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Stylish carpentry
A chair, bookcase and foot stool are among White's creations in the living room.
By ELIZABETH BETTENDORF
© St. Petersburg Times
published March 28, 2003
BAYSHORE BEAUTIFUL -- When Steve and Danette White bought their traditional 1920s bungalow on Hawthorne Road five years ago, it wasn't just a savvy real-estate buy. The house was exactly what they had been looking for.
The bungalow's distinctive architectural design, with its rustic styling and lack of fussy ornamentation, intrigued them. It was also the perfect showcase for White's unusual hobby: building craftsman-style furniture that once filled such homes.
So far, White has built just about every chair, table, bed, bookshelf, footstool, trunk and plant stand that adorns the interior of their home off Bayshore Boulevard. Lovingly and by hand in his backyard workshop.
A complex piece of furniture can take White as long as 40 hours to build. Most are crafted using traditional mortise and tenon joinery, a hallmark of the historic design. He makes his furniture from walnut, oak and white oak.
"A lot of it is trial and error," says White, 33, who built his first piece of period furniture about six years ago. He taught himself by reading voraciously on the subject.
Carpentry is also a family interest. His brother, Joey White, who lives in Brooksville, is an accomplished furniture maker. His father, Joe, is also good with his hands.
"I learned a lot from my father and brother," he says. "We have it in our blood."
He first became interested in the style after visiting a store that carried reproductions of craftsman furniture.
"The simplicity and the squareness of it caught my eye, it wasn't real trendy," he says. "I like things with straight lines that never go out of style."
White, who holds a degree in accounting from the University of Tampa, quickly crunched the numbers. He knew he could make the furniture for a fraction of what it cost to buy in a store.
The couple also needed stuff.
At the time, says Danette White, "we owned a futon and that was it."
His first piece was a coffee table made in the garage of the apartment building where they were living at the time. He never looked back.
The Whites, who own Cappy's Pizza on Howard Avenue, have become so crazy about the craftsman period, that their 2,200-square-foot, three-bedroom house could grace the pages of a catalog from the era. The interior is so un-tropical, with its dark wood accents and walls painted mustard and deep red, that it's a refreshing break from the usual white and wicker found in so many Florida homes.
In fact, White gets most of his inspiration from reprints of historic catalogs that contain furnishings designed by the leaders of the craftsman style. His work is influenced particularly by Gustav Stickley, who wrote the 1909 book Craftsman Homes. Stickley, a Wisconsin native and trained craftsman who reached success in the early 1900s, was known for creating the first truly American furniture, mostly rectilinear shapes free of frou-frou and revered for its utility and beauty of design.
The furniture produced by Stickley's company, United Crafts, was simple in style compared to earlier Victorian furnishings and meant to be accessible to the working man.
Stickley also drew attention to the readily available building materials in America and the importance of using local craftsmen. Stickley wrote that a bungalow is a "house reduced to its simplest form," one that "never fails to harmonize with its surroundings, because its low broad proportions and absolute lack of ornamentation give it a character so natural and unaffected that it seems to sing into and blend with any landscape."
Stickley believed that bungalows should be built inexpensively, using native materials. He disliked mass produced furniture and believed in the quality of handmade goods.
Like Stickley, Steve White builds his furniture to work in harmony with his bungalow-style house. He made the frames on the walls, a window seat off the kitchen and a porch swing with its woven rush seat. A bookshelf in the front sunroom holds antique children's books. Another massive bookshelf in the living room carries a carved maxim: "Judge a Book by it's Cover."
"I never have to buy anything," Danette says. "My friends come over and they can't believe it. They say, 'We want you to contract him out.' I really am so proud of him."
What began as a hobby for the Whites has transformed into a lifestyle and philosophy. They lead a simple life and spend time together as a family, devoted to their 21/2-year-old daughter, Siena. Mrs. White, 30, works as a part-time biologist at the Florida Aquarium. She also decorates the house and "gives me lots of ideas," her husband says.
Because the interior design is simple, they can showcase their more eclectic, nostalgic treasures: a vintage lunchbox collection from the '70s, an old wooden croquet set, an antique stained glass window from Scotland.
What will they do when they run out of room for Steve's furniture?
They won't, he says. "Our house is an ongoing project. I still have the whole upstairs ahead of me."
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