Drawer Pulls and Such

When Don and I bought our current farm in 1996, it had a house that was not really livable but too good to tear down.  We decided to rebuild the old place while we were living in the 7-sided house just a few miles down the road.  We completed sections of the house in stages over the course of years and finally moved in during 001. 

We discovered that when one is trying to get a house to the point of being able to move in, a few little teeny-tiny things seem to get put on the back burner...like steps to the upstairs, well in fact the entire upstairs, and a kitchen.  We slept in every corner of our downstairs (very open floor plan) as we worked on completing various projects, such as a kitchen.  We did have a temporary cooking space in our sunroom that consisted of a hot plate on a sagging table.  It was pretty bare-bones for people that live too far from town for take-out.  So as you might imagine, just getting to the point of having a kitchen became a high priority.  We designed and built all our cabinets and planed all the lumber for the floor, a process that kept us cooking in the temporary kitchen for a good while longer than we wanted.  When it was finally "finished" we abandoned the old kitchen with great glee, except the new kitchen wasn't quite finished.  I embraced the "openness" of my pull-out shelves and dared Don to put doors on them.  He conceded that point but we both agreed it woud be a nice touch to actually get oak drawer fronts attached to the drawer frames. That conversation was so long ago now that I don't even remember what year it was.  Poor Don, who likes to actually finish things and is living with a person who can overlook minor details, finally took the bull by the horns and decided to finish the drawer fronts with or without my blessing.  Don cut rough-sawn oak, planed and put a finish on the drawer fronts and set them aside so we could discuss "hardware".  That was last year.  Somebody who shall remain nameless, dragged her feet, never providing input on hardware so last month Don, in a last attempt to engage me, presented me with his options for drawer pulls.  We settled on the rustic look and lo and behold we now have drawer fronts!  Thank you Don!  They look wonderful except now we both have to retrain ourselves to use them.


Our kitchen.

Cabinets without drawer fronts.

Cabinets with drawer fronts.



Oak drawer fronts with willow handles.

Pottery, Furniture, and a Good Time Part 2

Thanksgiving weekend found us on the banks of the Coal River at Lower Falls near St. Albans, WV at another pottery open house.  Christie Berry of the Brass Bell Pottery graciously invites us to spend the weekend of Thanksgiving with her at her camp/studio/gallery so we can sell our soap and rustic furniture during her open house.  Christie is a talented artist in several media but her pottery is her passion.  Some of her signature vases and trays feature a raised acorn/oak leaf motif.  She is also becoming well known for her other designs as well.  It is always fun to see familiar faces that come to buy Christie's wonderful stoneware and also our furniture and this year, our soap.  If you missed it this year, please come and browse the gallery with me.

The Brass Bell studio and gallery.



Christie's pottery and my rustic lamp.
























Gold pottery.



Lovely sage green stoneware.

Some of our rustic furniture.

Soap of various kinds.

More stoneware.

Don's hand-carved bowls on a rustic table.

One of Christie's many unique designs.

I hope you enjoyed your tour.  Please plan to join us next year at Lower Falls for for a fun and relaxing shopping experience.  Come spend black Friday and shop-small Saturday with us and just maybe there will be fresh oatmeal cookies to munch on while you stroll the gallery if you get there before we eat them all!