Traditions Furniture in Downtown Overland Park is now closed. We are processing the last few special orders, but we are not taking any new orders.
Thanks for the many great memories.
The Staff
Labor Day
How to enjoy Labor Day — Go to the lake, go to the mountains, take in a football game, cook out, go to the park with your very best friend.
Traditions Furniture is closed Labor Day.
The Origins of Labor Day
Labor Day has always seemed a misnomer to me. After all, it is a holiday. We don’t work. And we don’t labor. We do anything but…
History answers the question.
On June 28, 1894, President Grover Cleveland signed the law making Labor Day a national holiday. This reflected the fact that local and state governments celebrated the occasion since 1882. It was an occasion for workers around the country to demand legislation protecting the needs of workers. And in the early days, it was cause for massive rallies and parades of labor unions to demand attention. Turnouts in Chicago (30,000), New York (10,000) and Baltimore (10,000) underscored the holiday’s popularity. A picnic “after party” followed.
Almost ten years earlier, on October 28, 1886, the Statue of Liberty was dedicated, proclaiming: “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…” Two years later, on June 13, 1888, a federal Department of Labor was created.
Labor unrest ruled the work place. Perhaps the most pivotal example of labor/management conflict was the Homestead Strike that began on July 1, 1892 at the Carnegie Steel Company’s Homestead Steel Works in Homestead, Pennsylvania. The strike reached a fevered peak when a gun battle broke out between unionized steelworkers and strikebreakers hired by management.
The steelworkers lost the strike, but the public threw its support behind the strikers and labor reform.
A First
Management said, “Unseemly and ungrateful.”
If we have to point to a first, then the Mill Girls of Lowell, Massachusetts were the inspiration for Labor Day. Some say it took place in February of 1834 others in October of 1836. Either way, one day the “girls” who worked in the cotton factories took it upon themselves to strike. As word spread that wages were about to be cut, the mills were shut down, and the girls marched in groups through the streets of Lowell from their several corporations to the “grove” on Chapel Hill, where they listened to rousing speeches from early labor reformers.
No flags, no music, just words and songs.
Oh, what a fraughtful thing it was to see. A girl, a woman speak. To demand what ought to be.
The World’s Most Relaxed Man
“I am not a homebody, by any stretch of imagination,” says The World’s Most Interesting Man. Often he seeks adventure, excitement and fun.
This summer for instance he spent time:
- Rafting the Colorado the Grand Canyon in Arizona,
- Crossed from Argentina to Chile, then followed the coast to Peru, and trekked to Machu Picchu.
- Hiked the Milford Track, New Zealand.
- Jogged the The Kalalau Trail along the Na Pall Coast in Kauai.
- Gazed at the stars in the Sossusvlei Desert in Namibia.
- Swam with turtles in Ningaloo, Western Australia.
- Then went home because sometimes one just wants to relax at home.
And become the World’s Most Relaxed Man.
Up the Creek without a Paddle
Up the creek without a paddle and somewhat stressed when someone else is sitting in my Stressless chair.
The weary wanderer.
Some idioms are murky in their origin. Consider, “Up the creek without a paddle.” Colorful and visual, it suggests that one is up stream with a boat or canoe and no means of navigating through the rocks and sunken logs to get back home.
For the Native American Indians who lived and hunted there first, and for the early fur trappers in the Rockies and Pacific Northwest, paddling the narrow rivers and roaring creek; or, for Meriweather Lewis and William Clark, who took a boat up the Missouri River and then had to portage over the Rockies, a paddle was a handy tool.
Even today, anyone paddling the rocky Colorado rivers and streams, knows the value of a paddle, and a helmet and life vest.
“Up the creek” has come to mean by itself in a tight spot. I imagine though, it is always better to be up the creek than down the creek, since it is easier to go with the flow than swim against the current.
Stressless recliners and sofas are like that. The patented Plus and Glide system, and Ergo Adapt allow your body to naturally adapt to the chair as you sit and relax.
Available in Kansas at Traditions Furniture in Overland Park and Traditions Home in Wichita.
As Jed Clampett would say, “Come in, set a spell, take your shoes off, there is plenty to go around, relax, recline, have a heapin’ helping of our hospitality …”
Lighting
Let’s talk of lighting. Of lamps that we take for granted. Lamps that warm a room and help us avoid ghoulies and ghosties and things that go bump in the night.
Once we lived in darkness, or by the light of the silvery moon.
Occasionally, lightning lit up the sky. Then, someone rubbed two sticks together and a campfire warmed the cold winter nights.
Candles were invented to go from room to room.
In 1752, Benjamin Franklin made the connection between lightning and electricity.
In 1802 Sir Humphry Davy invented the first short-lived light bulb. And in 1872, Thomas Edison made it practical.
In 1882, Edison established the first electric grid in Manhattan and the streets lit up at night.
In 1895, Louis Comfort Tiffany and Clara Driscoll made lighting a room pretty thing to do.
And, we at Traditions Furniture in Downtown Overland Park are still doing it too.
Save 20% on all lighting when you shop.
https://www.traditionsfurniture.com/
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It Starts with Gustav
Almost every contemporary design begins with Gustav Stickley.
Gustav Stickley (1858 – 1942), furniture designer, manufacturer, author, publisher, social voice, a leader in the movement we call American Arts and Crafts. Say “Mission furniture,” and everyone brings to mind Gustav Stickley’s distinctive designs.
Designs that paved the path to a revolution in the way people built and furnished their homes. Designs that influenced Frank Lloyd Wright, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the European Bauhaus movement and Scandinavian design.
Mission furniture emphasized simple horizontal and vertical lines and flat panels, often quarter-sawn, that accentuate the grain of the natural wood, often oak or cherry, harvested from American forests. The furniture was built by craftsman and women, employing time-honored techniques and quality wood. Furniture “made to last.”
For over a century, Stickley designs from Mission to Modern, Finger Lakes and Modern, Park Slope and Walnut Grove, and now to Origins — designs that began with Gustav Stickley.
Origins Collection by Stickley
Feng Shui
In the Midwest, it is 100 degrees in the shade, the wind rattles the leaves. The dogs won’t go out. My plants are drooping. Where is the rain? Life is out of sorts.
Thank God, the weather is moving east.
Feng shui, literally means wind and water, and dates back to the 11th century BC when wind driven water mills where used to dry out the earth. Wind and water because these two elements flow in and around heaven and earth.
Feng shui is concerned with the harmony we have with heaven and earth, and how we keep the our balance with nature intact.
Feng shui centers around the concept of “Chi.”
Chi being your life force, the energy that flows through you and around you. Through everything in life. Positive Chi means harmony and balance. Negative Chi means clutter, crowded rooms, or poor traffic flow. Life is unbalance.
Life is at odds. At “sixes and sevens” the English would say. Or out of sorts. Today, “feng shui your life” means turning a bad situation into something that’s good. It may also mean being cool, discreet, collected and comfortable.
It starts with your home.
It requires the selection of the right furniture, placed where it should be. Where less is more. And placement is key.
Stressless sectionals at Traditions Furniture in Downtown Overland Park.
Sherrill
Not always fancy, but always comfortable and beautiful — Sherrill.
Sherrill Furniture builds the best sofas by combining timeless design and a focus on comfort, quality fabrics, and well-built hardwood frames. American hand-craftsmanship, 8-way hand-tied springs using modern manufacturing techniques, makes the best made sofas, sectionals, loveseats, and chairs.
Sherrill, made in Hickory, North Carolina, available at Traditions Furniture in Overland Park and Traditions Home, in Wichita, Kansas.
Gustav Stickley, The Art of Living
No one could sing about furniture like Dionne Warwick and make it sound oh, so beautiful.
“A chair is still a chair, even when there is no one sitting there, …”
A House is not a Home, Burt Bacharach and Hal David, 1964
Even if we accept Dionne Warwick’s lovely statement, we know that a chair is more than a plain utilitarian thing. A seat, a log, a stone, on which we park our hindquarters. A formless idea, Plato would say, whose essence lies only in its purpose.
A chair should be a thing of beauty, and a joy forever.
Gustav Stickley burst onto the American scene at the turn of the 20th century, creating what he called “New Furniture.” In time it took a new name, Mission. With his new designs, he challenged conventional wisdom. For Stickley, it was the age of the artisan, the workers who made the objects, the materials they worked with, and the functional, as well as the artistic value of the products.
“When a home is born out of a man’s heart and developed through his labor and perfected by his sense of beauty, it is the very cornerstone of life.”
Gustav Stickley on the Art of Living
From Gustav Stickley to Marissa Brown, the new product design developer of Stickley, the Stickley chair has been a thing of beauty and joy forever.
What’s New 2022
In 1922, Leopold Stickley announced the introduction of Stickley’s early American Cherry Valley Collection.
One hundred years later, Stickley is again experiencing a burst of creative design with the introduction of several new collections. Park Slope, a contemporary spin on Arts & Crafts, Walnut Grove. Scandinavian inspired, Walnut Grove, showcasing the Artisan craft of furniture making. And Martine, made of solid cherry, like Leopold Stickley’s Cherry Valley, bringing to the home its accustomed warmth, silkiness, and natural grain. Adding a contemporary style, a roundness, waterfalling over edges and occasional applications in decorative veneers.
There are more than a dozen Stickley collections from which to choose. These last three are the product of the creative mind of Marissa Brown, Stickley Furniture’s Design Director. Working overtime is not difficult in a home surrounded by beautiful furniture.
Visit Traditions Furniture in Overland Park or Traditions Home in Wichita to see all the beautiful Stickley styles.
Traditions Furniture 