Thread: rustic drawer pulls & cupboard knobs

Hi Cecilia, I have looked at your site so many times over the last year or so. It is inspirational.

Have you considered carying the theme from your amazing balustrade onto the kitchen handles?

Donna

Hi Cecilia

I totally agree with Donna , both about the design idea as well as your fantastic website.

Is there any chance you might find some rustic or greenwood or bentwood books in your local library?

cheers
Wendy

Thanks for your suggestions Donna and Wendy.

Handles to echo our balustrades would indeed be wonderful. But............... as you may well imagine, at the tail end of our building project (with hope still in my heart of a garden shed!), money is a bit thin on the ground.

I shall take your advice and see if the library has any useful books.

I'm glad you enjoyed your visit to our website. After this weekend I hope to have the extra workbench in the studio and will put up some more photos.

cecilia
www.duckpond-design.com.au/theduckpond

What about pieces of Ti Tree debarked and polished up

Some of it has nicely contoured surfaces that could look great.

Hi Cecilia,
Love your house, and that balustrading is pretty special!
I have made some handles from scratch using timber and small bits of metal, quite simple if you have a hacksaw, drill and a file. See attached drawing.
If you don't like the bolt heads showing you could somehow plug them over, and if the sections of metal tubing don't appeal, they could be replaced with drilled lengths of timber or branches. The main thing is to drill the holes, through whatever piece you choose, parallel. This may mean drilling through a branch at an angle: not hard if you start drilling 90* to the face, then tilt the drill as you proceed.

Good luck!

Many thanks for your suggestions. We remembered that we had some copper tubing up in the garage and used short pieces of that to mount the eucalypt sticks onto. I think we'll have to try ti-tree as well for some of the drawer pulls as it's certainly pretty hard, and should take more punishment than the cupboard handles.

Here's a photo of the first one

cecilia
www.duckpond-design.com.au/theduckpond

Brilliant!! Great result!

cheers
Wendy

I can see Wendy changing all the knobs in her place !!

Originally Posted by ptc

I can see Wendy changing all the knobs in her place !!

tempting tempting - I've actually been drooling over Cecilia's balustrade, and towel rack

Your handle looks great. I had remembered seeing them made from twigs/saplings before, and had a rummage through some magazines (any excuse) Do you have access to Owner Builder mags? There is a nice pair of handles on some doors in No.134 April/May 2006(pg 50) which they describe as being made from sapling "elbows". They look awesome.

Donna

And here is the pic from the magazine which I scanned in.

Donna

hi Cecelia,
congratulations on a great web site , love your style and rustic flair ..I just joined this forum and am loving going through all the archived posts .I took to rustic furniture making about a year ago after finding quite by chance in a junk shop a book by Daniel Mack ..his work is inspirational in its ingenius use of timber (as found) in furniture making ...branches and found objects of all types melded into fantastic furniture..
this style of rustic work is hugely popular in the US but hasn't seemed to have caught on here....I'm still learning and drying my wood , it takes a year to dry properly before is good to use , or it falls apart with the shrinkage
would love to hear from any other rustic makers and learn from their experiences
attached a couple of pics showing my efforts,and woodpileAttachment 57730

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once again congrats on your house and website ,
cheers Gordon

Thanks for visiting our website Gordon. You've done a great job with your rustic chairs. I was so pleased to see the chair with the woven seat - is that seagrass? I remember doing a couple of chairs like that with my father back in England and had thought it would be good to try to re-learn how to do it for when Jonni makes his chairs to go with the refectory table he's planning to make. (Any clues gratefully accepted).

I bought two of Daniel Mack's books for Jonni's upcoming 60th birthday (a method in my madness!) One is on making furniture and the other is some wonderful stuff for the garden - woven teepees for climbing plants, rustic gates and screens. Can't wait to gather up a few more sticks and vines.

I've just put up a few more photos on the Duckpond website. I'm hoping to add pond and garden updates quite soon.

cheers
cecilia
www.duckpond-design.com.au/theduckpond

hi Cecelia ,
I have all Dan Macks books and know the garden one you mentioned...it has some really nice stuff in it...I have made a few gates ,they are fairly easy and make great bedheads wall climbers etc....you are correct the seats are seagrass.
its a real problem sourceing seagrass in Australia ,there is one place that I know of (the only one I think) here in SA .I ended up importing some from the US ...all the old suppliers in the asia region refuse to sell it in coils anymore ,because they want to value add themselves ,selling it as made items and furniture etc.
I had major problems with customs importing it , and shipment had to be inspected and accompanied with very detailed botanical description from the wholesaler ...had to buy a fair number of coils but worked out less than half the cost of the local source...the local supplier is a bit reluctant to sell it also , as he recanes and reweaves furniture himself.
I allow a day to do a seat , childs chairs less.....there are many books on seat weaving ,one of the best I think is "Making chair seats from cane,rush and other natural materials" by Ruth B Comstock ISBN O-486-25693-6.
anyway hope you'll post a pic of table and any other rustic stuff you make

cheers for now Gordon