New Old House

This fireplace surround design was inspired by a Shaker chest of drawers that has a drawer added at the bottom between the legs for additional storage. This fireplace hearth is elevated from the floor so that it is a nice height for sitting on and provides for a drawer underneath which can be used to store DVD’s, couch throws, books or whatever you desire. The Shakers used simple shapes in their furniture but sometimes chose fancy wood and liked to use contrasting species. The wood chosen for this project is Tiger Maple, often used in instrument making and the grain pattern is sometimes called fiddle back. The mantle, hearth, feet, and drawer sides are Curly Cherry. This lumber was purchased from a furniture maker and wood collector in Irion, New York. You may be wondering what the peg in the frame above the mantel is. If you have ever seen pictures of a Shaker meeting or dining room hall there is often a board with pegs running along the upper part of the wall to hang things on; from chairs to brooms to hats to coats. To accommodate this they had holes made into the frames of items such as clocks so that they could also be hung on the pegs, and we wanted to duplicate that look in this piece. Sam Van Fleet