By Erin Hoover Barnett

Portland furniture maker Leland Tauer turned hype about Ikea into an opportunity.

“No Swedish particle board here,” Tauer posted on the side of Rose City Furnishings, at Northeast Broadway and 34th Avenue, that faces Interstate 84.


“I never meant it as any kind of a slam,” says Tauer.

His sassy marketing move was more a statement of his shop’s identity, he says — and that of the anti-cookie cutter city for which it’s named.

Ikea isn’t the first mass market retailer to compete for Portlanders’ living rooms. But its high-profile arrival has encouraged local furniture makers, who rely on appreciation of quality over price, to define and cozy up to their base.

“You’ve got to find your niche,” Tauer says.

Tauer and his old Madison High School buddy Larry LeFebvre launched their business at Saturday Market in 1985 — pedaling $200 custom bookcases where others sold $10 pottery bowls.

Today Rose City sells from its showroom and builds to order from solid cherry, oak and maple mostly in the Mission style. The business is riding the bungalow rehab trend in which homeowners want classic furniture crafted for a particular space.

Tauer wasn’t thrilled to see the concessions Ikea got — such as its massive sign — that Rose City could never wangle. But he doesn’t view the business as competition. “We’re not trying to be everything to everybody,” he says.

Marc Gaudin at The Joinery sees the retailer’s splash landing as an educational moment.