Once in a great while, if you're very lucky, you're sorry to see a work day end so soon. Pat Herforth felt that way when he created a kitchen for Carrie Russell.

	Darrell Sapp, Post-Gazette photos Overall view of kitchen by local woodworker Pat Herforth in Carrie Russell's Morgantown, W.Va., home. Click photo for larger image.

"I was at work eight hours, and it seemed like 15 minutes," said the Monongahela woodworker.

"I didn't sleep at night -- for excitement."

The thrill was in building cabinetry, trim, light fixtures and furniture in the style of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, a Scottish architect/designer whose take on Art Nouveau jelled with the European Arts & Crafts movement near the turn of the 20th century.

Mrs. Russell discovered Mackintosh while looking for a chair to complement a Stickley Craftsman-style dining set. She and her husband, Jeff, were nearly finished restoring and furnishing their 1920 Tudor-Craftsman-style house in Morgantown, W.Va., when she found Mackintosh reproduction chairs on eBay. The pair of chairs didn't work well in the room, but she loved their look.

"I was so used to American Arts & Crafts. My house has an Art Nouveau look in places, but that's too foofy," she said. "I wanted something in between."

A sitting area is part of the kitchen, with curtains by Judy Soccio. Click photo for larger image.

Because the kitchen and master bedroom were the only rooms left to do, Mrs. Russell decided they would be "Macked out" in the style of her new Scottish hero.

"He doesn't share a room," she said. "It's all or nothing."

Too bad none of the architects or kitchen designers she talked to found him so heroic; none came back for a second visit. Then, in October 2005, she found another chair, made by Mr. Herforth and on display in his daughter's frame shop in Morgantown.

"I saw this beautiful chair that had a sort of a Frank Lloyd Wright feel. I knew this was the guy who could do my kitchen," she said.

Mr. Herforth had made the curly maple and cherry slat-back chair as part of a set for his brother, Steve, and the fabulous glass-and-steel house on Mount Washington that he shares with Pete Karlovich.

	Woodworker Pat Herforth researched Charles Rennie Mackintosh for his project for Carrie Russell. Click photo for larger image.

Pat Herforth knew very little about Mackintosh -- until he accepted the Morgantown challenge. He pored over Mrs. Russell's books and attended a lecture on the designer at Chautauqua Institution in western New York -- paid for by his client.

A white bedroom set inspired by Mackintosh was his warm-up for the kitchen, which features white lacquered poplar and maple cabinetry with stained-glass panels, matching light fixtures and unique railings, built-in benches and other furniture.

Mr. Herforth did not slavishly copy any Mackintosh pieces but incorporated the Scot's signature stylized "Glasgow rose," pierced squares and other motifs throughout.

"I love that the moldings and caps grow from the tops of the cabinets. It's very organic," Mrs. Russell said. "Pat would show me several different versions, and I would say, 'I like them all.'"

"Carrie was very inspirational for me," the craftsman said. "She gave me artistic license."

Carrie Russell sits in front of her Craftsman-style home in Morgantown, W.Va. Click photo for larger image.

The Russells spent more than $75,000 on their kitchen, which will be featured in the fall in a new magazine, Arts & Crafts Homes (www.artsandcraftshomes.com). Mr. Herforth's bill accounted for more than half of the cost, a bargain considering the extent and quality of the custom work, including integral Mackintosh-style cabinet pulls and dovetailed drawers with pneumatic closers.

Mrs. Russell decided to keep the kitchen's many windows in their original places but remove several walls and doorways to open up the space. She says she "fired" her husband after he removed part of a load-bearing wall but rehired him to paint the walls -- and repaint them when they came out a shade darker than the color she wanted: Benjamin Moore's "Full Moon."

Mr. Herforth asked artisan Juan Rodriguez of Monongahela to create the stained glass for the project, which led to Mr. Rodriguez's wife, Judy Soccio, sewing the cafe curtains. The white cotton twill panels, with pink squares, green leaves and black banding, are based upon photographs of curtains in Hill House in Glasgow, one of Mackintosh's masterworks.

One of Mr. Herforth's technical masterworks is the kitchen island, topped in Blue Paradiso granite, with a built-in microwave and warming drawer and panels that slide away to reveal an LCD television in the side. The TV was requested by son Trevor.

	Woodworker Pat Herforth also crafted this clock. Click photo for larger image.

The 11-year-old is a motocross racer (one of his parents' businesses is organizing races), but he's not put off by the kitchen's gray, white and pink color scheme. In fact, he brings friends through to show them his favorite room in a house filled with fabulous ones.

"Look at my mom's kitchen," he says.

And 6-year-old Rozlind's favorite spot in the morning is the sun-splashed windowseat.

"Everything else in the house is so dark," said Mrs. Russell. "I wanted people to walk in and say, 'Wow!'"

P.C. Woodworking (Steve Herforth) 724-929-9834 or www.pcwoodworking.org.

SR Design (Juan Rodriguez and Judy Soccio) 724-344-4174 or www.wedowindowstoo.com.