Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Shannon O’Dougherty’s antique shop, Sambeau’s Ltd., closed, but her custom-made furniture is now sold at David Kent Richardson Decorations and Interior Design (1923 Marconi, 314-255-5067).
Inspiration: O’Dougherty loves a Gia-cometti chandelier from the Musée Rodin in Paris, elaborate iron grates from the 1860s, elephants, owls, and the Greek key pattern.
Serendipity: “When I started importing iron from Mexico 30 years ago, it was new and interesting—but it was also difficult and costly,” she says. “Then this guy walked into my store and said, ‘Is anybody interested in buying some chairs?’ I walked out to the parking lot, looked at his chairs, and bought all six. Then I started courting him—he’s a bit of a hermit. He’s been my fabricator ever since.”
Partnership: “When other people say they travel, they mean New York,” she says. “I meet my fabricator at a truck stop. We talk through the new designs, and he helps me load the finished ones. Once, I took my husband and the waitresses glared at me.”
Singular Failure: “A woman wanted squirrels on a headboard, and my fabricator and I decided our squirrels were going to be too stupid-looking, so we declined. Every house should have a little whimsy, but the squirrel, we just didn’t think we could pull him off.”
FORGING AHEAD
O’Dougherty’s just finished a pair of Grecian benches for a house in Montana. She donated a stylized cat chair for a local charity auction, and now a woman in Arizona has commissioned a dog one. Always popular: her round drinks table (in a bronze-dark penny finish or seriously Art Deco in brushed steel); a wire wheel–brushed steel ladder shelf; a console that’s a continuous piece of channel steel; a Z-shaped desk topped in smoked glass—and whatever’s requested next.
