Inside or Out?

Although I closed my storefront after 22 years on U.S. Highway One, Wells, Maine, I  still have customers ask me the number one most often asked question in my history as a retailer of both reproduction Bar Harbor and Victorian wicker furniture like the designs of Heywood Wakefield, and authentic antique American made wicker furniture of the early 1900s.  But now instead of coming to my brick and mortar store, they call me on my phone or contact me via my email address on my website www.thewickershop.com.  Here it is, the most often asked question of wicker furniture fanciers, customers , collectors and just plain lookers---can I put wicker outside?

 

First, outside where?  On a covered porch, an uncovered porch, patio or lawn!

Second, where do you  live?   Alaska, Maine, South Carolina, Utah, California, Florida, Virginia or Texas!

Third, what do you mean, by wicker?  Antique woven of sea grass, contemporary woven of vinyl, or reproduction woven of reed!

As you can see, even to an experienced wicker furniture aficionado, there is no easy answer.  But, since I have spent a quarter of a century finding, repairing, collecting and selling wicker, I am going to answer anyway.   Yes, you can put wicker furniture outside IF:

1.        It is on a covered porch and there is not a lot of exposure to the harsh elements.  So, that means, weather permitting.  A little rain will do no harm, but snow piled high throughout the winter months in harsh climates will make the finish crack and peel and lead to the eventual deterioration of the underlying material as will the other extreme, sun exposure of hot, dry climates, OR

2.       It is woven of a synthetic material like vinyl or plastic.  Modern day weather proof wicker furniture can be used in any climate in any weather so they advertise.  But I am not an expert in that, so I can only quote what they claim. 

Now, I am a purist and a lover of all things natural.  I have never sold synthetic wicker, nor will I ever.  My specialty is antique wicker seating pieces that are woven of natural fibers such as reed, willow or sea grass, using rattan poles, willow, wood or bamboo as a frame, and that which was woven of twisted paper or twisted paper over wire.  The latter, that made of paper, of course cannot withstand moisture and should therefore, never be used outside.  All of the others, woven of natural materials, are wood products and can be thought of in the same way as a wood picnic table or Adirondack chair.  Wood products need a protective finish.  Just like the picnic table that will peel and eventually rot, so will a wicker chair if unprotected.  It that is the case, the underlying material will turn grey and break easily.  Do NOT buy a wicker furniture piece if it is grey.  It is gone beyond a useful life and cannot be saved. 

I have always told my customers to ask themselves what would happen to a wood picnic table under these circumstances?  If it would survive, then so would the wicker.  After all, Victorian and Art Deco wicker pieces were in fact used as outdoor furniture at the turn of the century, but, they were painted each spring before going back outside the next year.   Even under those conditions, I would not recommend using it as lawn furniture when there are better modern choices for that purpose today.  However, the covered porch is the perfect place!

The Wicker Shop of Maine now on facebook  https://www.facebook.com/thewickershopofmaine

That Campy Lloyd Loom

Wicker isn’t just for the porch, never has been.  Remember those iconic slasher movies that were set in the summer camps somewhere in the northeast woods by a lake?  What was the sofa made of, the one where the pretty young counselor dies in a puddle of blood?  Wicker, usually of the Lloyd Loom type.  True to the times, the set designers were correct to furnish the scene with Lloyd Loom suites as that was often the furniture of choice for summer vacation homes by the lake.

Lloyd Loom wicker is the only style of wicker still being manufactured in the U.S. most likely because it is the only machine made.  First woven of paper over wire, the modern day version is

Antique Bar Harbor chair
with drop in cushion seat

woven from thinly extruded vinyl, but still using many of the same flowing, graceful designs.  Like the newer versions, the antiques were woven in sheets and wrapped around a frame to form the sides and back.  Then it was wood, now it is metal.  Sometimes the seat was made of flat spings on which a cushion packed with horsehair was placed, but more often the original antiques had cushions with springs inside and a wood rim that dropped into an open seat frame.  If you can still find them, they are by far more comfortable than today’s solid woven seat and foam cushion version.  No matter what condition the original drop in cushions are in, I assure you they can be repaired by any good upholsterer. 

The one drawback to owning the original Lloyd Loom furniture is that once broken, that is, the weave, not the frame, it is difficult to repair.  Not only will the material be different (fiber over wire is no longer available), but trying to find someone who will weave using the tiny diameter reed may be a problem.  So, if you find an antique Lloyd Loom piece that you love, assume that if there is any damage to the weave, it may just stay like that.  I, for one, can live with a few distressed pieces here and there.   It just makes for a more authentic look and validates that it is a true antique.  But then, I am a purist when it comes to antique wicker furniture.

   

July 4, Independence Day is upon us, the start of another summer season at the shore, the shore of southern Maine, the Kennebunks, that is, my favorite place to be at this time of year.  Too bad I can’t be there!

My husband and I moved to sunny, South Carolina to get away from the long winters in the Kennebunks after 20 years by that shore.  But, something funny happens around this time of year even though we have been away for 3 years now.  I could swear when I step outside into the bright southern sun, 1000 miles away, I hear the waves of the northern Atlantic and smell the first rugosa roses of the season.  They say that every cell in your body has memory, well I believe it.  It would be the only rational explanation for why my ears and nose think they are still in Maine every fourth of July.  

There is another possibility.  As I drive by the lake and mountain homes in the upstate, it could be the wicker rockers, swings and gliders that sit on the covered porches in the windows that I see that conjur up those seaside sounds and smells.  For me, wicker is Maine as much as lobster, moose and LL Bean.

Victorian rollback collection
The Wicker Shop of Maine
www.thewickershop.com

It appears that the same Victorian wicker suites that furnished the grand waterfront cottages on the Maine and New Hampshire lakes and the Gulf of Maine are the very same designs that furnished the plantation homes along the rivers, lakes and harbors from Charleston to Keowee, SC.  A horse and buggy ride through downtown Charleston will yield a peek at stick wicker,  suites of Victoriana, maybe a Heywood Wakefied dining set as well as an authentic Bar Harbor rocker or two.  Lloyd loom sofas and chairs were all the rage at  Lake Hartwell in the 1920s and 30s and many still remain in the same spot in the same room.  The other day, as I walked past a restaurant on N. Market St, I was surprised to see a wicker pie safe in use in the display window of a popular downtown eatery.  Now, that was something I had never seen before, oak, yes, but wicker?

Although I no longer have a brick and mortar store in Maine, I still cannot drive by a yard sale, antique store or flea market without hoping to find just one more piece to add to my own personal collection or to fill an order from a long waiting customer.  Pity no one is waiting for a pie safe!    

Happy Fourth of July, Maine!

Atlanta porch rocker circa 1890

With Father's Day just around the corner, I am always reminded that my own father who has long ago passed away looked forward to seeing what his youngest daughter thought up for his special day.  As the baby of the family, I agree I was somewhat spoiled by him.  Being ever so appreciative, I felt it my duty to surprise him with something truly special to honor him on his day even though I was far too young to make the actual purchase.  For that purpose, my mother and siblings were willing to conspire with me knowing that it would please him so.  

I think his favorite gifts were always those that contributed to his leisure for which he had little time between working, gardening, tending the animals on our mini farm and driving us to and from our elocution, dance, acrobat and singing lessons, girl scouts, boy scouts and church.  My favorite gifts to him were a stand alone hammock which stood in our front yard every summer (and which I spent summer days reading Nancy Drew) until the metal base rusted and split, and a wicker rocker that served me more than him as he rocked me to sleep in his lap.     

Antique Bar Harbor chaise circa 1920

That hammock and rocker are long gone, but the wicker rocker represents memories of childhood I will never forget.  That is the sort of story I heard over and over for years from travelers and locals alike who were unable to drive by my antique shop on a busy highway in Maine, a shop whose storefront was a turn of the century Victorian farmhouse with a porch covered with antique rockers, tables, chairs and the like, all woven here in America before 1930, before that manufacturing industry too, left for China.  Today, that shop no longer exists, but I am sure that the thousands of pieces of wicker that I repaired, refinished, repainted and rewove are still around.

Reproduction Bar Harbor chaise

If my father were alive today, I would no doubt surprise him with my favorite leisurely piece of all, the chaise longue.  Around for centuries, the chaise is the ultimate single most idyllic piece of furniture whose sole purpose is to promote laziness,  goofing off, rest and relaxation. As far as wicker goes, the chaise was part of every collection from Victorian ornate to Art Deco stark and all were equally decadent.  Today the reproduction Bar Harbor chaise longue is as good as it was 100 years ago.  I think in memory of my father, that is where I will spend his day.    

Summertime and the living is easy, so says the song.  True, and the easiest way to enjoy summer is on a deep covered porch in wicker furniture covered in chintz and conjuring up images of times gone by.  Whether you live by a lake in the middle of the country, the Atlantic shore in the north east or the Pacific coast, wicker furniture is timeless.

I have owned and operated a wicker furniture business since 1988 at which time I fell in love with the authentic antique classic Bar Harbor designs that covered the porches of tennis clubs and private residences from Kennebunkport to Charleston.  Most people don't know this, but the Bar Harbor designs were not just the square, wide arm pieces that one normally sees in magazines, but rather they came in all shapes and sizes.  The backs were known to have been woven into head and shoulders designs, square with a woven shelf like top, round or square at the top with narrow arms that looked like braid, sometimes with cup holders and magazine racks, and the most popular and hard to find of them all, the wing back.

The 80s brought a rebirth of popularity that lasted well into 2000, but as the popularity increased, my sources for authentic Bar Harbor funiture decreased as interior designers and their clients gobbled up what has remained in our country's inventory since the turn of the century.  Fortuately, in 1990, I found a modern source for the Bar Harbor style wicker furniture made like the old in size, design and quality and have been selling it ever since to replace the ever disappearing originals.  No one (except maybe me) would be able to tell the difference. Some day they, too, will be part of grandma's legacy.

However, around the same time that I started buying, repairing and selling Bar Harbor wicker furniture, I was presented by one of my antique "pickers" with a five piece matching suite of wicker furniture woven by hand of material that resembled brown kraft paper twisted over wire.  It not only resembled it, but was in fact brown kraft paper twisted over wire.  This opened a whole new obsession for me in the wicker of the Art Deco era---an era in which wicker was commonplace in front rooms, bedrooms and dining rooms, not just the porch any more.  More on this fabulous furniture design in upcoming blogs.



 

It has recently come to my attention that I am considered to be an expert on the subject of antique wicker furniture, that romantic woven artifact that is still prevalent on the leaning porches of lake cottages as well as on the architecturally best verandas of mansions along the Nantucket shore.  Having lived in Maine for 25 years, I am most familiar with that which is seen on the banks of the Kennebunk River.  And, as the creator, owner and operator of The Wicker Shop of Maine for 20 years, I guess I am an expert!

My first wicker recovery 1990
Ladies Serpentine Chair

Although I still have the same website www.thewickershop.com that I launched 20 years ago,  it is hardly worth keeping it up as sales of wicker furniture have gone down the loo since 2000, the year when disposable income became extinct.  But, I still receive many information inquiries, readers who want to know what they have and what it is worth, how to repair or paint it and where they can find others as well.  I have maintained my relationship with sources of antique wicker as well as my source for high quality reproduction of Bar Harbor and Victorian wicker styles.

If you want to know more about antique wicker furniture check back now and then as I build my blog.  For more information or specific questions regarding antique wicker furniture you can email me through my website www.thewickershop.com

Thanks for reading.  Angela  aka The Wicker Lady (from Maine, ayuh!)