He has strode the halls of power and stood outside the oval office, dealt with some of the biggest names of our time, worked in high tech and followed many paths yet Geoffrey Abdian never found fulfillment until now, here in the West Seattle Junction.

He will open Suite Arrangements, a furniture consignment store at 4706 California Ave. s.w. in the West Seattle Junction on Oct. 1 and the business means more to to him than anything he's ever done.

Abdian has lived in West Seattle for 16 years working in custom remodeling but he began his career as a press agent and legislative aide for U.S. Senator John Melcher, Montana (D) in the 1970's. Dealing with people meant working, "in a heady atmosphere" he said but left him with no sense of having served his life's purpose.

He later went on to work in the paper and pulp industry, migrated to the world of high tech working in marketing and advertising and along the way wrote a novel, created a unique "periodic table of behaviors" for the educational market and most recently supported himself by helping West Seattle homeowners fix up their houses as a general contractor but even after all this said "I'm a writer."

As for the move into the consignment furniture business, it was a matter of timing, luck and other elements coalescing. "The reasons that came together all at once were the macro-economic picture, there are people downsizing, in some cases involuntarily, there's a lot of foreclosures in the pipeline nationwide. Unfortunately some people here in West Seattle are losing their homes. Others are upgrading or redecorating. It's difficult to sell furniture that you no longer want. Meanwhile all these townhouses, condos and apartments are being built, people are pouring in. They already have debt from college and they need less expensive furniture. They want nice things but don't really have anywhere to go for them in West Seattle."

This for Abdian is also a green pursuit since as he points out, "there are plenty of fine furnishings here that are simply 'pre-loved' and why pay to build something new and ship it across the country?"

He also sends 5% of his profits to the West Seattle Food Bank.

Suite Arrangements offers pick up and delivery (he has hired some very capable students from Seattle Lutheran High School to do the moving).

There are several options for selling furniture of course but Abdian has a persuasive argument.

"Look at it this way," he said, "You've got a lot of furnishings that have a lot of years left and you can put them on craigslist, you can photograph them, write about them and post them. Then answer all the calls and all the emails and answer the same questions over and over, you can give directions, you can schedule appointments, half of them don't show. You can haggle over the price and in the end get less than you thought you would and have a lot of strangers into your home. Or you can make one phone call. I'll come out, look at the pieces, agree which ones we're going to consign and involve you in the way they will be priced. I want to be a community supportive business (...) I've got the best consignment fees in Seattle. I start at 45% and only go up once, if your piece is on the floor more than 30 days the commission goes up 5% to cover the cost of the floor space."

This is a business of people as much as it is furnishings and becoming a member of the West Seattle business community is finally bringing Abdian what he has sought so long. "I'm astounded. I've travelled overseas on business many times. I've worked in large corporate environments for years. I knew many U.S Senators and I've seen and done some things that you'd think would be very fulfilling but you know what? This is more fulfilling than anything else I've ever started. It feels good and it feels genuine (...) It feels like it really does reflect the values of the community."

Abdian sums up this latest change in his life this way, "I heard an interesting phrase recently. Two simple words that when they were put together for me spoke volumes. The term was "Authentic Life". If you can just live an authentic life you can be genuine with yourself and with others the world will probably embrace you more than you imagined."

You can reach Suite Arrangements at 206-906-9379