came out and it’s still a strong category. Mission style furniture began in England during the 1900s. It was a return to handcrafted quality furniture and a move away from the cheap factory made furniture of the industrial Victorian era. When it came to America, Gustav
Stickley picked it up. They went to very clean lines. They borrowed the construction details from shipbuilding and other arts and crafts throughout history. It was part of what was called the Arts and Crafts Movement.”
Mission style furniture is very popular among Hendrixson’s customers. Stickley Furniture, still in business as a very fine furniture maker, has reissued its Mission line, and they own the rights to most of the designs. Damien says, “Stickley, for many years, has had a broad range of traditional furniture. Other high-end furniture makers did too. It is hard to find really good quality traditional furniture. What we do is maintain a relationship with these quality companies because our customers still come looking for traditional furniture.”
The furniture manufacturers that Hendrixson’s Furniture deals with customize their furniture, so the designers at Hendrixson’s individualize the furniture for their customers as far as style, size, and colors. “Designers are taking those traditional elements and adding some paint colors and smoothing out edges to make it a little more current for today. We are fortunate that these companies are still around,” says Damien.
“Contemporary furniture is easier to make”, Jonathan says. Also people’s lifestyles have changed in many ways. There is a lot more emphasis in extended kitchens, family rooms, and entertainment areas. And this is partly because people spend their time differently than they did several decades ago. Damien adds, “It’s a matter of where people spend their time. There was a time when people didn’t formally entertain in the kitchen, but now they do. So there is more of an emphasis on that than on traditional dining.”
Current styles also allow for things to be more eclectic. People who want to keep the character of an old house but still look current or use contemporary colors, are able to blend these styles, which is done in often subtle ways. Damien says, “We will see the use of different prints and colorful artwork in a house, but also very traditional oil paintings will look great on top of a very contemporary or cool white piece. In the case where you are not using a china cabinet anymore, we will use a sideboard or low chest with a beautiful painting on top of it.”
Bucks County artists are very much in demand, and Hendrixson’s sells paintings, prints and hand colored prints. They also have a relationship with Alan Fetterman, who lets Hendrixson’s display pieces in the showroom for sale.
Lauren explains that a lot of American companies are moving toward customization because that’s their way of making people happy. “It’s American made and they have the ability to customize, which is one of the disadvantages of imported furniture.” She, like many of their customers likes traditional and early American furniture but is happy to have an eclectic décor in her own home.
Paul and Ginny began with early American for their Bucks County home and then switched to traditional. He said, “I already had the background, and my dad being an upholsterer taught me about some of the finer pieces that came from England.
Design is important to Hendrixson’s Furniture, from the furniture itself to the design services they offer their customers. On their staff are nine designers and all the sales people have design skills and can help customers with selecting pieces and accessories for their homes.
“We have design specialists,” Damien says. “But everyone in the Hendrixson family is highly skilled in design and will work with our design staff and offer plenty of expertise on that subject.”
Jonathan adds, “I think when we go to market we feel it’s our role to bring in things that will be inspiring based on what we know about design. Also to kind of insure that what we put on the floor is high quality from a construction point of view so that they can be creative with it and trust that’s in going to hold up.”
“An example,” Lauren says, “is one of the new collections that we are about to bring on the floor, the Thomas Obrien collection. It’s a little architectural. It has traditional elements and a little smaller scale, and the fabrics are sort of menswear type things, its really neat.”
Jonathan adds, “It’s a great example of what we are talking about. His design is really exciting and new, but he clearly understands the history of design. He is rooted enough that when he gets creative, it still makes sense. His pieces sit really well, and there is enough recognizable elements that it makes sense. He is working with Century Furniture as one of their designers. They are family owned, successful American furniture.”
Although the bulk of Hendrixson’s furniture is American made, the furniture we are sitting on in this interview is actually Norwegian. And it is very comfortable, yet for Bucks County and surrounding areas, it is quite contemporary. Lauren says, “If you go to Norway the young people actually add it to their designs because they think this is very traditional. Again you need to know peoples’ frame of reference.”
Jonathan adds, “When we started selling turn of the century Mission Furniture, we thought of it as contemporary because we were so 18th century.”
Design and furnishing jobs take Hendrixson’s all over the country. Jonathan flew down to Charleston with a designer to do a job for a client that used Hendrixson’s up here. Damien adds, “We have a job going to Utah, and these are big jobs that have tractor trucks filled with furniture. We have been to a lot of different places.”
Customers come to Hendrixsons with plans to furnish a room or house or just shopping. Jonathan explains, “We have experiences where they buy a lamp and then after a few visits, start working with someone. Then when they start a job they may call and describe what they want done. Usually the designer will go out to the house if it’s not far away and start on writing up plans.”
Continuing, Jonathan says, “I think sometimes the client doesn’t realize how much we can do because we will do anything from what doesn’t really pertain to us except the end result our customer is trying to achieve. We help with paint colors or tile colors or things that we don’t sell. But to us it’s important to make sure its right for the job. We sell carpeting and flooring, the highest quality mattresses and lots of different area rugs. So there is a lot we do as the customer starts to develop the relationship with the designer they realize, ‘Oh I can do my entire job here.’ And when that bell goes off that can usually turn into a very special job and relationship.”
Relationships are what this family-owned and operated furniture store is all about. And besides relationships with customers, Hendrixson’s has long time relationships with manufacturers. Ginny says, “We can call our vendors and they listen because they know we are objective not simply complaining about everything. However, we will say we have a concern about how this piece that is coming through. We go between the customer and the vendor. It is especially important because so much of it is custom.”
Jonathan says, “My father says that what we do is a lot more personal than what most sales people do. If you are selling cars it’s something more external to the person. The personality of the inside of your home reflects the kind of person you are in your most intimate setting. It’s not just furniture.”
Hendrixson’s Furniture for Distinctive Homes is located at 3539 York Road (Route 263), Furlong, PA. For more information, call 215-794-7325. Their Lehigh Valley location is at 5386 Chestnut Street, Emmaus, PA; 610-967-0699. You can visit Hendrixson’s Furniture online at www.hendrixsonsfurniture.com.
Bob Waite is the Editor of Bucks County magazine.