By GRAY JEFFERSON DAVIS
Staff Writer

Local fans of the Smith & Hawken and Williams-Sonoma catalogs probably don't have a clue that much of the furniture they admire was designed by a small company in their own back yard.

Several newer lines in those two popular mail-order magazines were created by Fred Spector, a stocky 40-year-old RISD grad who works out of a modest warren of rooms over the Portuguese Cultural Foundation in Fox Point. Frederic Spector Design Studio, now seven years old, has produced well-received lines of residential and office furniture, along with crystal, flatware and lighting.

The crystal, which was picked up by Nambe, is available at Ross Simons and the Opulent Owl. Dansk carries some of his flatware. Spector's Saranac line, weighty teak chairs and tables with an Arts and Crafts feel (along with a dash of Adirondack), has become one of Smith & Hawken's 10 best-selling items -- something no one expected. Smith & Hawken saw Saranac as more of a specialty line whose sumptuous, rather expensive pieces (the chairs go for $800, the love seats $1,495, not including the cushions for $195) can be used indoors or out.

But the ensemble, which also includes an ottoman, has become so popular that S&H decided to push it in its new holiday catalog, an issue that hardly ever carries much furniture. "We're designing products that can be used in everyday settings, that are comfortable and that you don't have to be a designer to appreciate," said Spector. "They're for average people and available on a mass-merchandise level."

Besides a booming catalog business, Spector is producing pieces for wholesale distributors. He and senior designer Alan Antonelli (thereare just the two of them in the firm) are camped out this weekend in High Point, N.C., introducing new lines at the International Home Furnishings Market, the mega-furniture show that attracts buyers from all over. Among the offerings, a wave-shaped coffee table with a curvy glass top and lower storage area. That was created for JDI, a major player in the furniture industry.

Stores such as Alpert's and Cardi's, as well as large department store chains, are apt to buy from JDI.

Another coffee table with a floating glass top, which was introduced by JDI about six months ago, is now hitting showrooms and is expected to do well. "We were told just about everyone bought it," said Spector. Meanwhile, Smith & Hawkin has asked Spector to expand the Saranac line to include a dining set.

"No one thinks that someone sits around creating these products," said Spector, "and they certainly don't realize they're right around the corner."

As soon as High Point ends, Spector heads to the New York Table Top Market show with a new line of crystal. Burgeoning business Spector, who majored in woodworking as an undergraduate at the Philadelphia College of Art, got into lighting design after earning an industrial design degree from RISD. When he decided to strike out on his own he called on Thomas Moser, the important builder of Shaker-style furniture, suggesting that Moser add lighting to his repertoire.

Moser liked the idea and went ahead with some of Spector's designs, but eventually let the line fall by the wayside.

Spector says he still sees the occasional royalty check from Moser, though. Back then, Spector was working out of the bedroom of his apartment on Benefit Street. As business picked up, he moved into his guest room. Now he and Antonelli occupy the top floor of the building at the corner of Brook and George M. Cohan Blvd., room enough for a conference table and a few small offices.

Antonelli, a former jazz guitarist and amateur woodworker, came on board about a year ago. He'd been a student of Spector's at RISD. Spector liked Antonelli's work, but also felt that as an older student (he's 35) he was probably not so idealistic and understood that to survive in business, compromises have to be made.

Neither Spector nor Antonelli actually makes the furniture that they design; instead, they spend their time generating computer mockups. Antonelli is the computer whiz; Spector tweeks the printouts with pencil and crayon to soften them and give them a bit more allure. Those are then presented to clients, who usually pick a single design and ship that off to Indonesia or China, where a prototype is made. The prototype then gets shipped back to the United States, where Spector and client sign off on it.

Occasionally, though, there are glitches to contend with, and Spector and Antonelli will often head into the wood shop to straighten them out. Smith & Hawken, for example, wasn't happy with the model for an outdoor chair, wanting a lighter, cleaner look. Spector and Antonelli took it into the shop for minor surgery.

While both love revving up a table saw every now and then, they don't miss hearing the snarl of machinery and breathing clouds of sawdust. But Spector feels it's important that both have woodworking backgrounds, so they're familiar with the materials they're working with. They also tend to borrow ideas from classic furniture, from Mission and Arts and Crafts styles, in particular. They then add their own details.

A dining set sold through Williams-Sonoma has a decorative band of maple wrapped around the back of the chairs, because most of the time, Spector points out, it's the chair back that's most visible. Spector concedes that some of his designs are a bit more cutting-edge, such as the flatware with the pea-pod shaped handles, and the Nambe crystal, which is more sculptural and free-form and avoids the traditional cut-glass look.

Those items, said Spector, offer a chance to spice up a table setting, which tends to be pretty traditional. But Spector said he's just as glad to design for the low-end, mass market, items like the glass-top coffee table from JDI that can go for as little as $150 on sale. "It's a product that was designed by someone who put some thought into it."