DONNA BERGERON, owner of Cabin Fever Log Furniture, shows some of the store’s merchandise made by area artists and craftsmen. The store will be closing its doors come the first of next year, but furniture and other items will still be available online at www.cabinfeverlogfurniture.com.
Cabin Fever Log Furniture, which was located along Main Street in Battle Ground for several years before relocating to Kalama 11 years ago, will be closing up shop come the first of the year.
According to owner Donna Bergeron, Cabin Fever first started out in 1997 as a “little podunk store” next to a dry cleaners along Main Street in Battle Ground. The original store was located in a small building directly across the street from the former Dante’s restaurant.
Bergeron’s significant other, Andy Watkins, was actually the one who first started the Cabin Fever store. Watkins made, and still makes, all of the log furniture available at Cabin Fever.
“That’s how I met him,” Bergeron said. “I worked at Costco at the time and I came into the store, and I thought it was really cute, but it needed a woman’s touch. I started working with Andy and started buying for the store, decorating it.”
Cabin Fever quickly outgrew the small space it was in and Bergeron and Watkins moved the store down to the corner where Main Street Station vintage store is currently located.
“The space was like four times bigger, we were so happy to get into that store,” Bergeron said. “The store grew like crazy, we had so many customers and lots of employees. Unfortunately, the store flooded and we were forced to find a new location.”
Bergeron said they asked the community for help in moving to a new spot across the street.
“We had like half the town show up, kids and everything, and we moved right across the street and renovated the store. We made it look great and cabiny. It only took us like two hours to move everything because the entire town helped.”
After setting up the new store and signing their new lease, Watkins and Bergeron noticed that not as many people were coming to the store anymore. There was a lot of road construction going on in the Battle Ground area and people were re-routed and didn’t need to go through Old Town anymore. That’s when Bergeron came up with the idea of starting a Saturday market.
“We decided to hold it right behind Cabin Fever in the parking lot,” she said. “We set up vendors in the parking lot and had a Saturday market. We had that going for a little while, but it still didn’t quite drum up enough people.”
With business not going the way they wanted, Watkins and Bergeron closed up their shop in Battle Ground and began doing business in Kalama in 2003. Bergeron said she had always wanted to open a second location and they had actually started building a store in Kalama before they left the Battle Ground location. The building wasn’t quite ready when they made the move, but they rented some Williams Scotsman trailers and operated the store out of those for about seven months while the store was being finished.
Bergeron said the store in Kalama is really her dream building. The building sports big log structures and chandeliers, and one of Bergeron’s favorite characteristics – tall vaulted ceilings. But now, 11 years later, they are selling the building with plans to close up the store right after Christmas, the first of the year.
“I’m praying someone is going to take it over who wants to open up a pub or a winery or something,” Bergeron said. “Something we can all come back to and enjoy the building.”
The Cabin Fever business will continue to operate online through their website and Facebook page, as Bergerson said Watkins wants to continue to make furniture. Bergeron is also working at a new job and will do so after Cabin Fever is closed.
Bergeron pointed out that Cabin Fever has always catered to local artists and craftsmen, selling items like leather-wrapped vases made by a local 84-year-old woman.
Although Cabin Fever offers furniture for all rooms of the house, Bergeron said their log beds have always been their best seller.
“We have a great reputation for our log furniture,” she said. “When we started in Battle Ground, people would come in and have their babies and young children with them. We had a Maine Coon cat named Max, and people would come in and their kids would have their picture taken with Max. Now those children are grown and they’re coming into the store and buying our furniture. It’s amazing.”
Log furniture is made by Watkins with Lodgepole pine, which Bergeron said they get from the Bend, OR, area. They also sell every other type of furniture to match, including dressers, nightstands and more.
Living room furniture such as sofas, futons, chairs and rockers are available, as well as kitchen furniture like chairs and tables, outdoor furniture and more.
Cabin Fever Log Furniture is located at 540 Hendricksen Dr., Kalama. Store hours are Tue.-Sat., 10 a.m.-5 p.m., closed Sundays and Mondays. However, Bergeron said they will most likely open seven days a week during the month of December. For more information, contact Bergeron and Watkins at (360) 673-6680 or via email at CabinFever@allcity.net. Visit their website at www.cabinfeverlogfurniture.com.
