Anachronism is a moniker that Michael Waram wears well.
The designer and craftsman is an admitted throwback to the days when quality furniture was created with passion, care and attention to detail.
Waram and his wife, Pauline Bergeron, run a 2,000-square-foot woodworking shop and gallery on their 100-acre bush lot at Eau Claire, a four-corners rural community between North Bay and Mattawa.
Inside his studio, heated by a wood-fired masonry heater in the corner, you’ll find no push-button, automated CNC machines spitting out furniture components; just a band saw, lathe, jigs and some basic hand tools.
For someone who loves wood and working with its grains, there’s no better way to develop a tactile sense for one’s craft.
His showroom is crammed with handcrafted dressers, tables, doors, mirrors, frames, bowls, candleholders and plenty of chairs, which are his specialty.
Over the past three decades, Waram estimates he’s made more than 30,000 chairs in various styles for Teak Furniture, Harvest House, interior decorators, and many folks who’ve heard of him through word of mouth and travelled up his tree-lined driveway on Peddler’s Drive.
His most recognizable pieces are his barrel chairs and Mission-style furniture.
While most customers come looking for traditional pieces, Waram isn’t averse to playing around with historical design through a few prototypes.
Inspiration will come from film or magazines that will prompt him to grab a piece of wood, “and just see what happens. I prefer doing that than having a plan. I’d rather wing it.”
Waram’s approach to furniture making is all about “genuine joinery. Nothing faked. There are no screws and plugs.”
“Our chairs do not come apart,” added Bergeron, who handles sales and the business side of the operation. “We’ve never had a joint come apart or anything come loose.”
He eschews particle board in favour of working with walnut, ash, white oak, cherry and his favourite, iroko, or African teak.
Born and raised in Sudbury, Waram developed his prowess for woodworking at an early age while watching his grandfather, Matthew Waram, a respected finish carpenter and cabinetmaker.
He gathered discarded wine crates from a neighbour and waste lumber from a construction company’s dump site to create rudimentary carvings and bookends, his skills and projects eventually becoming more refined through high school art, drafting and woodworking classes.
Though his passion lay with furniture-making, it didn’t always inspire much enthusiasm and encouragement by those around him.
“A lot of the guys that I would talk to would retire and start woodworking. It made sense that if I had an opportunity, I could do this my entire life until I retire.”
It was while working for a delivery company in North Bay that he stopped at a Teak Furniture outlet and overheard their complaints about the difficulty with their chairs, and how they needed to find a new supplier.
Waram offered to take on the job and it developed into a great relationship that lasted 12 years.
His pieces today end up in high-end resorts and hotels to furnish conference rooms, while others have become fixtures in the homes of the rich and famous, including Canadian furniture magnates the Leon family.
A set of his dining room chairs were purchased by a decorator working for actor-comedian Jim Carrey, who was building a home south of Ottawa. A barrel chair is in his master bedroom.
To better promote his work, Waram has taken to personally signing the underside of his pieces, as a bit of protest against the lack of recognition by some distributors for its craftsmen.
“If Jim Carrey would just lie down and look under his chair, he’d see the signature and gimme a call.”
Waram said it’s hard to figure out who’s going to float into his shop, or where the next call will come from.
Last spring, he was hired by a production company doing a film shoot inside the former Tembec mill in Mattawa. The moviemakers needed period furniture, such as a rope bed, tables, doors, windows, and shutters made to look authentic for the 1700s.
“I never would have made that connection,” said Waram of the unexpected segue into film work. “That was a lot of fun. If this place turns into a source for (movie) props, that would be fantastic.”
Though modest about his own talent and creations, the experience offered more validation of his craft.
“The art director on the film was very pleased with what was coming out of here. I don’t see myself (as an artist) but that’s the perspective that other people have with the work that we did.”
His biggest competition today comes from the cheap imports that drove many traditional Canadian furniture-makers out of business.
Many of his contemporaries who started out on the same path eventually transitioned into the more lucrative home renovation market.
Although he doesn’t promote himself as a maker of premium furniture, Waram laments that the average consumer doesn’t always understand the time commitment and value that goes into producing a solidly built piece of furniture that stands the test of time, yet will gladly pay the hourly rate for a plumber or electrician to make a house call.
“If you pay a certain price for something, you’ll have it for the rest of your life and beyond. It’ll be passed down.”
Two walnut barrel chairs in his shop are earmarked for a Toronto couple celebrating their 45th wedding anniversary in October. Already considered a treasured future family heirloom, each chair will have a plaque and will be included in their will.
“That’s really thinking ahead and that’s a huge compliment also,” said Waram.
Since launching his website last December, his work is getting more exposure and some younger people have expressed an interest in coming aboard as apprentices.
But Waram has no designs on any major shop modifications.
“I don’t have any aspirations about being the next big employer in Calvin Township. But I’m hopeful it will attract other craftspeople to the area.”
