Business: A family tradition: --For 50 years Flegels Fine Furnishings has turned customers' visions into reality Business: A family tradition: --For 50 years Flegels Fine Furnishings has turned customers' visions into reality (June 23, 2004)

By Jane Knoerle
Almanac Lifestyles Editor

When Art and Cleora Flegel opened their furniture store on Santa Cruz Avenue in Menlo Park 50 years ago, it was one of 13 furniture stores in a five-mile radius. One shop was just four doors away. Today, all those stores are gone and Flegels Fine Furnishings flourishes.

In those early days, the Flegels ran a mom-and-pop shop. "We opened at 8 a.m. Cleo would get the boys off to school and come down to work at the store. We were in hock up to our ears," Art recalls with a laugh.

The timing and location were right. Young families were moving into homes being built where orchards once grew. "Our store was considered at the edge of downtown," says Art.

Art Flegel recalls delivering furniture, installing draperies and laying carpets, while Cleo minded the store. "I'll give that young couple six months," one early customer was overheard to say.

As Menlo Park grew, so did Flegels. The first store (now the site of Dal Baffo) was next door to the current site at 870 Santa Cruz Ave. In 1959, the Flegels constructed their own building, adding to it in 1961-62.

As the Stanford Shopping Center expanded (both Macy's and the Emporium department stores carried furniture in those days) and large companies, such as Levitz Furniture, moved into the area, Art Flegel sought to distinguish his business from others by increasing the quality of furniture and bringing in on-site interior designers.

Today, 11 of the store's 30 employees are interior designers. Many of the Flegels' design team are long-term employees. Vicki Saxton has been there since 1984; Renee Prudhomme has worked there at various periods since 1978.

"We changed to suit the needs of the community," he recalls.

In the 1950s, Flegels carried the Danish modern furniture young couples wanted for their ranch-style homes. In the 21st century, Flegels' customers can find hand-crafted pieces of heirloom-quality furniture fit to grace Woodside and Atherton mansions.

The Flegels' sons -- Robert, Mark and John -- worked in the store while growing up. Mark, after earning a master's degree in philosophy, joined the business in 1971 in what was to be a temporary position. He is now president; Art retired in the 1980s. "I always knew he was a natural-born merchandiser," says his dad.

Mark Flegel has brought the store to where it is today. "We're the premier high-end furniture store in the United States," he says. "We bucked the trend. When manufacturers were lowering their standards, we concentrated on customers who wanted the best."

Those customers include a world-wide clientele, not confined to Silicon Valley high-fliers. This month, furniture shipments are being sent to Tokyo, Singapore and Hong Kong.

A client from Hong Kong stops in San Francisco for an afternoon of shopping at Flegels on her way to business in New York City. The Tokyo clients had purchased furniture from Flegels when they lived in Hillsborough.

Two condos in the original Trump Tower in New York City were also furnished by Flegels as second homes to local residents. In an article in the May 24, 2000, issue of The Almanac, writer Larenda Roberts said the most unusual request ever made of Flegels was to design a doghouse, complete with carpeting, window coverings and paint.

Mark Flegel's pride and passion about the furniture business are evident as you stroll through the store with him.

"Look at this! This 52-inch center table is made from nine different woods with mother of pearl in the center. It's just exquisite," he says of the piece that is made in Italy.

"Rub your hand over this. It's like silk," he says of a handsome desk. "It's the burled wood, but also the hours of finish work, probably 30 or 40 hours of enhancing the finish."

He stops before a four-poster canopy bed with chinoiserie-like design by Julia Gray. The bed with gold-silk canopy and bedding is flanked by two night tables, finished in mirror, wood and gold trim.

"We can't get these anymore," he says of pull-up chairs that are upholstered in leather, then hand-painted with Monet's water lilies.

"This piece is sold, but three people wanted to buy it," he says of a 90-inch Louis XVI-style credenza made of myrtle wood with yew wood borders and cherry trim. The credenza sold for $14,000.

Mark says the finest furniture today is made in Northern Italy, usually in small mom-and-pop operations. He also points out fine pieces that have been crafted in Vietnam, China, Argentina and the Philippines. Premier lines from the United States include Karges Furniture, Baker, Knapp and Tubbs, Stickley, and Oscar de la Renta. The store has carried Brown Jordan outdoor furniture since the days when they left their patio furniture on display outside 24 hours a day and never lost a piece.

Mark helped design one of the Coach leather chairs the store features. "It had the wrong pitch and I told them it would never sell, but we fixed it. I'm on the phone with them all the time," he adds.

Fifty years in business has its ups and downs. A three-alarm fire gutted Flegels in 1983, but the business was able to take up temporary headquarters in a nearby building and reopen in three days.

The Flegels took advantage of the situation to create a new building that met their growing needs. The store now has 24,000 square feet -- 8,000 more than its former size. In 1996, Flegels expanded to open a second store in San Rafael. For the first three or four years, Mark Flegel was up there three days a week. Now he confines himself to the Menlo Park store, which has grown and changed to fit the needs of its hometown's residents.

"No other furniture matches this quality in the world," says Mark Flegel of the store's furnishings. "It's my passion."

Editor's note. The apostrophe in the name, Flegel's Home Furnishings, is no more. When the Flegels started their Web page, www.flegels.com, three years ago, the name was changed to Flegels Fine Furnishings. Therefore, in this story we use the name Flegels (with no apostrophe) in current and past references to the store.

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