Back in 2010, Mrs. Dunlap contacted Artcraft about doing a custom Sticks Mirror for her home in Washington State. Her personalized mirror has been cherished by her and her family, as well as by all the guests who admire it. Mrs. Dunlap always wanted to do another custom piece but just didn’t have the right need or space for it. That all changed with a recent move to Utah. All of the sudden, that perfect spot was calling to her. This time, she was going big!
After searching the Artcraft Sticks Catalog for inspiration, Mrs. Dunlap gave us a call and told us about what she was looking for. She had come across Sticks Buffet 4405 (shown right) and was in-love with it. That said, she had personalized Sticks artwork with us before and had ideas as to how to turn this fantastic buffet into a true heirloom. Being so familiar with icon boxes used on the mirrors, she knew she wanted to use similar boxes on the top of the buffet to tell a story about her, her husband and their family. She took the time and e-mailed us a list of all the ideas she had. Here are just a few for example (she provided about 20 these all together):
- My husband is a US Navy Captain so we would like a couple of icons for that
- A Seattle Space Needle to remind us of all the time we spent in Washington
- Our very special dogs
- A special cruise boat/yacht to commemorate the what we did for our 20th anniversary
- Something to represent us and our two children that would read Love Family Life
She also described to us how the landscape on the buffet, as it was shown, was beautiful but that where they lived now had a very specific feel. Living in Utah now, on a golf coarse with beautiful mountains and other specific regional characteristics, we wanted to convert the landscape to reflect these qualities. Mrs. Dunlap sent us along some photos from their property, photos of the region, photos of her dogs, and other resources the artist could use in altering the landscape to capture their personal reality.
Typically, we gather all this information, provide it to the artist and let them do what they do best. However, in this case there was so much detail and it was such a large project that we felt it best to have the artist render a drawing for Mrs. Dunlap’s approval. After the initial drawing, we were able to make some changes based on Mrs. Dunlap’s comments. For example, the artist had included some large cactus in the landscape. As it turns out, there are no cactus like this near them. We wanted to share with you the final drawing used to produce the final custom buffet.
This is the fun part. About 4 weeks later, the Custom Sticks Buffet was complete and ready to ship. Check it out!
Wow!
Amazing, huh? We can tell you that Mrs. Dunlap was ecstatic! She wrote: “It’s here and it is absolutely gorgeous! We could not be happier! Lots of storage as well! Thank you for our beautiful piece! Thank you again!
Love, love, love it
Fran and Gene”
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