NR HILLER DESIGN, INC.

CUSTOM FURNITURE & CABINETRY

  • HOME
  • BOOKS
  • ABOUT
  • PORTFOLIO
    • KITCHENS
    • FURNITURE
    • BATHS
  • NEWS
  • WRITING
    • ARTICLES
    • BOOKS
    • BLOG – Making Things Work
  • PRESS
  • CONTACT

Articles

All documents used with permission

Fine Woodworking

For articles, please see “Press.” I also write a monthly post for the “Pro’s Corner” blog.

Profiles of woodworkers for Lost Art Press

“Little Acorns” series

Furniture & Cabinetmaking Magazine

Stanley Webb Davies (F&C270, May 2018)

Decorative carving in the Stanley Webb Davies style (F&C270, May 2018)

The Hoosier Cabinet and the making of the modern woman (F&C274, September 2018)

Behind closed doors: the history of the Wooton desk (F&C273, August 2018)

Popular Woodworking

A Woodworker’s Guide to Custom Cabinets (#239, June 2018)

5 Tricky Hinges (April 2018)

8 Common Hinges (February 2018)

American Bungalow

Harris Lebus: Arts and Crafts Style for the Trade (PDF)

Bringing Back Stinesville (PDF)

Miracle on South Dunn Street (PDF)

Old-House Interiors (now merged with Old-House Journal)

Essay: Money Well Spent (PDF)

Essay: On Matters of Taste (PDF)

Essay: Wedded to Place (PDF)

Cherished by Edie (PDF)

Essay: Women and Their [Sp]ouses

Arts & Crafts Homes and the Revival

Edgar Miller and the Carl Street Studios

Replica Kitchen for a Tudor House (PDF)

Old-House Journal

Period Collaboration (PDF)

Popular Woodworking

8 Common Hinges 

5 Tricky Hinges (PWM#239 June 2018)

Bloom Magazine

The Life and Legacy of T.C. Steele, Indiana’s Foremost Painter

Linda Chapman of Harvest Moon Flower Farm (PDF)

Margaret Weymouth Jackson, the Sage of Spencer, Indiana (PDF)

Rachel Peden Rediscovered (PDF)

The Life and Times of Mary Agnes Conard (PDF)

Eva Kor of Terre Haute (PDF)

Maple Grove Road: Take a Ride Back in Time (PDF)

A Farm Where the Buffalo Roam (PDF)

Preserving Our Past: In Praise of Bloomington Restorations (PDF)

A Green Love Affair (PDF)

Huffington Post

On images of women and work

The House that Saved Me

Other writing

Foreword to Indiana University Press edition of Rachel Peden’s The Land, the People

After you read a piece of writing by Nancy Hiller, you notice that you occupy the world a little differently. Your eyes look longer at the eave. Your palm lingers longer on that table. You ask an extra question to the woman rocking on the front porch. This is writing that encourages perception for the sake of knowing where you live–your kitchen, your house, your community–better. From forgotten neighborhoods to a banister’s curve, Hiller takes the time to look, to research, and to convey her subject’s fullness.

She tracks objects from wooded forest to dinette, and while she does she also relates their social, manufacturing, gender, and visual history. Underlying her sentences is a profound ethics, arguing that knowing more about things will encourage us to treat them differently. This is a sort of preaching that comes not from knowing better, but from knowing the daily joy of experiencing more.”
—Kathryn Lofton, Professor of Religious Studies, American Studies, History and Divinity, Yale University

“Y’know, for an author, you’re really okay.”
—Chuck Bickford, Fine Homebuilding

Follow us

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram

Latest Instagrams

nrhiller

Shout out to @cardinalspirits ! The people at our Shout out to @cardinalspirits ! The people at our locally owned distillery have been extraordinarily resilient in response to the pandemic — making hand sanitizer when none was available, cocktails and kits you can buy in stores, and keeping their excellent kitchen in business even when the distillery is closed for dining in. These pork belly tacos that Mark had yesterday looked beautiful, and the corn smelled divine. And here’s to a food business that serves carry-out in food-safe compostable containers! So rare. And so important. Thank you, Jeff and Erica!
.
.
#snowday #hikeinthewoods #goodfood #cardinalspirits #yay #goodpeople #indianabusiness
I am so grateful to have this man as my partner. H I am so grateful to have this man as my partner. He recently found this ridiculous photo from 2007. We both look a lot younger! As @chbecksvoort49 says, life is so lovely when you have a good partner. Mark is a gentle, caring soul. Incredibly resilient. Deeply thoughtful. An excellent builder and carpenter. Loyal friend. Spoiler of domestic animals. Occasional annoying dude. Altogether a wonderful human being with whom I am blessed to make a life.
.
.
#throwbackthursday #tbt❤ #grateful #gratitude #marriage
Nap time for Piggy. While I have chemo drugs drip Nap time for Piggy. While I have chemo drugs drip into my bloodstream, Tony has laid claim to Joey’s fleece. More dangerous is that he’s sharing the fleece with the pig, which has become Joey’s favorite toy. Fortunately Mark is monitoring the situation. 

And while this post is not about work, I am working on my laptop, writing post for the @finewoodworkingmagazine blog and a letter of recommendation for someone I admire (a lot).
.
.
#dogsandcats #work #ilovemywork
A day packed with drawing time and calls with a cl A day packed with drawing time and calls with a client in Rhode Island. There’s nothing like having historians as clients during interesting times. At the end of the day I found Mark chopping wood and had to catch this image with the hillside glowing in the background.
.
.
#saturdaywork #kitchendesign #thankyouteachers #historiansrock #ilovehistory #thisishistory #historyiseverything
By hand. This is how I draw kitchens. My drawings By hand. This is how I draw kitchens. My drawings are of course terribly prosaic compared to those gorgeous colored renderings by @johnnygreystudios but they do the job. Despite their arguable advantages, CAD images leave me cold. It has been super rewarding to get back to this particular kitchen design, for clients in St. Louis. I’m also working on another set for clients in Providence, Rhode Island. So fun! Another highlight of today: I completed a blog post about @furnituremaking which should be up at Lost Art Press this weekend and took delivery of materials for the next shop job, which will occupy my next good week (after chemo week...). A big thumbs up to good days.
.
.
#customcabinetrydesign #cabinetmaker #customkitchens #drawings #byhand
This is the look of a cat who has become thoroughl This is the look of a cat who has become thoroughly spoiled by living in the house, after a day of suffering the terrible conditions of the shop for just one day. “Don’t ever do that to me again! I need my woodstove in winter.” 
.
.
#catsofinstagram #shoplife
To celebrate the new year we went for a misty hike To celebrate the new year we went for a misty hike up the hill. Today we saw a beech with especially cool bark and, thanks to the precipitation, found a lost stream pouring into a &cave where we had previously seen only dry ground. So marvelous! We came home and made a fire for Grumpy. My new hand knitted scarf from HAM was perfect. @anissakaps 
.
.
#2021 #newyearhike #southernindiana
A few glimpses into the year that’s been. No woo A few glimpses into the year that’s been. No woodworking pics!  One of the happiest discoveries this year is that we have a fantastic woods behind our place, much of it owned by the Karst Conservancy, where Mark and I have been hiking.  Another gift is that my sister now has a kind, responsible, thoughtful and loving man in her life. Mark’s lovely mother passed in December, a big loss. The greatest joys have been family and friends, too many to mention individually (and they would probably prefer to be anonymous here), despite the challenges of connecting during a pandemic. I am feeling thankful. Here’s to doing what we can to make the world kinder and more beautiful in the year to come.
New work. I’m writing from the hospital in Bloom New work. I’m writing from the hospital in Bloomington where I am getting my first infusion. For years I’ve been working sporadically on a collection of stories about animals and work. A few weeks ago I was faced with the decision whether to go for (or forgo) chemotherapy. The one thing I could imagine being a sufficiently powerful motivation to go through the treatment was the prospect of completing this book. Happily, Chris Schwarz thought that “Shop Tails” would make a good addition to the Lost Art Press line. I’m crossing my fingers and sitting in this chair with several others who are being treated for their own conditions. Nurses are the best.
.
.
#chemotherapy #writerscommunity #shoptails #animalfriends #makingthingswork #adjustment #newwork #hopeful
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Affiliations

Society of American Period Furniture Makers

Copyright © 2021 · NR HILLER DESIGN, INC.