Many theories hold that Colonial American architect Peter Harrison (1716-1775) may have influenced the popularity of porches. Harrison’s travels and education in Europe and studying Italian architecture may have inspired him to study the Palladian movement. From this the Palladian porticos came in to vogue. The term “Palladian” is usually used in reference to buildings [...]

 Patio furniture has been popular for hundreds of years. As trendy as outdoor rooms are today they were possibly even more elegant a few hundred years ago. Porticos, porches, piazzas, terraces and gazebos were the rage in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
A portico is a porch or walkway with a roof supported by [...]

Traditional furniture, like the designs crafted by Amish wood workers of today, would not seem what it is if not for the name Sheraton. Englishman Thomas Sheraton authored and published the most important trade catalogue, “The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Drawing Book”, in the latter eighteenth century. For better or for worse this book was so [...]

 Since all movements are contemporary to the time they were began the term Modern furniture may seem confusing, especially when its roots go back over one hundreds. A child spawned from the functional designs and philosophies of the Arts and Crafts Movement, Modern furniture designs was as influenced by the revolution against Victorianism as it [...]

Much like Gustav Stickley, a dominant influence of the Spanish settler’s furniture designs in the early colonization of America, was the lack of good tools. While, like other settlers from other countries, the Spaniards brought the influence of their home land, they were so isolated in the New World that they succumbed to native materials [...]

 The Amish craft solid wood designs that often replicate the popular look of Heywood-Wakefield. Unless you have a love for solid wood furniture from the golden era of Modern design (circa 1936-1966) you may be unfamiliar with the name Heywood-Wakefield and the furniture associated. Among admirers and collectors of this company’s designs it is wildly [...]

You carefully selected your custom Amish pieces to make your house a home, but after a long winter indoors your carefully decorated, but not so fresh, home is in need of a family spring cleaning day. Alright, your family may not be thrilled to hear you have decided to host a family spring cleaning / [...]

Hepplewhite, Sheraton and Chippendale, the big three, were the Holy Trinity of furniture designers in the 18th century. Hepplewhite and Sheraton were extremely popular furniture styles in the late 1700s and remain the most desired of traditional designs even today. The traditional creations from the Amish woodworkers still keep the designs alive and affordable in solid [...]

 Art Deco-
Art Deco was born in 1925 at the Paris International Exposition and lived and evolved over a quarter of a century. Evoking images of nude nymphs, geometry-centric lines curves and shapes, early chrome and glass and caricatures of greyhound dogs, Art Deco has often been misunderstood.
Within the genre of Deco there were several sub-categories. [...]

Long bike rides in the country with a camera in tow provided Dr. Wallace Nutting the opportunity and desire to become one of America’s most famous photographers. As a young student, Nutting entered Phillips Exeter Academy and in 1883 finished his studies at Harvard University, Hartford Theological Seminary and Union Theological Seminary. In 1893 the [...]