HEY LOOK: I found a beehive oven under my fireplace mantle!

Hope to complete my Homestead project like this

with the inclusion of my new find

  A Beehive Oven!

It looked like this (below) -loved it, but needed love

yet easy to decorate for the seasons...

but

Bored with no electricity during the weekend storm

we decided to tear down the boards on my kitchen fireplace,

and discovered the original fireplace

 



dating to when the Brayton Homestead was built in

1796.

I already knew there was a brick cubby for wood,

it had a door out of the same boards as the fireplace.

Have wanted to take down the boards for such a long time but knew it would

it was any one's guess to what would be lurking behind ...

voila!

first found a great cupboard with a cool round latch

but still have not concluded what was it's use...

then found the beehive oven -originally known as a baking oven. now called

beehive oven because of it's shape

a peak inside the beehive oven... 

the jagged bricks are intentional for the heat of the fireplace to be transported to the oven.

here original wood piece and very old wallpaper...

an original kitchen like this would have been called the keeping room. 

This is what I have left to work with,

what a challenge!

I have a few ideas- do you have any?

Karen