The Artful Seat opens

Ridgefield has a furniture store. The Artful Seat, the newly-opened store at 328 Pioneer St. has found a niche for itself in the seated part of the furniture trade.

“We sell refurbished and reimagined furniture, primarily chairs, benches and footstools,” says owner Allisan Buckingham. “Turning my love of sewing, upholstering and bringing old furniture to life again into what we think will be a successful business. Actually, I think the custom re-upholstering and custom sewing jobs will bring in the most business, but already we’ve sold a couple of chairs and our customers love the variety and charm of some of our pieces.”

Buckingam, who has lived in Ridgefield for a decade, also uses the carpentry and shelf building talents of her brother–in-law Ed Cowley, and her sister Sue Tinsman functions as the company bookkeeper and accountant. Buckingham’s husband Roy works for Whole Foods Market, a job he’s held for 35 years, and his tenure included a stint helping to open the original market in Austin, TX. With three grown children, she sees the store as her chance to be creative, meet new people, and keep her hand in sewing, a lifelong passion.

Buckingham will also be glad to help anyone with his or her own do-it-yourself projects that involve old furniture, sewing or upholstery.

“If people need my help I’ll gladly give them advice and help them along with their projects,” she said. “And of course, if they want to hire my services in those areas, or for home decorating or wedding planning, I’m ready to go.”

A retired teacher, Buckingham was a special education instructor in the Texas school system and then in Battle Ground, and finally moved over to the Evergreen School District, where she retired after an 11-plus year career helping special needs children.

“But even when I was teaching, I always had a home sewing business going,” Buckingham said. “I just love to sew and hopefully will be able to enjoy that for many years to come.”

The Artful Seat is small, containing around a dozen wooden chairs, ottomans, benches, cane chairs, and chaises, along with custom-made shelving, and unique picture frames. Two of these latter items fashioned from old window frames.

“I grew up in a family that regularly bought things from a Goodwill Store, and that instilled in me a love of old things, things other people wanted to throw away,’’ Buckingham said. “And even today my husband and I keep an eye out for discarded treasures at local rebuilding stores and the Vancouver Habitat for Humanity store. It’s amazing what you can find. Things that easily can be cleaned up, refurbished and made like new. The last thing I want to see is furniture that can be saved thrown into garbage dumps and landfill, that’s such a waste.“

When she saw that Alcove Art was leaving it’s shared space with Ridgefield Floral, Buckingham leaped at the chance to move into the space. The Artful Seat had a “soft opening” on Jan. 29, and had scheduled a formal opening for Feb. 5-8.

“I had refreshments all arranged and was all set to welcome people to the store, but then the snow began falling and we had to cancel our formal opening days,” she said.

Buckingham is open for business now, with hours of 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Wednesdays through Saturdays. The Artful Seat doesn’t have a website yet, but people interested in her business can go to her Facebook page: The Artful Seat.

The store can be reached by phone at (360) 887-2255. The Artful Seat is located at 328 Pioneer St., Ridgefield.