“My favorite spot in the house would have to be the bed,” says Davy. Facing French doors that lead to the back patio, “it makes you feel like you’re on vacation.”
When Joshua first saw the house about five years ago, it was similar to other stone structures from the early 1900s, but it had undergone a number of funky renovations. A ranch-style addition had been smashed onto the back. The finishes, he says, “were kind of 1980s.” And the roof, curiously, had been raised a few feet to provide more space on the second floor. With vertical wood paneling connecting the stone to the roof, it’s as though the house wears a charming top hat in the middle of a deciduous forest. By devising some of his own additions, Joshua was able to balance out the quirks of the old ones, giving the house (an enjoyable work-in-progress) a unified feel. “He’s like a house listener,” if not quite a house whisperer, says Kelly, who’s also the business manager for Blackcreek Mercantile. “He has an amazing ability to come into an environment and sense what it should be.” “Woodworking has always been in my blood,” says Joshua. The New Mexico native recalls being happiest as a child when he was nailing scraps of wood together with his uncle. At the University of Oregon, where he studied architecture and worked in a woodshop, Joshua met painter and sculptor Tyler Hays. The two would later found the artisanal 20
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furniture studio BDDW in New York City in the mid-’90s—taking on any number of odd demo jobs, Pepe Jeans showroom build-outs, or whatever was required to bring the business to life. Despite the success of the company, Joshua admits, “I never really felt like a city guy.” When BDDW shifted its production upstate, he became so enamored by the new locale that after more than a decade in Brooklyn, he moved to the Hudson Valley. “There’s just something about living up here,” says Joshua, who subsequently branched out on his own, starting Blackcreek Mercantile with Kelly last year.