Steve Anderson, owner of Artisan Doors of Montana

Photo by Andrew Geiger

Interview by Irene Rawlings

The front door of Mountain Living’s Natural Dream Home 2008 is sturdy, strong and oversized, with simple clean lines that let the character of the wood come out. “Keeping in mind that less is more when it comes to green design,” says EcoExistence’s Margie Hamrick, the home’s developer, “we made the doors as simple, beautiful and natural as possible.”  Every door in the house is made out of rescued wood—either standing dead or beetle-kill—that would have been burned or left in the forest to decay. “I like to think the wood we use is getting a second home,” says Steve Anderson, owner of Artisan Doors of Montana. He bought the company six years ago when he and his wife moved back to the United States after spending many years living and working in China. The doors are made by hand by a group of craftspeople and artists, including shop manager, “Dr. Door,” who has built high-end custom doors for more than 20 years.

Natural pigments—coffee, tea, henna or wine must (the stems and seeds that are left over after wine is made)—are used to stain the doors. “Protein-based stains were used on doors and woodwork in the early 1400s in China’s Forbidden City and that worked really well,” he says. “I wanted to use some of those natural products on our doors, and the results are truly incredible.” Wine must from Hill Family Estates, a small, family-owned winery in California’s Napa Valley, will be used to stain the doors of Mountain Living’s Natural Dream Home 2008. The doors are finished with beeswax, applied and buffed by hand to a clear, hard shine. “Montana is blessed with many people who raise bees for honey so we’re able to buy the wax locally,” says Steve.
 
“Over the past six years with Artisan Doors, I’ve learned that you don’t have to be big to be global,” says Steve, “but you must have passion and the energy to be entrepreneurial and intrepreneurial, which means always thinking of how to do things innovatively and well.”

Mountain Living: You've traveled the world as a corporate executive, why did you buy a business and settle in Montana?
Steve Anderson: My last position was as CEO of a very large company. We loved living in China but wanted to get into a little more natural environment. My wife, who is Chinese, got her masters degree from Montana State University in the late 1980s and, from that time, she had an affinity for the blue mountains of Montana. So we started looking for a company to buy in Montana.

ML: What were you looking for in a company to invest in?
SA: We decided to invest in a business that's indigenous to the area. Artisan Doors was well known for high-end doors and had the most incredible group of employees, all of whom are experienced cabinetmakers and carpenters. The company has been in business for 12 years and I've owned it for six years. I've set up the company so the employees can own a piece of it and be able to share in the company's success.

ML: Why did you want Artisan Doors in Mountain Living's Natural Dream Home 2008?
SA: We are really focused on the organic and green movement. I enjoy working with the entire Dream Team at Mountain Living's Natural Dream Home 2008 because they are so passionate about it. And I'm glad that Mountain Living stepped up to the plate and did what a magazine should do--take the green concept and put it into a package that makes sense, that people can understand and with plenty of take-aways.

ML: What kind of wood do you use for your doors?
SA: We use standing dead and beetle kill but we also use wood recycled from wine, cider and pickle barrels. We made a couple of doors out of pickle wood and cider wood that were unusual and so beautiful. The acids and sugars in the wood gave the wood streaks--from purple to green to gold.

ML: All your doors are custom made and we understand that you often incorporate art and artifacts into your doors.
SA: We get excited about marrying art to doors and having functional art. It can be bronze to class to carving--whatever has meaning for the homeowner. In some cases it may be a memento that means something special. We have taken irons from grandpa's old saddle and made them into part of the door or door handle. We can made this memento as part of the door and carve around it, making a vignette within the door. The possibilities are endless.

ML: You seem to have an eye for art.
SA: Yes, I am importing simple, rustic antiques from Northern China where centuries of emperors and empresses have dictated both style and taste. You can see them at timlessmontana.com. I'm also opening (in the fall of 2008), an art gallery in Shanghai that will sell things antiques and contemporary art of Montana.

Artisan Doors of Montana
(406) 756-0737 or (877) 862-9060 (Kalispell, MT); (307) 732-0232 (Jackson, WY); (406) 756-2325 (Bigfork, MT)
artisandoors.com