Iconic September 2023

Emily Henderson and Arciform Turn Potential into Paradise

Love & Logistics: Modernizing Your Older Home

The Harlow Hotel: From High Hopes to Hard Times to a New Heyday

Meet the Founder of Lonesome Pictopia

letter from the editor

Challenges Foster Creativity: Three Stories about Pitfalls, Possibilities, and Paradise

The median age for new homebuyers in Portland is 33. And while some of the homes they’re buying are newer homes, many late-20s through mid-40s professionals are buying older homes to raise families in. These homes are charming and well-built; but can come with their share of problems, as well as loads of possibilities that reward the diligent remodeler and determined homeowner. In this issue of Iconic, we present three stories that explore the challenges and creative solutions of updating older buildings to modern standards of efficiency and convenience.

To write “Love & Logistics: Modernizing Your Older Home,” we interviewed Anne De Wolf, Principal Designer and Owner of ARCIFORM. With her wealth of experience, Anne details the pitfalls of remodeling and the creative solutions that can achieve beautiful results while improving on original ideas.

The article ends with a relevant question for younger homeowners on limited budgets: to DIY or not to DIY? The answer provides a quick quideline for deciding what you can do yourself and when it’s best to call in a professional!

When designer and Instagram influencer Emily Henderson found a vintage farmhouse on three secluded acres 15 minutes from downtown Portland, she knew it was the place for her, and her husband and their two kids. She also knew she would need help tackling the renovation. In “Emily Henderson and ARCIFORM Turn Potential Into Paradise”, feast your eyes on a photo diary as the team transforms this small farm into a rural paradise.

It was the very picture of a Skid Row hotel. Boarded up, covered with graffiti, and slated for demolition. That is, until ARCIFORM and Versatile Wood Products came into the picture. “The Harlow Hotel: From High Hopes to Hard Times to a New Heyday” chronicles the challenges and meticulous solutions that transformed this classic, rundown hotel into a traditional beauty with modern conveniences. The Harlow Hotel won a 2023 2023 DeMuro award.

Continuing Iconic’s newest tradition, the ArciFiles, we bring you the story of Melanie Nead, founder of Lonesome Pictopia. As lead designer, Melanie heads a “design collective in the spirit of the Arts and Crafts movement” that creates wallpapers, murals, and hand-painted objects, that draw their inspiration from archetypal patterns that humans love.

Lastly, we continue and expand our Iconic Community Directory of vendors, partners, and organizations that ARCIFORM is proud to work with. Discover the talented professionals who help us do our very best.

We hope this issue inspires some creative ideas of your own. Happy reading and viewing!

Snow Blackwood snow@snowbdesigns.com snowbdesigns.com

the iconic

table of contents.

EDITOR’S NOTE

From the editor-in-chief.

EMILY HENDERSON AND ARCIFORM TURN POTENTIAL INTO PARADISE

It started as an old family farm on the outskirts of Portland. Two farmhouses, built in 1860 and 1910. A ton of promise and a lot of work. Follow our photo diary of how Emily Henderson and ARCIFORM transformed a rustic retreat into a rural paradise.

LOVE & LOGISTICS: MODERNIZING YOUR OLDER HOME

You’ve fallen in love with your older home. Now you want to update it to contemporary standards of efficiency and comfort. We interviewed Anne De Wolf, Principal Designer of ARCIFORM, drawing on her 25+ years of experience to bring you the joys and challenges, pitfalls and possibilities of modernizing your heritage home.

THE HARLOW HOTEL: FROM HIGH HOPES TO HARD TIMES TO A NEW HEYDAY

Boarded up and covered with graffiti, the Harlow Hotel was slated for demolition. See how a visionary new owner partnered with ARCIFORM and Versatile Wood Products to restore a classic beauty to its former glory, winning a coveted 2023 DeMuro award in the process.

THE ARCIFILES

Enduring, alluring patterns are the heart and soul of the wallpapers, murals, handpainted objects and tiles produced by Lonesome Pictopia. Meet Melanie Nead, the founder and creative director behind this prolific collective.

COMMUNITY DIRECTORY

Discover vendors, partners, and organizations from our design-build community.

emilyhenderson

and arciform into paradise turn potential

PHOTOGRAPHED BY KAITLIN GREEN

When designer and Instagram influencer Emily Henderson, @em_henderson, found a vintage farmhouse on THREE SECLUDED ACRES in the middle of an incredible old suburb 15 minutes from Downtown Portland and 5 minutes from cute SW restaurants, she just knew it was meant to be—and, she also knew she would need help tackling the renovation.

It has two farmhouses—one from 1860 (a kit house that is dripping with charm—and totally falling down) and the main house from 1910 that hasn’t been updated too much but is in strong shape. It has a barn, multiple super cute sheds, and a massive carriage garage. It has 2 paddocks and a pasture and the entire property is fully fenced. When we heard that Emily and her family were looking for help, we just knew we needed to be part of this project. After meeting Emily remotely, and each of us carefully vetting the other, well—you know what they say, the rest is history! Follow the journey below.

An update on working with HGTV Design Star and Instagram Influencer Emily Henderson

“

if you are remodeling and purchasing a new range then yes, induction seems to be a wise investment (we love it)”

Jamie and the ARCIFORM team built and installed the shelves wall to wall (through some carpentry magic)”

“As you know, we wanted a vintage island to bring in age and soul, but finding the right one proved to be very difficult…until one day it wasn’t. It seems to be an old store counter, because its sheer size means that it must have been in something commercial (it’s more than 9” long). The six drawers on the front side function pretty well—heavier and harder to open/close than new drawers, but they are actually really deep, so we store our colanders, Tupperware, and random cooking tools in there. It’s white oak with an old reddish stain that we actually love. It’s solid, adds so much soul, and feels casual but not too shabby-chic (nothing wrong with that, just not what we are going for in the kitchen).”

I personally think it’s worth having a smaller kitchen if you can create a room to throw all the other stuff.”

“I think my favorite area of the room is this random little vignette or the dining nook—it just feels so much like me.”

Y’all—we brought in the light and opening it up to the backyard is heaven.”

“I remember sitting on the floor of the mountain house with buckets of samples from Pratt + Larson and so many pieces of paper that I had cut out into shapes, trying to come up with unique ways to use simple tile shapes. I had so much time (it was during lockdown) and had a real “bee in my bonnet” about the kids’ bath having this fun tile floor/wall border.”

The details are the details. Bring personality to a space by including unique and interesting antiques”

“This lady, Mrs. Mudroom, is quite possibly my favorite room in the house (rivaled by the kitchen, sunroom, and our bathroom, TBH). I’m not joking that every single time I walk into it I feel joy and happiness through the sense of light, space, and sheer ease of function. All the design elements came together just as they did in my mind—NO, even better.”

love logistics: & modernizing your older home.

It’s an old story with a modern twist. You fall in love with a classic beauty. You can hardly see for the stars in your eyes. Hardly hear anything but your pounding heart. You can’t believe she’s all yours! And then you move in together. And the romance ends. Which is where this story begins.

We Portlanders love our heritage homes, and we should! They’re charming, well-built, exhibit fine craftsmanship, have lots of stories to tell, and they’re. .old. Meaning that they often come with problems and they don’t have many of the modern conveniences that we’ve all come to expect. So how do you update your aging beauty without sacrificing its classic charm? We talked with Anne De Wolf, Principal Designer of ARCIFORM for over twenty-five years, about the joys, occasional frustrations, and creative challenges of bringing an older home up to contemporary standards of comfort and efficiency.

The Chain Reaction Challenge

Although this article is divided into neat headings about electrical, plumbing, and other categories, your old house

is proof positive that we live in an interconnected world. Remodeling can often be like a game of Whack-a-mole, where upgrading one thing involves several other things in a chain reaction. Adding a dormer may first necessitate a new foundation or structural work. Installing new ceiling lighting and fans in your bath may reveal asbestos insulation (asbestos wasn’t banned until 1989) in the attic, with a hefty $15,000 abatement price tag. Even adding that just-one-more electric appliance may demand a new electrical panel. The trick is to plan the proper succession of remodels (see: Whole House Remodels, Parts 1 - 3) and group projects together. For instance, if you’re going to open a wall to replace a window, that’s the time to modernize wiring, add outlets or lighting, insulate, and address plumbing issues.

Powering Up: How Electrical Can Zap Your Budget

Back when many Portland homes were built, there simply weren’t as many gadgets to plug in. No blenders, ninjas, coffee grinders, can openers and so on. So fuse boxes, and then breaker panels, were smaller, and there weren’t as many outlets. If your home was built prior to 1950, you may still have knob and tube (K&T) wiring— you can recognize it in an unfinished basement by the telltale white ceramic knobs with protruding black, insulated wires. The rest of the K&T wiring is, alas, hidden behind walls, which may still be lath and plaster—beautiful, but messy and expensive to dismantle. For this reason, most people leave the wire in until the day a larger project calls for opening the wall. Seize that opportunity to install fans, lighting, outlets—any electrical items.

Additional outlets can be installed on the first floor by fishing an electric line up from an unfinished basement. Or on the top floor, by fishing a line down from the attic (again, asbestos insulation may be present). In both cases, however, the new line may not be able to tie into the existing circuit because it may overload it. You may need to add a new circuit, which in turn may necessitate a new panel.

Let There Be LED

A great alternative to hardwiring in new lighting is to install a cool, new USB-charged LED light fixture. They come in a variety of styles from sleek modern to chandeliers and operate for as long as twenty-four hours on a charge

The Pipes, the Pipes are Calling

Two of the most popular rooms to remodel—kitchens and baths—revolve around water. In the third most popular room, the basement, people often want an additional bathroom, a wet bar or other water feature. Sooner, rather than later, you will deal with pipes. And while it’s true that some homes built before 1985 (when using lead was banned in Oregon), may still have lead pipes, there are myriad other issues that make plumbing complicated.

The first consideration when adding a bathroom should be: how are you going to drain it? In other words, how are you going to get your new pipes to connect to water sources and sewer pipes. You may want the new bath there. But your existing plumbing demands that it go here, by the wall that already accommodates plumbing.

Another issue to consider is galvanic corrosion. This occurs when two dissimilar metals are immersed in a conductive solution that electrically connects them. Water is a conductive solution. Put steel and copper, or stainless steel and aluminum, pipes in one system, add water, and they will corrode, causing leakage at the joints. The cure is to replace the entire system. ARCIFORM specifies PEX with copper pipes for more stability where it projects through walls. Clearly, walls need to open up to change pipes, so this is the time to make any other behind-the-wall changes, such as blocking for grab bars or replacing water damaged members.

Want to swap a shower for a bathtub, or vice versa? Not so fast. Because the god of codes has a sense of humor, tub drains are an inch and a half in diameter. Shower drains are two inches. You’ll have to update that connection, which takes up space. Is there enough room to accommodate it? You may have to drill through joists, compromising their strength. Want to put a toilet on the second floor? That requires a trap, so space and drainage limitations apply. Toilets in basements often prove that what flushes down must go up. If your basement is below the sewer line, you’ll need to add a sump pump.

Cool Insulation Workarounds that Will Warm Your Heart

Leaky, old, single pane windows, drafty doors, and lack of insulation are energy loss culprits. If money’s no object you can replace and insulate, of course. But, as always with older homes, there are caveats. And creative alternatives.

If windows are nonfunctional or rotting, replace them with efficient modern windows. But many older houses have functional, beautiful double hung windows that are part of your home’s history. Plus, wood is more insulating than vinyl or aluminum. These can be augmented with storm windows in winter and solar film in summer —which also protects your furniture and artwork from fading. Or try an old tech workaround. Plant a deciduous tree that shades in summer and allows more light in winter. Install shutters or an awning. Or take the European tack and use heavy curtains. Higher tech shades will automatically close when it gets too bright.

If a door is malfunctioning or rotting, buy a new, efficient door. But often, new weather stripping does the job just fine. Note that when you install the proper width of weather stripping it will make the door more difficult to close for a while, until the stripping works in.

Insulating under your main floor (in a crawl space or unfinished basement ceiling) and in your attic will make life more comfortable immediately. Walls present different considerations. If you are already opening up an exterior wall for other work, of course insulate it, and add a vapor barrier, if possible. Another option

is blown-in insulation, but it comes with potential pitfalls. It can actually pop off the siding of Victorians, which have no sheathing. As well, older homes may have leakier walls, with ancient tar paper under the siding. They were built so that empty wall cavities would quickly dry out. Fill them with insulation and you’ve created a sponge to hold water.

Fun and effective alternatives to wall insulation include hanging rugs on walls and adding bookshelves. With the first, you get warmth and art, with the second, insulation and books! Fireplace flues should be closed when there’s no fire. With many people opting for gas inserts, glassing-in the fireplace is essential, since the flue is now always open. As one last, luxurious warming suggestion, if you’re redoing your bathroom floor, add radiant heating under that beautiful new tile.

HVAC: to Duct or Not to Duct

Lots of heritage homes have beautiful radiator heaters, but with hotter summers people want AC. Mini-splits have certainly saved us from putting in large, central air systems with bulky ducts. They come in three flavors. Ductless mini-splits, which are great for independently heating/cooling rooms, but have unsightly heads. Ducted mini-splits, which combine some of the advantages of mini split and central air. And hybrid systems. All are great options over old gas furnaces; just remember that switching to one more electric device may max out your panel.

Making Space in Your Small House

Older homes were built for less cluttered lifestyles. We simply didn’t have as many electric gadgets back then, and we made do with less space. Rooms were generally walled-in, not open plan, and kitchens were often much smaller than today’s standard. Today, we prefer more spacious homes, so it’s natural that we want to open things up, knock down walls, add dormers or a bay window, and create a multi-use basement. Older homes sometimes put a damper on these plans. Walls you want gone are load bearing. Even if they’re not, in Victorians—which lack sheathing—those walls may contribute to the strength of the structure. That post in the basement, right where you want to put a pool table, may hold your house up. Even some mansions, with their beautifully appointed great rooms, make it difficult to carve out space for a powder room downstairs. A dinky loo under existing stairs may be the best option.

All this is not to say that heritage homes can’t be opened up or expanded, but that keeping the structural integrity comes first, so choices must be made carefully. If you do remove walls, or add on to your house, a structural engineer who understands the building techniques used in older homes is essential.

Challenges foster creativity. A small kitchen can gain space by going vertical, employing apothecary shelving. The same is true in other rooms; if you can’t expand horizontally, what can you do vertically? Spaces can be beautified and made to feel larger with clever paint schemes or well-placed lighting. Add photos or paintings that pull you into the distance. Sometimes hiring a personal organizer to help arrange things—and get rid of things you don’t need - is money best spent. The less you have, the less you need to store. Or think outside of the house. Add a deck or patio, or build a little dining pavilion in your backyard that could be closed in the winter and open in the summer.

Now You’re (Not) Cooking with Gas

A short time ago, there was a kind of mania for gas ranges—a macho quest for the highest BTUs. But these burners came with problems. They required huge, energy-sucking hoods to capture the exhaust. Plus they sounded like jets taking off, and required an air replacement unit just to return the air that’s pumped out. Finally, it may be hard enough to find space for a gas stove in small, older kitchen; now your remodeler must fit in an air replacement unit, too. And then, of course, there are the deleterious health effects of gas cooking. Those high BTUs were making us sick.

Anne De Wolf says that 90% of her recent kitchen remodels include switches to induction cooking due to its many advantages. It has zero off-gassing, uses smaller, quieter hoods , requires no air replacement units, and they’re more energy efficient than standard electric ranges. If you’re switching from gas, it does add to your electric load, but that may be a wash if you’re removing a giant hood.

How Not to Shake, Rattle and Roll

We live in earthquake country, and older homes were not built for it. Although many homes have been seismically retrofitted, most have not. Remodeling your basement provides the perfect opportunity to retrofit your home—before new walls are in. It’s a good idea, for safety and for protecting your investment. Even if you get earthquake insurance, there’s a good chance that such companies will not be able to pay all claims in the event of a large quake. Seismic retrofitting may be as simple as anchoring your walls to your foundation. But some older Portland foundations are porous and crumbly and will need to be reinforced first.

The Permit Purgatorio

Reading the tome of residential building codes in Portland is about as fun as reading the fine print on an insurance document. Navigating the permitting and inspection process takes time, patience, and a glossary of construction terms. But all of these rules and regs are there for good reasons; to keep structures standing, make wiring safe, etcetera. Older homes sometimes have existing unpermitted alterations or additions. These may need to be torn out and redone, unless there is good reason to grandfather them in. Working with pros like ARCIFORM who know the codes, and personally know many inspectors, can save a lot of time, money, and frustration.

To DIY or Not to DIY

There are many things homeowners on a limited budget can do themselves, including aesthetic improvements, updating appliances and fixtures, and envisioning a long-term plan for transforming your current home into your future masterpiece. You can also work with a remodeler to establish phased projects that can be done over time.

For projects that impact structure, electrical, or plumbing in any way, Anne De Wolf says: “Work with a professional. Don’t have some handyman who says, ‘Yes I can do plumbing. Yes, I can do electrical.’ It’s very dangerous, and it’s going to cost you more than anything else you spend on the house. The trades are there for reason. Check CCB (OR Construction Contractors Board) and make sure they’re licensed. That is the number one advice I would give.” With her twenty-five plus years of creatively updating Portland’s heritage homes, we think that’s sound advice.

Honoring the Past While Creating Your Future

Modernizing older homes can bring challenges that promote creativity, often leading to unique solutions that add even more charm to our heritage homes. We love these houses for their beauty, attention to detail, and craftsmanship. Embrace those qualities. Think of modernizing your traditional home as listening to its story. Then update that story, while preserving its original intent. •

harlow hotel: the

from high hopes to hard times heyday new to a

ARCIFORM and Versatile Wood Products are proud to have been key members in the salvage and restoration work that earned the Harlow Hotel a 2023 DeMuro award.

This prestigious award is given every year to Oregon landmark projects that have done an exceptional job restoring and reviving landmark buildings in the state. The renovation of the hotel took place over a 10-year period, ultimately turning a dilapidated building visited only by pigeons into the exquisite hotel you see below. You can read all about this extensive remodel here!

Congratulations to all of the teams behind this notable restoration!

the profiles of the faces behind the places

arcifiles.

What an amazing mosaic of creative people, businesses, and organizations make up the Portland design-build community! From designers to contractors to craftspeople, from product designers to vendors to nonprofits that support the industry, it takes a community to build, remodel, and restore our village. In this edition of ArciFiles, we introduce Melanie Nead, founder and creative director of Lonesome Pictopia.

PETER HERRING

MELANIE NEAD

Company: Lonesome Pictopia

Duration: 6 years

Role: Founder and Creative Director

PATTERN LANGUAGE

Role at Lonesome Pictopia

The pattern that connects all of Melanie Nead’s work is...pattern. “I talk a lot about how much meaning and narrative there is in pattern and the way different patterns make you feel.” As Founder and Creative Director of Lonesome Pictopia (LP), which creates unique, often nature-based patterns in wallpapers, murals, and painted objects, she’s the lead designer and driving force behind an all-woman “design collective in the spirit of the Arts and Crafts movement.” What’s in a name?” I wanted something that felt cinematic, narrative, evocative. Also, because I worked alone getting the business started, it was like, ‘Who’s gonna join me in this beautiful, lonely queendom I’ve created?’”

Getting Started

Melanie has a fine art background studying sculpture in college. As a tattoo artist and the owner of Icon Tattoo for 15 years, she also has a long history of design. In 2017, she swapped drawing on skin for creating patterns on walls, partly because of the physical difficulties of sitting hunched over a tattoo needle for hours. When she created a stenciled, hand-painted mural for Bernstein’s Bagels, incorporating “all the ingredients of an everything-bagel,” she knew that walls were her next canvas. “I loved it. That was the seed of the business getting started.”

Favorite Product

The “Chanterelles” wallpaper is Melanie’s favorite creation. “It’s simple. But there’s a complexity to it. I had this vision of Chanterelle’s as an Art Deco fan pattern, an interpretation of one of the oldest, most universal human patterns, which is that scale or scallop shape. Chanterelles is our best-selling pattern. I think part of it is that there’s something really evocative that connects to the deepest, oldest parts of our humanity with these classic, recognizable shapes. That’s meaningful to me. Not only am I able to communicate with the past 500 years of wallpaper design, but on a deeper level, I can explore some really profound things about human nature.”

Proudest Accomplishment

Melanie’s satisfaction in being able to bring her “design superpowers” into the world, providing profound patterns in public buildings and private homes, is evident. She’s also proud of being able to give back to the community. “After we hit breakeven on a pattern, a small percentage of its sales are donated to a nonprofit that addresses housing security.”

Experience Working in the Local Design-build Field

Over 90% of LP’s projects are with designers. “I love working with the trades. It feels fun and collaborative to work with amazing designers who are super visual and are usually really good at clearly communicating parameters but then giving a lot of trust within those parameters. It’s the ideal situation for any artist.”

How do you see the future of designbuild and Lonesome Pictopia?

Melanie loves traditional crafts and wants to see them remain a component of home design. “I want to create traditionally block-printed wallpapers with our original designs. It feels really important to me to continue to explore and reinvent and reinvigorate old crafts.” Most recently, LP has added Tempest Tiles, a line of handpainted tiles. “I love having a manufacturing component; we’re craftspeople first and foremost. I love the idea of having people come in and watch us work. Anything is more interesting when you learn about the processes that made it happen. Long-term, I want to make so many fabulously beautiful things, try to make the world more beautiful, a little bit at a time, do a lot of good, and create meaningful jobs for women in the arts.” •

PHOTO: LOLA WALLACE

directory. community

United Tile

United Tile has offered the most comprehensive and creative selection of tile, stone, and glass products in the Northwest. In addition to tile, we carry a high quality engineered hardwood; Plank. All products are found throughout the region at quality flooring and tile retailers. As a wholesale distributor of premium tile, stone, metal, glass and hardwood—we pride ourselves in providing service equal to the amazing selection of products we offer.

Versatile Wood Products

We are committed to building custom cabinets, windows and doors that honor and make history. By preserving traditional ways of construction and blending them with modern technologies and performance standards, we design and build custom solutions for both residential and commercial projects, that harmonize aesthetics and temperament with function and utility.

Eastbank Contractor Appliances

Eastbank Contractor Appliances supplies quality appliances and exceptional service to the building industry. Builders, designers, architects, remodelers, cabinet companies and tradesmen trust Eastbank for their appliance needs. We are open to the public.

TOC Portland

Where history makes music better. A historic landmark and concert hall in Portland, Oregon with world-class acoustics and ambiance. Est. 1882.

Z Collection

Offering a vast selection of porcelain, ceramic, and natural stone tiles and mosaics, Z Collection is the ultimate resource for tile. With distribution centers in Portland and Seattle, we pride ourselves on providing locally stocked tile options that have been especially curated for the Pacific Northwest market.

Level Plane Tile and Stone

Level Plane, serving Oregon and Washington for over 13 years, is a dedicated team of problemsolving tile experts. From small home projects to high-end residential and commercial spaces, we handle all tile jobs with precision and offer a wide range of products and finishes.

Cornerstone Tile & Marble, LLC

If you are looking to remodel your bathroom tile or restore your new or old home’s fireplace, kitchen splash or bathroom tiles with precision and care and attention to fine details-look no further than Cornerstone Tile & Marble,LLC. With more then 25 years of experience and a commitment to preserving the historical elements of your home, Cornerstone is the perfect choice for your restoration needs. Visit our Instagram to see some examples of my work and let’s get started planning your project today!

Restore Oregon

Founded in 1977, Restore Oregon is a state-wide, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, supported by members/donors, led by a volunteer board, and staffed by professionals, who help people save and revitalize historic places. Along with industry experts, like ARCIFORM, we work on the front lines and behind the scenes to leverage relationships, resources, and creativity to preserve, protect, and pass forward Oregon’s heritage—visit our website to learn more!

Cornell Farm Nursery & Cafe

Nestled into the West Hills of Portland on the Blatter family’s fourth-generation farm, Cornell Farm Nursery has been providing guests from all over the Northwest with the finest plants for their gardens, homes, and offices since 1987.

Fine & Dandy Co.

Visual storytellers based in Toronto, Fine & Dandy Co.’s bespoke wallcovering studio can customize existing patterns, create entirely new designs based on a particular project or inspiration, or recreate an heirloom motif for a historic restoration. Whether it’s a small residential powder room or a palatial ballroom, Fine & Dandy Co. can make any room feel grand.

McCoy Millwork

McCoy Millwork has been supplying the Northwest and beyond with fine finish carpentry materials for over 75 years. We specialize in trim profiles, finish lumber, stair parts and fireplace mantels for vintage home remodels and ageless new home construction. Our shop specializes in small to medium runs in a variety of wood species. Choose from our selection of custom knives or order standard, large mill profiles from our stock catalog. We provide quality millwork, expert advice and exceptional service.

DC Connections, LLC

DC Connections, LLC is a Portland, Or. Based concept— Serving the Rose City of the Great Pacific Northwest. Since 2001. We are dedicated to providing state-of-the-art home automation features and custom luxury products in the audio & video industry. The user experience is critical. How we captivate is the same for all levels of the project with every client. Our pledge. Our dedication. Specific Upcoming Closures: November 20th - 24th. December 8th. December 18th - January 2nd 2024.

Lovett Deconstruction & Salvage

With brilliant service and a passion for preservation, Lovett considers the work of deconstruction to be an artform. Rather than demolishing structures, we are invested in the craft of thoughtful dismantling so historic lumber and other materials can be diverted from landfills and given new life. We are committed to operating sustainably and to doing our part to support a circular economy. That’s why all materials that are saved in our deconstruction projects are either reused onsite, donated locally, or are transported to our lumber and salvage shop to be prepped for sale to the community. The contractors, DIYers, and artists who shop reclaimed and then reintegrate the materials into the built environment help bring our work full circle.

Atelier Douce France

ADF is a women-owned business run by Anne Williams, who was born and raised in Normandy, France, where she began learning the art of traditional upholstery at 15. We specialize in custom, high-end furniture upholstery for modern and traditional pieces. We have also created a whimsical, mushroom-shaped ottoman called the “Mycelia Seat.” ADF resells a small inventory of well-curated pieces that we have restored to their former glory. Two years ago, we started teaching upholstery at Wildcraft, and now in person at our North Portland studio.

Lonesome Pictopia, LLC

Founded by Melanie Nead in 2017, Lonesome Pictopia creates original wallpapers, murals, and goods inspired by American tattooing, the Arts and Crafts Movement, and the wild spaces of the Pacific Northwest.

Snow B. Designs

As the creative agency behind the ARCIFORM brand and producer of Iconic Magazine, we are Mom-built and powered by our team of long-time creative pros in branding, design, writing and campaign strategy—whether online/mobile or traditional. We respect you by listening deeply to your needs, concerns, and goals—and how you want to reach them. We communicate honestly and clearly.

Alpha StoneWorks

Alpha StoneWorks is a premier countertop fabricator serving the Portland Metro Area. Family owned and operated for the last three decades.

The most comprehensive and creative selection of tile, stone, glass, and wood products in the Northwest.

Our Fortune 500 Work Is Your Good Fortune

Mom thinks her creative family is the best and brightest. Sure, she’s biased, but there’s proof. Our accomplished team of Creative Directors, PMs, Digital Marketing Strategists, Brand & Campaign Strategists, Designers and Writers have all done effective work for national + international brands, including: ACE Hardware, Epson, PetSmart, Target, Toyota, United Way, Siemens, WellsFargo...Now we prefer to put our skills to work for YOU. How come? Well, we like working with small to mid-size companies where we can look the owner in the eye, feel your passion for your company, and do work that makes a difference for someone we come to know and care about. Nurturing businesses close to home—it’s a mom thing.

unitedtile.com

Welcome to DC Connections, LLC, a Portland, Or. Based concept

DC Connections is dedicated to providing state-of-the-art home automation features and custom luxury products in the audio & video industry. We specialize in residential homes & small commercial environments. We offer traditional services and products not limited to mounting video displays, ISF video calibration/Audio calibration, system integration/set-up, custom paint & veneer, and qualifying select cables. Our goal is to deliver superior quality products & friendly services to accommodate all technology enthusiasts.

Our staff is continually conducting research while pursuing on-going training to guarantee our customers knowledgeable service and advice, supported by the latest cutting-edge products our manufacturers offer.

Founded in 1997 by Richard and Anne De Wolf, ARCIFORM listens to the stories that our time-honored Pacific Northwest buildings and houses tell. Respecting history, enhancing the visions of owners and anticipating new purposes, we reimagine, remodel, and reinvigorate the vintage buildings we love, preserving and reviving their stories for present and future generations. We invite you to learn more at arciform.com