Wardrobes and fire screens

Today's post is mostly about furniture, but it will get round to embroidery in the end!

Having finished the OBOD banner, I need a new project to work on, and I've decided to do something for the house.  My house dates from around 1900, and I've got a few pieces of antique furniture to go with it, including my wardrobe:

I love this - it's an Arts & Crafts design, in oak, with very pretty handles and fittings, but the best thing about it are the two carved panels.

Isn't that just fantastic?  The panels are both the same design but are very sightly different, so I think they must have been done by hand as you'd expect machine-made ones to be completely identical.

So that's the wardrobe, and here's the fire screen:

That lives in the dining room, and features the first large-scale embroidery I did from a design of my own, based on the Lindisfarne Gospels back when I was a student, a long time ago.  The stitching isn't up to my current standards but at the time I was thrilled with it, so much so that I commissioned a local cabinetmaker to make the wood frame for it.  (Sadly, I can't remember his name or I'd give credit where it's due, as it's beautifully made.)

I'm going to redecorate the dining room this year, so that seemed like a good time to upgrade the screen.  I'll keep the frame but retire the embroidery to a cupboard and stitch something new.  And as I expect you've guessed, that's going to be based on the 'apple tree' design from the wardrobe panels.  I want to try a slightly different technique too.  Should be fun!