Decorating area around a Wood Stove
I have been working on the area around our J A Roby cook stove for over a year now. It is coming along nicely, but I still have a way to go.
I started by collecting a few vintage enamel cookware pieces. All of these came from thrift stores, and I think the most I have paid for a piece is $14. I realize that many of you do not have access to this vintage enamelware, especially at a decent price, so I am providing links to some new vintage-look enamelware at the bottom of this blog post.
I love that this gave me a place to display a lot of my grandmother’s old kitchen utensils. They are all from the 1930s era.
Now I know that I am officially OLD! I went through the kitchen cabinets three times last week looking for this cast iron muffin pan. Forgot that I had hung it here!
The two black washpots on either side of the stove belonged to each of my grandmothers. I am using them for firewood and for kindling. The pot on the left is a much heavier pot. My dad’s mother, Nanny, used it to wash clothes.
She would build a fire in the corner of the backyard near the pasture gate and bring the water to a rolling boil. Thankfully, my grandfather had put a faucet near the back of the house, and she did not have to draw water from the well.
When the water came to a boil, Nanny would put in the dirty clothes and punch them down with a hickory stick. After allowing the dirty clothes to boil for 5-10 minutes, Nanny would take the stick and dip them out into a galvanized washtub full of hot soapy water and scrub them clean on a rub-board.
There is still one area that I am not satisfied with. I have rolling pins displayed in a wrought iron wine rack. It seems out of place to me, so my next project is to build a wooden rack for the rolling pins. There is a long area on the wall to the right side of the stove where I think this would look good. I guess it is yard sale time for the wine rack!
I will continue to collect enamel cookware and utensils. I especially want to find a white enamel dipper with a red rim. My old aunt kept one of these in a water bucket on the back porch. Everyone drank from the same dipper. When you finished drinking, you swirled the water around in the dipper and give it a sling into the yard.
I will probably replace the baskets with more enamelware as I come across reasonably priced pieces. I was a little concerned about baskets this close to the stove, but it doesn’t seem to be a problem.
Links to enamelware
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Blue enamelware 3 1/2 quart stock pot
White enamel coffee pot with black trim
blue and white splatter 12 inch ladle
Cozy Kitchen Wood Stove 