gallery - artisan house

Artisan House at the Greenbrier Sporting Club built by Corlis Design & Construction & Signature Woodworks. The sun streams in the large great room windows most of the morning, highlighting the mahogany entertainment cabinetry. The bookmatched door over the fireplace retracts up into the upper woodwork to offer a space for up to a 50\x1d T.V.. The mahogany serving island arches to invite you from the dining to the kitchen where you can chat with anyone working in the kitchen area. The kitchen has all granite tops except this upper serving top, which is one big slab of mahogany. The kitchen mahogany matches the great room entertainment wall, all from the same tree. In this photograph you can get a better idea how the living, dining and kitchen relate. The dining and kitchen are also right next to a pair of French doors which offer terrace dining options as well as creek overlooks. While we currently are showing the house with place settings for six, the dining room could easily support much larger table & chair arrangements for up to 10 or 12.  The French door on the right hand side between the dining and living areas leads to an observation deck over the creek. Sugar Creek flows behind Artisan House. You can hear the soothing sounds from 1600 square feet of deck and terrace overlooking the creek and yard. The granite sitting wall surrounds the Ipe deck and is topped with handmade copper arts & crafts lanterns with iridescent glass. Inside, you see Corlis Design's effort to build a house like a piece of furniture. We came to the Greenbrier Sporting club because it iffered an oppurtunity to build at the highest level of craft. Corlis Design's shop, Signature Woodworks, handpicked mahogany for the whole house from sources developed over 25 years. Note the one piece countertop island. A view from the dining room shows the curved island of bookmatched panels and tapered legs which gives the kitchen the heirloom quality of fine craftsman furniture. Corlis designed this kitchen to be "unfitted", a mix of furniture & cabinetry. There are two hammered copper apron front skirts and an island equiped with a wine cooler, microwave and warming drawer. The custom range hood features crotch mahogany and a remote fan. The handcut dovetails on the hood also appear in all the drawers & the frieze board of the cabinets. These dovetails from the range hood were cut by hand. Rather than apply ornament, we allow the craftsmanship to be highlighted. We were inspired by the work of Charles and Henry Greene, the great American Arts & Crafts architects of the early 1900's. The north wall of the kitchen incorporated the built in refrigerator, double convection oven and display cabinet. The refrigerator featured highly figured matched panels & handmade wood with brass handles, hammered & pegged, with an oil rubbed patina. Looking north from the sitting room, you see the balcony, continous grain panels around the room, and the entertainment cabinets. The matched panels come from the same log as the kitchen panels. The center two panels rise by remote control to expose up to a 50" flat screen. The equipment stores in the right cabinet. Note the matched drawers for media. The foyer has a graceful elliptical arch transom which is echoed by double arching panels and double columns. The stairs and floor are quartersawn white oak. The foyer also has an armoire instead of an entry closet. Notice the ribbon grain mahogany on the tapered columns. They were made with matched boards so that the grain and figure of the wood would be continuous around the column. The stair newel post is a smaller version of the columns. The stairs are one piece quartersawn white oak treads and risers. Looking closer at the armoire you see how the rare "beeswing" figure becomes alive when lit. These matched panels are set off by simple grain stain & rails, a theme throught the house. The foyer is completed by the paneled stair wall. It is made with single boards in matched sets, with the grain continuing up the wall. The balcony looks over the foyer and great room. the columns continue from below. The railing is hammered iron with dry brushed metallic accent. 22 custom doors were made for the housing using Signature's technique of resawing highly figured panels framed by straight grain. The master bathroom has his and hers vanities flanking a Kholer Purist infinity tub. This tub overlooks the creek and an upstream waterfall. note the indirect lighting above the mirrors & built in lights at the columns. Corlis often incorporates artists into the house. Here, a hand forged bronze towel bar by noted blacksmith Jeff Fetty, repeating the theme from the refrigerator handles. The powder room has a craftsman theme bringing the crown off the ceiling to the top of the door and shower. The cast art glass serves as a screen for the shower.