By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

“Suite Arrangements is the result of many things coming together at once: personal interests, family experience, our evolving cultural ethic, and macro-economic picture, and the availability of a great location,” says Geoffrey Abdian, talking about the furniture store he’s about to bring to The Junction.

Where, you ask? If you are a keen observer of storefront changes, you probably noticed the “for lease” signs being replaced this weekend by butcher paper (photo at left) in the windows of Suite Arrangements‘ future storefront at 4706 California SW – formerly Funky Jane’s Consignment (which moved a block and a half north), then briefly Heavenly Wholesale/Leslie’s. Appropriately enough given the space’s history, Suite Arrangements will be a consignment store too – furniture consignment (among other specialties).

We’d been trying to track down this story for a few weeks, after getting tipped to a Craigslist ad seeking employees for a “small furniture store” planned for the heart of West Seattle. Our inquiry to the blind box in that CL post went unanswered, but then a few days ago, a more general announcement of the future enterprise appeared, and our second request for information was answered, amply, by Abdian.

He says he’s found his employees – three of them, for starters. He describes the plan for his store’s inventory as “an eclectic collection of decent, mostly contemporary furnishings (with an occasional antique), from sofas, chairs, tables, desks, lamps, art and more (no beds, no television cabinets) all at very competitive prices (and at a highly competitive consignment fee) – (donating) 5% to (a) local food bank.” Suite Arrangements, he says, also will offer services including “low-cost staging of homes for sale, low-cost interior design consulting from accredited professionals, and, perhaps, low-cost, short-term rental furniture.”

Abdian is a 15-year West Seattle resident who says he’s “always wanted to find a way to do something that might truly be a boon to the community.” For the past decade, he says, he’s been remodeling houses in West Seattle, and “even in down markets” has been able to sell them – friends have told him he has “a good eye and a natural talent” for making them appealing, and he thinks that will serve him in this business too.

He says he’d often passed the long-empty space – in a building tabbed for future demolition/replacement (though owner Charlie Conner‘s 2-year-old proposal hasn’t moved any further toward construction lately) – and pondered “what the community could really use. Then I looked at all the new construction, and thought about the many who are coming to West Seattle to call it home. And how many of them, especially the younger ones — many of whom are already in debt up to their eyebrows from college, and often under-employed — want, and should be able to furnish their first homes (condos, apartments, houses) without going further into debt. It made me realize that new furniture often costs way too much and most of us already carry too much debt. And our economic challenges and debt load are one of the greatest challenges we face as a nation.”

Buying “new” burdens the environment, too, Abdian observes, which means even more benefit to the concept of recycling furniture this way. So with potential economic and environmental benefits, he says, “I want to help those who want to buy spend less and save more. Almost everyone over 50 these days, and many younger, already wish they’d saved more in the past. The time to start is now. So those who want to buy and those who want to sell in our community need a convenient ‘crossroad’ where that exchange can be made most convenient, and I want to contribute part of the profit from those transactions — five percent — to the local food bank, because this horrendous economic climate has left more people than ever hungry, right here in our own community.”

For sellers, he sees the benefit of a consignment store, vs., say selling the used furniture on Craigslist, this way: “(M)any items in pretty good condition will typically command a higher price in an attractive, high-traffic retail setting where more can leisurely browse at their own discretion, in one place. So by the time they pay a consignment commission, upon sale of the item, they often can get very close to what they might have gotten from the Craigslist process without any of the hassle.”

“In this economic climate,” says Abdian, “… I believe it is most important for us to embrace the cultural ethic of pre-owned. Much of the fear in such times is related to concerns of diminishing choices, opportunities, and lifestyle. But we can often live very comfortably, if we just develop a new way of looking at what makes the most sense. And, what makes the most sense for many of us, and for the community in general, is a greater reliance on resources we already have right here in our community.”

He’s hoping to have Suite Arrangements open by October 1st; he says you’ll notice some signage in the windows within a few days, and the store’s phone line should be up and running as of tomorrow (Monday) – 206-906-9379.