Petaluma, Calif., is a small city big into chickens-the poultry population there once topped 1 million. It also has a vibrant art scene, with many craftspeople and artists. The confluence makes for some interesting studio spaces. Furniture maker Michael Cullen has had three shops in Petaluma over the past 25 years. The first was in a former chicken coop, a long, narrow, low-ceilinged wooden structure. The second was in a concrete building with 18-ft. ceilings and drains in the floor that was built as a chicken slaughterhouse. And then there’s his current shop, in a former eggsorting shed, a 40-ft. by 60-ft. corrugated-tin building on an old chicken ranch. The ranch next door has 80,000 free-range birds on the prowl. The shed may lack post-andbeam, rippled-glass, crackling-fire romance, but once Cullen gave the disused space an industrialstrength cleaning and upgraded the electrical system, it made for a terrific shop, where he turns out custom furniture embellished with carving and milk-painted finishes.

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