Furniture maker opts for classic, solid designs

NEW CARLISLE — A local Furniture maker, one of the many craftsmen who worked on the renovation at Springfield’s Westcott House, was awarded the contract to build a replica of the dining table and chairs and refit a small dresser.

Or so he thought. Once he started working on the project, Gary Keener, owner of G. Keener & Co. Fine Furniture, found himself staring at plans for a table and chairs designed by Frank Lloyd Wright that may have never been built.

There are no photos of the table in the house and no one can verify if the table was actually built.

“It’s in the plans, but that’s all we know for sure. This table may not have ever been made. There’s no proof it was there, so I may be the only person to have ever built this Wright design,” said Keener, who runs a small custom Furniture business in a shop adjacent to his home at 2936 Liberty Road in New Carlisle.

A former high school industrial arts teacher, he came to Clark County in 2000 with his wife, Andrea, to take the risk of hanging out his shingle.

He decided to make the career change, he said, after his wife told him he seemed much happier when he was making Furniture.

Keener said he knew his wife was right, but he also knew he needed to learn more about the Furniture-making business. He found an apprenticeship program in West Virginia, and his wife found a teaching job.

“We packed up, I paid a guy $4,000 so I could work for free for a year and lived in ‘upscale tenement housing,’” he said.

He learned techniques and business practices, leaving the program having done his first show in Philadelphia and with a nine-piece catalog.

Of a bygone era

The name and logo of Keener’s business have the decided feel of a turn of the century (the 19th or 20th, that is) Furniture maker. His techniques hearken back, as well.

Pieces are constructed from hardwoods like cherry and walnut. Drawers are dovetailed, pieces are constructed using mortise-and-tenon joints and the backs of all of his Furniture are fully finished.

He regularly uses a cutting process called bookmatching, where a piece of wood is sawn down the middle and opened up like a book, he said, so the two pieces are mirror images of each other.

Cutting a piece of wood this way, said employee Mark Schultz, is always exciting because no two result are ever the same.

“It’s a little bit like Christmas,” he said, “I can’t wait to see what it’s going to look like.”

Accents on table tops or door fronts may be made from reclaimed pine or exotic woods like African Waterfall Bubinga.

Keener focuses on simple, clean lines so he can “give the grain (of the wood) a showplace.”

In October, the company will begin the show circuit, traveling to Milwaukee, Cleveland, Atlanta, Boston and Philadelphia.

A favorite showpiece is his customizable television cabinet outfitted with a lift that raises and hides a flat-screen TV by remote control. “I call it my marriage-saving piece,” he said.

The closest retail outlet is Design Sleep, 108 Dayton St. in Yellow Springs. Complete information including styles and prices can be found at gkeenerco.com.

It’s more than money

Business began to slow about eight months ago, so Keener and Schultz took on smaller jobs and repairs to keep the lights on.

Things are picking up, but he said there has been a definite shift over the years toward customers ordering one piece at a time rather than sets. That seems to fit people’s budgets better.

Keener said that kind of buying pattern has its benefit because customers pick up additional pieces as time and money permits. “I like to build lifelong relationships,” he said.

Brad and Julie Whitis of Germantown are en route to becoming life-long customers. They bought their first piece in 2006, and during the last three years, Keener has built a dining room table and chairs, two bedroom suites, a serving table with a built-in wine rack and a few other pieces.

Originally, the Whitis’s were taken with the quality of his work. Now they say they respect Keener’s work ethic, honesty and commitment to family.

“There’s more to why we continue to get Furniture from Gary that the Furniture itself. ... Family is his true focus and never seeks out attention for his work or volunteerism.

He’s very honest, his designs are unique and changes are never a problem. Gary says changes are a part of the process,” Brad Whitis said.

They have Keener sign and date each piece and plan to keep adding to their collection as long as they’re able.

“You really can’t find Furniture like this anywhere else,” Brad Whitis said.