I'm bumping this thread of mine in hopes of getting a bit more information on these (new ot me) pieces of mine. There are no makers marks on either them. Does anyone have an idea of who might have crafted them? And where? Any recommendations on something more suitable to use on them other than lemon oil? Floyd, regarding your question: Thank you! It's not a true retablo, though, which are painted on wood. This is painted on canvas and is from Peru. I love it, though. Lynn

dinajo--here's some more pics of the kitchen with the oven wall included. kelleg-- Thanks for your good words. I picked out the rope handles first and knew the patine rouge color would go with all three of my cab colors. In addition to three cab colors, I also have 2 cab styles--the island is a different style and color than the wall cabs. Once I had my rope handles, I knew I didn't want everything to be matchy matchy but I wanted them all to coordinate. I knew I wanted the hanging circle knobs for my upper top cabs. So once I had two picked out, I loved the look of the long door handles that were going to go on the flat panel drawer above the rope handles. Those 3 choices were the hardest. The next two were easier. In deciding what goes where, I went mostly, but not all the time, in lines--the upper top wall cabs got all the same knobs, the lower wall cabs got all the same knobs, the first drawer in each stack got the same handle, the lower two drawers and the base cab got the same handle and the skinny drawer and cabs got the same handle. Scroll across whole pic as you can see how all the hardware blends with the different cab styles and colors:

Just be sure, gemini, you get a tall one, with a good temp range. There are some that are shorter with less temp balls. Mine has has 6, it's tall and perfect. Type in Google search. I did buy my DS's from Amazon, but it's shorter and not near as pretty as mine. One time Bed Bath and Beyond had them but not the tall ones. Check your local museum or specialtly gift stores. Shop before you buy.

Dark Desire is in its first year of sales in USA. It just won a German ADR this last September - should require no effort to prevent black spot. We put it into trials 2 years ago in the deep south and it is happy and grows well in the south without fungicides. Size wise this is a big rose 4' x 4' easy and perhaps reaching 5 feet in height. It likes suns and while I have not done any trials in shade but does seem to tolerate afternoon shade in my trial garden. Repeat blooming and fragrant. The foliage is a very dark green with purplish new leaves and the new stems are a mahogany color which you may want to consider in the design. Polar Express is a tall rose reaching 5'. It won an ADR back in 2007 and is quite disease resistant. Good reports on performance in Texas. It blooms recurrently with very heavy flushes of flowers. Shiny bright foliage. Probably best in the background of your rose garden. Lions is a great choice. It tends to be much wider than tall. The number of blooms can be heavy enough to be a bit overhanging. Excellent on disease. Sunbeam Veranda is a compact Floribunda. Bright yellow bloom fading to a mi- range yellow open flower. It is easy to maintain it at about 3' tall and 2'wide. It is good on disease but not as good as some of the other Kordes roses - probably as good as Sun Sprite. Wow you are going to have an amazing rose garden!