Hidden Treasure

RAEANNE MARSH

>>> Helser Brothers, Inc., Chandler, Arizona

Decorative Helser Brothers window grilles cast beautiful shadows on a ceiling.

A mix-and-match mélange of parts resulted in Dr. Frankenstein's well-known monster. Mark and Jay Helser's term "Frankenbrackets" suggests a similar pedigree, but the result is far more attractive.

Helser Brothers, Inc. is as well known for its window-treatment hardware as for its customer service. Both stem from the same source: a firsthand appreciation of what interior designers need for a successful installation.

"There are too many variables in draperies to limit our customers to set projections," says Jay Helser, describing today's variety of window configurations as "endless" and noting that builders seem to give little consideration to draperies. "So we adapt to make it work." To best serve interior designers, Jay says, "You have to have the capability to create 'Frankenbrackets.'"

Jay's reputation in the Arizona interior design community as an installer who would always make it work — even if the order had come in wrong for the site — was what propelled the fledgling Chandler, Arizona-based manufacturing company when the brothers launched it in 1996. "Jay is the craftsman," says Mark Helser. And he says it was a compliment when Jay proposed the business venture as a 50/50 partnership.

A dining room's windows get the Helser Brothers treatment.

Their mutual esteem for each other is evident, and Jay is quick to declare that the proposition was a no-brainer. His brother Mark, after all, had always been the go-to guy, even in their mechanically talented family. At age 12, he presented his unsuspecting parents with a fish tank he'd built into the wall. It came complete with all necessary electrical installation and with air supplied through flexible tubing run from the swamp cooler on the roof.

Among Mark's creations for Helser Brothers is a bracket that creates its own gusset; it's so strong that the brothers do chin-ups on it to demonstrate its strength at trade shows.

The company's newest line might outshine even that display. Two years in development, Jewels is a revolutionary concept and the first offering in Helser's aptly named "Compositions" line. The brainchild of interior designer Debra May Himes, Jewels breaks the conventional drapery finial into components and offers a palette of parts to yield a multitude of different arrangements. "Designers love to mix colors and textures," observes Mark. Elements are available in iron, crystal, glass and Sicis glass mosaic tiles, all in a variety of finishes and colors.

Helser Brothers' Jewels line of drapery hardware.

An interactive Web site allows designers to check out Jewels' design options. Easy to manipulate, the program even has a built-in fail-safe: It won't allow an element to be arranged in the virtual design anywhere it could not be placed in the material world. After they're done, designers can e-mail their Jewels compositions to their clients.

Research and design are ongoing at Helser Brothers. "It's the most fun part of the business," Jay shares. Although each brother has his own realm of responsibilities, design remains a collaborative effort. And it benefits from the manufacturing company's metal artist and bona fide blacksmith, Ted Woods. Woods hammers out authentic ironwork using classic tools at his old-fashioned forge. His domain takes up the largest chunk of space in Helser's 19,000-square-foot facility.

Designs in iron have expanded from the not-so-distant constraints of Santa Fe, Territorial and Tuscan décor into fresh and elegant urban and contemporary looks. As Anita Boetsma, public relations director, says, "It's not your grandmother's hardware." And she points in particular to the 2008 releases in Helser's flagship line, Artigiani. These finial designs range from simple and clean to ornate, with many interchangeable on the smooth or twisted rod choices.

True wrought-iron finishes are also available in the Jewels line, and an authentic look-alike is offered in the Tableaux line (a lighter-weight and less costly wood/resin composite that Helser offers in addition to the three lines it manufactures). Helser's third manufactured line, Isabella, is a wood product.

Jay and Mark Helser.

Finishes are exclusive to each product line. They are also standardized within their product line, a feature that is characteristic of Helser's focus on making it easy for designers to order product and is demonstrated again in the company's uniform pricing structure.

Product itself, however, can be customized from Helser's catalog offerings, whether the ideas an interior designer brings to Helser are vague or specific.

The mandate to make ordering easy for the designer permeates all aspects of Helser Brothers, from clear and simple pricing that includes shipping in all but the rare "special conditions" case (and no pack pricing, Jay points out, recalling his early career as a drapery hardware installer: "I filled my truck with extra hardware"), to an order-tracking program that pinpoints the status of an order at any given time, to drapery hardware specialists who are on call to help specify and design custom combinations.

And, as an order makes its way from booking to shipment, Helser's experts also make note if it seems a piece may have been overlooked. Checking with the designer at that point avoids the possibility of not having everything needed at the scheduled installation. It's all part of the philosophy that underscores Jay and Mark Helser's relationship with the design community they serve. "Before we even had a product, we agreed on the philosophy of extreme customer service," says Jay.

Helser Brothers, Inc., 3294 N. Nevada St., Chandler, AZ 85225; (480) 497-8191, (888) 346-4257 or www.helserbrothers.com.