Wild West Decor

By Kathy Barberich
Fresno Bee

You don't have to be a real-life cowboy to love decorating your home with the look of the Old West.

Indeed, people throughout the nation are picking up artifacts from, or reminiscent of, America's 19th-century Western frontier and decorating their houses with them.

Old West memorabilia is used for decorating at Rust Brothers Antiques and Collectibles.

Another Rust Brothers collectible, a statuette depicting the Pony Express.

Western-style coat rack at Rust Brothers. (Photos courtesy of John Walker, Fresno Bee.)

Old branding irons at Rust Brothers. (Photo courtesy of John Walker, Fresno Bee.)

Take people like Eddie and Pat Knight of Clovis, Calif. Eddie Knight is a real-life cowboy, and their country home is a tribute to the Western way of life.

Built 16 years ago, the Knights' spacious four-bedroom house has all the modern amenities most homeowners could want--running water, electric appliances, huge kitchen, lots of windows. These are features missing from cowboy housing on the Western frontier.

But this contemporary house has a thoroughly cowboy look and feel. Boots with Spanish silver spurs decorate the entry. Saddles and leather chaps are draped over a wooden divider that separates the entry from the great room. Silver horse bits, horsehair-braided ropes and a bull bell hang from the divider's posts.

The walls are lined with things the Knights love, things with history--although not all of them say "Old West": leather horse collars, a steel bear trap, Alaskan snowshoes with rawhide lacing, old shotguns, Iver Johnson pistols, a Civil War bayonet, a miner's pick and hat with carbide light, a gold miner's pan, a Cherokee dream catcher wall hanging, a deer head, an elk head, a buffalo skull, old horse and oxen shoes.

That's not all, either.

Navajo horse blankets and Western-themed statues are other decorating features. A large replica of "The End of the Trail" sculpture by James Earl Fraser sits atop the big-screen TV. Smaller Frederic Remington bronzes are on table tops: "Cheyenne," "Rattlesnake" and "Buffalo Horse."

Propped in a corner, where most of us might have a silk ficus tree, the Knights have antique wooden snow skis. A stand-up bass, an electric bass guitar and a Martin acoustic guitar from the '40s are at one end of the room, just waiting for someone to strum and sing.

The Martin guitar belonged to Eddie Knight's late father, a cowboy and a singer. Every old Western thing in their house, including the bathrooms and the enclosed patio, has a story behind it. "Many things have been given to us over the years by friends and family," says Pat Knight. "It means more to us because of that."

Other things the Knights have bought from friends of friends. And some, from antique stores and at auctions. A wood-burning stove in the eating area of the kitchen came from the Oso House in Bear Valley 16 years ago. The house was once owned by explorer John C. Fremont.

Framed photos of John Wayne, Walter Brennan, Gregory Peck, Paul Newman and the Gunsmoke" TV cast are on bathroom walls, along with more bits and ropes and spurs.

Eddie Knight, who owns a pest-control business, loves Western movies. A hobby of his is setting up cow camps, complete with cowboys, authentic wagons and accessories for movies and video shoots. The most recent video shoot was for the Sons of the San Joaquin's From Whence Came the Cowboys. Eddie Knight is one of the horse-riding actors in that video.

The former bull rider, who once headed the Fresno County Sheriff's Office Search and Rescue Team, and his wife have 15 horses on several acres. Pat Knight and daughter Kimberlee, 19, show horses. Eddie Knight is the family blacksmith and has a blacksmith shop set up outside. He also transports the horses and equipment and is a past president of the Fresno-Madera region of the California Horsemen's Association.

"Our house isn't anything fancy," says Pat Knight, "but we are surrounded by the things we love. And others always seem to feel comfortable here. That's what's important."

Leigh Cardoza, owner of Anything Goes home and garden decorating of Coarsegold, Calif., says you don't have to be a cowboy to use Western decor in a home or yard. "Many people just like the history and things that remind them of it," she says.

Cardoza is decorating the Coarsegold home of Gary and Susan Steinmetz using ropes, reins, bits, barbed wire, Western art and furniture of rustic wood, cowhide leather, forged metal and Native American-inspired fabrics. She loves putting old stuff together and making tableaux of sorts that tell stories.

Examples of Cardoza's eye for making old things look good can be seen at Rust Bros. Antiques and Collectibles in Coarsegold, where she works for Gary Steinmetz and his business partner Ernie Hough of Solomon, Kan.

In a warehouse-type building and in the yard surrounding it are more old wagons, steel and wooden wheels, lanterns, ropes, disc blades, seeders, barbed wire, chicken wire, wash tubs, wheelbarrows, watering troughs, pitchforks, milk cans, sap buckets, iron beds, whiskey bottles, knives, belt buckles, stirrups, halters, reins, horse collars, bits, cast iron brands, trunks and hardware than you can shake a hickory stick at. A new addition to the Rust Bros. collection is reproduction Western-style furniture and art.

Hough scours farm and yard sales in the Midwest. About once a month he and Steinmetz bring the stuff west in two trucks and trailers.

"Sometimes you find old stuff just rusting under trees out on farms," says Steinmetz. "And sometimes the farmers just give it away. Could be farm equipment, beds, wagons, wheels. . . . There seems to be more iron things available there than out here. I think it's because during the war, much of the stuff here was given to recycle for the war effort."

Steinmetz, who, until a year ago lived in the California town of Gilroy, owns Gilroy Spice Company. A daughter and son-in-law operate the business while he sells his "junk" in Coarsegold. Steinmetz and his wife, who is a real estate appraiser, have horses and a few head of cattle. When they bought their two-year-old home with knotty pine walls and cabinetry, decorating it Western style was a natural.

"Leigh has an eye for how to put the stuff together to make it look like art," says Susan Steinmetz.

Barbara Goodrich, who owns Buckskin Lady Leathers & Western Interiors in Meeker, Colo., and runs the Web site www.buckskinlady.com, says there is a growing interest in Western interior decorating. The San Francisco native says most of her new customers are from the East. "They love the look," she says.

Goodrich started out in the '70s making hippie-style leather purses and clothing. Because of her love for horses and the West, she started making leather pillows, wall decor and furniture.

"Things just kind of grew from there. A lot of people like to mix Old West with Southwest, Indian and country styles. That's what I've done in my own house. And you have to have a sense of humor. A lot of people don't understand how you can think a cowhide pillow is really cool."

At the Rust Bros. in Coarsegold, visitors will find plenty to chuckle at, including what appears to be a shallow grave with a sign that reads, "Any day above ground is a good day."

(Visit Scripps Howard News Service on the Web at www.shns.com.)