Iron Gates

I mentioned in an earlier post that one of my favorite things down here is the architecture. It's absolutely amazing and takes my breath away each time I'm downtown. All spring I volunteered as a tour guide for the Charleston Historical Society and I'm volunteering for a candlelight garden tour in October. I learned so much during my volunteering...about gardening and artwork and architecture. It was like a free education and I can't wait to do it again in the fall. What catches my eye the most are the intricate details of the ironwork all around town—on windows and gates primarily.

Dave and I recently bought a house and needed bedroom furniture. When I volunteered I kept thinking it would be neat to buy an iron gate grille and put it above our bed instead of buying a headboard. So a few weeks ago we were downtown and I found an old iron grille in an antique shop. We bought it and hung it above our bed.

The grille has rust on it (so I'm hoping it's truly authentic) and I love the two fleur-de-lis designs found at its center. Sometimes I stare at it and try to imagine where it was before it came into our home. I like to imagine it was handmade by an ironworker and anchored the front of a gate in an old house downtown that opened only for horse and buggies. With my luck, though, it probably is a replica that was just waiting for a sucker like me to buy it :). In any event, I like not knowing its history...my daydreamed scenarios of where it came from are probably much better than the grille's reality :).