Look for our mention in the February/March issue of Log Home Design Ideas magazine.

From the Editor
E-mail Bag
New Products Showcase
Classifieds Index
Log Home Index
Featured Web Site
NetZine® Back Issues

Submissions can be sent via e-mail,
Snail mailed to:
   Log Homes NetZine®
   c/o K-S Marketing
   P.O. Box 923
   Beloit, WI 53512 USA
Or they can be faxed to: 1-866-731-0067.

Copyright © 1998-2006
Log Homes NetZine®
is a trademark of
K-S Marketing Network

Click here for advertising information.

FROM THE LOFT

by
Warren Wolf

It warms my heart to see the growing interest in rustic furnishings and design. The more high-tech our daily world becomes, the more high-touch we seem to seek in our personal environment. Today’s leading architects and interior designers are making greater use of natural materials and putting more emphasis on skilled craftsmanship than at any time since the end of the second world war. As a result, some of the builders of rustic furniture are flourishing and new shops are coming on line to meet the increased demand for handmade traditional goods.One of the best of the rustic styles that is enjoying a big increase in popularity is hickory pole furniture, also known as Indiana hickory furniture. More than one hundred years ago the Old Hickory Chair Company was founded in Martinsville, Indiana and it went on to become the first of several factories to mass produce this graceful furniture constructed from the sapling of the smooth-bark hickory tree. Many of our national parks were furnished with hickory furniture and in some of the parks the original chairs are still in use today.

At one point Indiana could boast that six factories, as well as the convicts in Putnamville, were employed in manufacturing the extremely strong, yet light in scale furniture. At the height of it’s popularity the simple hickory arm chair, porch swing, or rocker could be seen in nearly all the great Adirondack camps, the dude ranches out west, and in thousands of private homes in between.

Over the years many upscale resorts have continued to utilize hickory chairs in their dining and guest rooms because the furniture is compatible with most rustic design concepts and it provides a long useful life with little or no maintenance. Today’s hickory furniture is, in many ways, superior to that made fifty years ago due to dramatic improvements in glues and finishes, closer tolerances in machining, and better methods of storage and transport of the finished goods. New designs are being introduced that would have been impractical if not impossible to construct with the old techniques. To find out more about hickory pole furniture, locate a copy of The Collected Works of Indiana Hickory Furniture Makers by leading rustic furniture expert Ralph Kylloe.    Next time we’ll shed some light on rustic lighting.

Warren Wolf grew up in Oklahoma and graduated from OSU with an interior design degree. He's had a long career in the commercial furniture industry (design, marketing, and manufacturing). In 1990 he began focusing his attention on supplying hospitality clients (resorts, lodges, restaurants) with rustic furnishings. He and his wife own KABIN FEVER, a rustic furniture and lighting business in Fort Worth, TX. Warren will be a regular contributor to Log Homes NetZine® [LHNZ]

          


LinkExchange Member