It is important in any home to be able to create a special place for when you want solitude.

Sometimes you just need a place to kick back and read in a place where you can get away from it all.

Here it is all about simplicity. A comfortable wingback chair, a comfortable throw in warm sunlight offers a soothing and peaceful retreat.

I needed a pot rack here at the lodge. I couldn’t have one hanging overhead with cathedral ceilings in the kitchen and even if I could I didn’t want to interrupt the space.

I use my copper pots and pans. What is the point of having them if you don’t use them?

I have seen iron pot racks, wood pot racks, stainless steel pot racks and an assortment of others but I didn’t care for the designs nor the cost. I wanted a simple pot rack that I could mount on the sidewall. The pot rack needed to be simple, about 5 to 6 feet long and tight to the wall.

Read more about making a copper pot rack

I have not been a big fan of track lighting but it does have its place and time. In an effort to provide more light in the kitchen here at the lodge, the previous owners had installed track lights on the log trusses overhead. As if Ethel Merman stepped in to sing Ave Maria the two were not a good mix.

The white plastic tracks and large white canister lights screamed out in their stark contrast to everything and immediately drew your attention upwards, not to the cathedral ceilings but to the lights and tracks themselves. It was one of the first thing noticed in the kitchen.

read more about camouflaging track lights

Your front door says a great deal about you, your home and provides the perfect canvas on which to welcome your guests.

Whatever door color or style you choose pay just as much attention to the door knocker that you mount. Visiting a specialty hardware store one can find an assortment of door knockers from vintage to highly polished brass or chrome. Dragonflies, flowers, each a sculpture, each an expression.

This cast bronze trout door knocker was a gift from my family - I’m an avid angler. There is nothing quite like catching the rise or casting the riffles of the Esopus River. I use my grandfather’s cane fly rod and tie my own flies. The knocker seemed more than appropriate for the lodge.

Let your front door express your passions and take great care as to the door knocker that you mount.

Few things are as fine as a steaming cup of freshly ground coffee. Here at the lodge I must admit I have fallen to the canned grounds for daily use however the weekends when I have the time to enjoy freshly ground.

There are a couple of coffee grinders here. An antique wall mounted grinder provides the best grind for me and provides a bit of a workout as well turning that crank for several minutes to produce enough grounds.

The fun of having a vintage or antique gadget like this is using it. Freshly ground coffee always tastes better and grinding by hand seems to add to the flavor. The manual grinding is rather therapeutic.

On the center island is another antique coffee grinder however this is a commercial unit from the early 1800s. It is fully functional and grinds a pound of coffee in no time.

Antique or vintage kitchen gadgets abound here at the lodge. I do have one requirement, they be functional or at least functioning. Seek them out at antique stores, garage sales and your favorite auction site.

Over the years I have had the great privilege of acquiring carvings of astounding detail.

Currently here at Bearfort Lodge hidden in plain sight amongst the logs for the joy of discovery are numerous songbirds carved by Dave and Pam Berari. So far here at the Lodge you will find wrens, chickadees, nuthatches, warblers, blue birds, titmouse, cardinals, robins and a few others.

Meandering through the lodge you may suddenly spy a marsh wren perched or a nuthatch clinging to a log. Many a visitor have taken delight in the discovery.

Read more about songbird carvings

Needing a place to hang my Stetson and slicker I had found and old leather wrapped coat hook and mounted it next to the wall phone near the bar.

The old wall phone does indeed work.

Above the phone is a small collection of dry flies from the spring of 1922 on the Esopus River in Upstate New York.

I had picked up the phone years ago at an auction with a winning bid of about $10. A little research and a bit of rewiring the hand piece and the phone was back in action. The hat and coat are simply my rain gear.

I had been tying flies for fishing and trading them with an old angler up near Roscoe NY. I had met him midstream. He had been fishing quite a bit upstream from me working his way down when he stepped in a hole, lost his footing and went up to his neck in the cold water. His waders were full and he couldn’t get footing to get up and was laughing so hard he just didn’t have the strength.

Read more about the fly case