by Lew Larason
In 1975 William Draper and his wife Gloria moved to Bucks County. “I needed a job. The only things available at that time in this area were either in farming or carpentry. So I took a job as a carpenter’s helper.” It didn’t take Bill long to realize he liked carpentry and had a talent for it. Eventually, he worked for a few local cabinetmakers. He liked the woodworking better than carpentry. By 1980, he felt competent enough to begin working for himself and opened his own business.
Bill’s interest in woodworking reached back to the days he attended elementary and junior high school in Bristol, Connecticut. He took shop and drafting classes and became a star student in both subjects. “They were my favorite classes, and I looked forward to them.” However in high school his interest in woodworking and design gave way to other pursuits. “I got into rock and roll. I was part of a band and didn’t want anything to do with woodworking or design.”
Once in his own business he designed and crafted his own line of reproduction country furniture. Many pieces of antique country furniture originally were painted, so he painted many of the items he made. But he didn’t just paint them. After they had been finished with paint, he would distress the surfaces to give them the appearance of age. People loved his distressed paint and faux finishes, and his furniture was in demand.
By 1981, one year after going into business, Bill knew he was onto something. He had started the enterprise in his basement so he could keep the overhead low, but within one year he had outgrown the area. So he moved to a converted chicken coop located in Pipersville at Piper Classics. There, with more exposure, he was selling nearly everything he could build. As his business grew he began he began to design and build kitchen cabinets. That led to designing entire rooms, including the doorways, special walls, built-in cupboards—nearly everything.
As his business continued to grow and expand, Bill needed more help and more space. In 1983 he moved to an empty, old cigar factory in Perkasie. This gave his cabinetmakers the room they needed to craft and finish the products he was designing.
By this time, he had created several lines. His items were being sold through several distributors and dealers throughout the country. His business continued to expand, necessitating another move in 1995. The new location is his present site on North 5th Street in Perkasie. Here his cabinetmakers and finishers work hard to keep up with the demand for his products. Draper employs about 45 people in Perkasie.
“Keeping up with changing designs is a challenge,” he said. “History often repeats itself. If we look back to the turn from the 19th to the 20th centuries, we see Art Nouveau, then a war, followed by the desire for cleaner lines. We have the same thing happening now, as we have moved from the 20th to the 21st centuries. And, once again, buyers are looking for cleaner lines. We have worked to adapt to our clients wishes.” Thinking about how what is popular now differs from when he first began, he said, “Tastes change. Furniture designs and styles during the 1980s were comfort food in design. People wanted the warm country feeling in their lives and furnishings at that time. We try to change with the times by designing and building furniture and rooms to please the mood of the period.”
The popularity of different woods is relative to changing tastes also. “Right now, it’s walnut. Yet we use a lot of maple, butternut, pine and cherry. But the wood has become almost secondary to paint. Traditional styles and white kitchens have a calming effect on people, which is important today.” Also changing is the kind of sheen on the finished pieces. “In the 80s, buyers wanted a rubbed, flat, nearly dull look to the surfaces. Today they prefer more of a sheen. A French polish suits a lot of our clients.”
Bill is designing more kitchens where the appliances are blending in with the woodwork and cabinets rather than standing out. Sometimes, in order to hide some of the appliances, he uses wooden covers over their fronts. In other instances he gets more creative. For example in one kitchen he completely hid a sub-zero refrigerator within a free standing cherry armoire, while in another he created an antique-looking pie safe with punched tins that really hid sub-zero refrigerator drawers. In this way the viewer only sees the wood. “The clean lines aren’t broken by appliances,” he said.
Wood is rarely used alone in the newer designs. “We use different materials together for effect. Along with wood, both in a natural finish and painted, we use marble, granite, aluminum and faux finishes that look like masonry.” With the latter he creates arches and pillars. In one kitchen there were no walls. Everything was free standing. Along with wood and other materials mentioned, he also uses glass in some of his designs. It might be colored glass or clear leaded glass in a kitchen cabinet.
Bill feels that proportions are very important. “For example,” Bill said, “sometimes, hardware is out of proportion to the piece it’s being used on. I don’t like that. So I’ll design hidden or minimalist hardware when needed if I can’t find ones I like. I’ll have something created that has pleasing proportions. It’s good to mix materials together as long as we have people who can craft the needed items. We outsource that kind of work, using metal and glass crafters to help out—trying to use local craftsmen as often as possible.” He added, “There are several talented artisans in this area.”
The classic 18th-century designers and cabinetmakers are a great source of interest and inspiration for Bill. He also studied the classic Ancient styles of Greece and Rome that were the basis for the Renaissance. And he both observed and absorbed a lot from the time spent working for other cabinetmakers. This all adds to his “flow” of ideas and eventually to his designs. He likes to develop unusual and interesting ones, creating rooms that are “in tune” with his customers’ wishes. He further explained, “I listen to our clients, often to what they aren’t saying. Although many of them say they don’t know what they want and ask me to design something, most do have an idea. I often respond to one of their questions with a question of my own, trying to find out what they would do if they could. That works the best.”
There are times when Bill wants some new design ideas himself, either for a customer or for a showroom. This is when he often closes himself in a room with a table, a chair, pencils and pads of paper. “I sit and design,” he said, “Each of us is wired for something. When we are put into a situation like that, we usually can come up with ideas—with what we’re looking for.”
When he creates designs he must make them work in a practical manner. He has good craftsmen who will work with him to translate his designs and ideas into reality. He remarked, “Everything we build here is a one-of-a-kind. There is no mass-production.” You will not see the same design in more than one area. Whether it’s a bathroom, special cabinetry or a kitchen, each stands on its own. All of his cabinetmakers are capable of doing nearly any of the woodworking required for a project. Bill also has strong feelings about details. They are important to him, and in fact, are his hallmark. This attention to details shows in the finished products, for example his calling for hand-cut dovetails with the construction of special drawers.
One way to see what William Draper can do is to visit his showroom at Buckingham Green on Route 202 in Buckingham. He also has 40 showrooms across the United States. The hours at Buckingham Green are from 9 to 5 Monday through Friday. To contact William Draper Inc., call 215-794-9198 or visit www.williamdraperinc.com.
Lew Larason is a freelance writer who specializes in antiques and furniture.