Heller Furniture Is Moving Up

by Mary Stack

Heller Furniture
47R Washington Street
Norwell, MA 02061
781.792.0230
www.hellerfurniture.com

Each week, thousands of shoppers from towns on the South Shore flock to Jordan's Furniture in Natick, in search of the perfect piece of furniture. With this observation in mind, it seemed like a shrewd move for Walter Heller, a successful furniture designer, to follow that example and create a retail showroom, convenient for his customers right here in their backyard on route 53 in Norwell. This spring, he did just that and opened a retail showroom, over his existing workshop.

Suzanne Kay, newly appointed Sales Manager is delighted with the new store. "I am very excited because there is a huge demand in the marketplace for this kind of work which is very high caliber and until now, many discerning customers were unaware of where to locate these high-end products. The majority of our clients are looking for high quality, exclusive or eclectic designs which the furniture chains cannot provide."

Although Heller has been making and designing furniture for decades, he also appreciates that today's competitive marketplace demands precision marketing if one is to target one's products successfully. Like any fine artistic creation, attracting the right audience is vital to commercial success. Even a fabulous concerto is of no great value if it is gathering dust instead of being performed! Likewise, great design must be seen to be appreciated and much of Heller's previous work has only been on view in private homes, museums, hotels, and office complexes, albeit around the world. Heller' s showroom has changed all that.

Kay enjoys her new niche in Norwell. She says she stumbled upon the position with Heller Furniture quite serendipitously. "I wasn't looking for just any job. I wanted the opportunity to work for a company I am proud of and Heller Furniture provides the right kind of retail environment. I enjoy the surroundings because the workmanship and materials are excellent. There is an intrinsic value in selling this kind of merchandise."

Heller still enjoys the stimulation that comes with each new design challenge. "I derive as much pleasure from restoring an antique piece of furniture as I do from creating a custom chair for an exacting client," he says. The kind of discriminating clients that Heller attracts are those who have a high regard for the excellence of his handcrafted precision and those who are willing to pay the price for such quality. Upholstered excellence does not come cheap and Heller is a rare find in the modern design world. He has an in-depth knowledge of his subject, 40 years of technical expertise and a unique design capability. "It's a dilemma for me as a designer. Sometimes I struggle between the allure of the traditional and the freedom of the contemporary," he says. "You can't take short cuts. For example, it takes me more than 40 hours to make a handmade Chesterfield sofa, everything is hand-knotted and hand-stitched. So it's refreshing to get a modern design project because it allows me to play more with the fabrics and filling."

"Creating a piece of furniture means incorporating many aspects into a perfect fit," explains Heller. "The design of the frame, application of the springs, the type of stuffing used in the cushions must all be carefully coordinated to bring about the desired end result." And perhaps the ultimate test of all good design? "Style is important, but comfort is imperative."

Part of catering to this end of the market involves educating the consumer. If one has only ever tasted a $5 bottle of wine it might be to hard to appreciate the superior qualities of a $20 bottle unless one was given a little guidance. The same goes for furniture design and construction, according to Heller, who hopes to start giving talks and workshops about the art and craft of selecting fine furniture in the future.

"For the first time, the showroom allows me to bring the public in while getting my message out," explains Heller who likes the fact that the space is friendly, comfortable and inviting for his potential customers. "Your environment can make you feel better. As a designer, I know that comfort is very important to people." He demonstrates this most pragmatically by standing up to show off some wonderfully thin yet exquisite leather cushions he has just designed to put on top of wrought iron seating. "The chair is artistic but uncomfortable, this is the answer." He's right-the cushion is a smooth and subtle solution.

In keeping with his perfectionist approach to creating quality, Heller is fastidious about the raw materials he uses. Great emphasis is placed on incorporating natural fibers into his work and Heller highlights an interesting eco-concept in this approach. "Reupholstering an object is a primary method of recycling. It creates a new lease on life for an old piece of furniture and thus saves resources." Probably few have ever considered the common sense implications of this strategy, yet it has valuable application in relation to conserving finite natural resources. Heller believes in using natural materials like cotton, silk, and down, and not just from the aesthetic standpoint. He remains concerned about the environmental aspects of synthetics. Sheep, cotton, and flax plants, on the other hand, are renewable resources and their products are biodegradable, which Heller maintains, is all to the good. But there is nothing recycled about this designer's innovation. It is both fresh and distinctive!