Furniture shows touch of Gray

Monday, May 21, 2001 | 9:30 a.m.

Adrian Gray has an eye for the small things in life.

He's a history buff who sees the world in 1-inch scale.

His cabriole legs are divine. His wooing chairs are impeccable.

Gray boils his wood (sometimes in the microwave), needlepoints his Oriental rugs and (using miniature lumber), whips up from scratch a stream of French writing desks, Dutch corner chairs, spice cabinets and fainting couches.

"Welcome to the world of Gulliver,"Gray said while leading the way into his garage-turned-workshop that is home to a shelved English sitting room, schooners, dollhouses, paints, miniature leather-bound books and tiny power tools.

Gray is a craftsman extraordinare who gets itchy fingers looking at jewelry, fine silk scarves or kidskin gloves important items in the world of miniature upholstery, replica antiques and paintings.

The retired general contractor/interior designer has been sawing and shaping his miniature creations for nearly 60 years. At age 7 he built his first item, a Stenson Reliant model airplane, from balsa wood.

"From there I kept whittling and carving,"Gray said.

Since then he has made dozens of dollhouses, including a three-story English Step House (complete with a general store underneath) and a four-floor Second Empire Victorian house.

Gray inlays his parquet floors. He pieces together hundreds of tiny accessories that he created with interlocking tongue-and-groove-joints and created kits for other miniaturists so they could build their own furniture.

"It's the greatest source for relaxation in the world," Gray said, standing amid a slew of miniature two-by-fours and slabs of mahogany, cherry, walnut oak and pine. "It's a world that's devoid of stress and strain of all things."

Gray's ideas come from pages torn from antique magazines, which are spread throughout his work areas. The furniture he builds are actual small-scale models of the furniture pictured.

"I like English and Victorian -- a very quiet period of time," he said.

From a photograph in a Southerby's catalogue he created from scratch Double Eagle Austrian chairs. He built a Queen Anne Broken Bonnet High Boy chest of drawers that he liked so much, he created a larger model for his son.

Gray even makes the bodies for his dolls and the patterns for their outfits that he sews.

"I know it sounds crazy, a grown man playing with dolls, but it's very challenging," he said.

Gray admits that in years past he's blown a good many holes in kitchen ceilings while casting historical figurines from lead. But trial and error brings a successful collection.

"He has Napoleon's Army," his wife, Cindy Gray, said. "The whole army."

After 49 years of marriage, she said, she's still amazed by the work her husband does.

"He's a genius," she said.

"I tell you one thing," Adrian Gray added. "I get a good education in math."

And in life.

"Hobbies stimulate the imagination," Gray said. "Once you start with a hobby like this, you become addicted. It's fascinating. It's an adventure. It's time travel. You assume the personality of the person. That's what I do."

When building his Second Empire Victorian house, Gray said in his imagination he accepted the persona of a young English aristocrat exiled to the colonies who bought a Victorian house that he proceeded to fill with the finest accessories.

Each house and each piece of furniture has a story behind it, he said.

"We all want our pyramids," Gray said. "We hope to leave a remembrance. This is my marker, my Burma Shave signposts on the side of the road."