Page 90 - Flathead Living // Spring 2015

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SOME PEOPLE MIGHT CONSIDER Ian Crawford an “idea man,” a kind of mad inventor whose lofty, some- times manic ambition can either ignite a meteoric rise in innovation or burn up like a dying star.
But in Crawford, whose artisan, wine- streaked furniture now peppers the Northwest, it’s clear the former is the case.
In the past eight years, he’s lashed him- self to the tail of an aesthetic and sustain- able venture and ridden its orbit through poverty and despair, negotiating the stum- bling blocks and business blunders of an upstart company to a career as an artist-la- borer whose custom-made metal-and-wood bar stools and other Baroque décor, made primarily from reclaimed French oak wine barrels, furnishes restaurants and watering holes throughout the region.
“The first two years I was on food stamps living in my van, or in a trailer full of fur- niture, or in the barn where I worked,” Crawford, 33, said. “I’d scrape up enough money to travel to a trade show and try to sell a piece of furniture. And it worked. Our company has doubled in size every year for eight years. This is my baby.”
Crawford’s Whitefish-based business
has filled a niche developing kitchen stools, tables, and coat racks, all of which combine aesthetic ingenuity with locally sourced materials like wood and steel. It started when Crawford, who grew up in the Flathead Valley, came upon a heap of discarded wine barrels while living in Walla Walla, Washington. Dennis Johnson, owner of The Party Store in Columbia Falls, encouraged
TOP Ian Crawford at the Vinoture showroom in Whitefish.
ABOVE Using a large propane torch Ian Crawford scorches planks of wood to give it a charred “lizard skin” texture. Used as a tabletop, the blackened wood will make a striking contrast with the modern white legs and frame.
88 FLATHEAD LIVING | SPRING 2015