Furniture refinishing available at White Horse Designs by Dawn

WESTSIDE EAGLE OBSERVER/Susan Holland Dawn Dawson (left), owner of White Horse Designs by Dawn, and her partner, Aubrey Doss, display a dressing table they recently refinished at her workshop at 104 Main Street N.E. in Gravette. The piece was painted and powder glazed in pastel colors in preparation for use in a teenage girl's bedroom. The ladies invite area residents to contact them with any furniture refinishing or restoration projects they want done.
WESTSIDE EAGLE OBSERVER/Susan Holland Dawn Dawson (left), owner of White Horse Designs by Dawn, and her partner, Aubrey Doss, display a dressing table they recently refinished at her workshop at 104 Main Street N.E. in Gravette. The piece was painted and powder glazed in pastel colors in preparation for use in a teenage girl's bedroom. The ladies invite area residents to contact them with any furniture refinishing or restoration projects they want done.

— Planning to give your home a new look for the new year? Looking for someone to refinish some cherished family heirlooms? Dawn Dawson, owner of White Horse Designs by Dawn, would be happy to help with your furniture refinishing. She has recently moved her workshop and display space into a building at 104 Main Street N.E. in Gravette after her renter, Kristen Fisher, moved her Peek-a-Bootique business to Siloam Springs.

Dawson loves antiques. She says she really hates to hear that anyone has discarded family heirlooms. She frequents auctions, including Barber Auctions at Sulphur Springs and others in the edge of Oklahoma. She has several pieces of furniture she has purchased and refinished available for sale, and offers custom finishing at her workshop and encourages others to bring in any pieces they would like to have refinished.

Dawson moved to Gravette four years ago from Bentonville. She and her husband Adam purchased land on Limekiln Road behind Ozarks Community Hospital and built their home just across the road from the senior activity center. Their son Nicholas graduated from Gravette High School last year, and their daughter Haley is now a junior at GHS and active on the Gravette High School and Elite Pride competitive girls' volleyball teams.

Dawson works for Intuit, a computer software company based in California that publishes QuickBooks and TurboTax. She has attended classes in graphic art and design at Northwest Arkansas Community College but, when she was promoted to management and started doing inventory planning at Walmart, she dropped her art classes. Dawn has kept her furniture refinishing and artwork as a sideline, as a means of relaxing and managing stress.

Adam has worked for Cott Beverage, the company that produces Walmart's private label beverages, for 13 years. He enjoys competing in triathlons and recently traveled to Chattanooga, Tenn., to participate in an Ironman competition. Dawn said that triathlons in this area are extremely competitive due to the high caliber of entrants.

Adam is supportive of Dawn's furniture business and of her other special interest, horsemanship. She owns five horses, including a new Tennessee walking horse recently purchased from Jill Roberson of Arkansas Walkers. She does a lot of trail riding, including regional rides in Missouri, and participates in sorting. She is a member of Cowgirl Up, an area trail riding group, and Hags with Nags, an organization with more than 15,000 members. Both groups are organizations that promote women and their love of horses. She says she hasn't ridden much this last year since one of her main mounts developed navicular disease several months ago.

Since Dawson has been spending less time riding, she has more hours to devote to her furniture refinishing business. She doesn't specialize in any one style but does painting, powder glazing and some limited staining. She says she produced several headboards with horse designs as Christmas gifts for granddaughters of her trail-riding friends. Several examples of her work are on display at her Main Street workshop and she has others stored in a warehouse.

Dawson has partnered with Aubrey Doss, who reclaims and repurposes furniture and runs Make It Yours Woodwork. Doss, a Paris, Ark., native, moved to the area 4 1/2 years ago. She and her two-year-old daughter Laila live in Sulphur Springs, next door to the museum. She has recently been using her restoration skills to repair a Bombay dresser and has helped Dawson paint and powder glaze a dressing table for a teenager's bedroom and prepare an antique vanity for refinishing.

Dawson has also done some artwork for room decoration, including some murals that enhance the walls in the children's church at Lakeview Baptist Church in Cave Springs. Several paintings hang in a small gallery area at the White Horse Designs building, and Dawson says she would like to host art shows there in the future.

Dawson invites anyone needing furniture refinished to contact her at [email protected]. Examples of her unique furniture items available for purchase can be seen on her Facebook page.

Community on 01/17/2018