Country Farm Designs

Country Farm Designs is an antiques and country goods business located at 740 Noble Street in Kutztown, Pennsylvania, in the heart of Berks County. The business deals in American primitives, vintage kitchen and household items, collectible pottery and glassware, vintage advertising pieces, and quilted home textiles. Its inventory reflects a particular interest in the everyday objects of rural and small town American life, the kind of utilitarian items that were once common in farmhouse kitchens, general stores, and country pantries and that are now sought after by collectors and decorators.

The shop sits in a region long associated with the antiques trade. Kutztown and the surrounding Pennsylvania German countryside have supported dealers, auction houses, flea markets, and folk art collectors for generations, and the town is nationally known for the annual Kutztown Folk Festival, which celebrates Pennsylvania Dutch craft traditions. Businesses like Country Farm Designs operate within that broader ecosystem of pickers, estate sales, farm auctions, and collector networks that keeps regional material culture in circulation.

Antiques and Collectibles

The core of the inventory is country primitives, a category that generally refers to simple, handmade or early machine made objects built for practical use rather than decoration. Primitives can include wooden bowls and utensils, firkins and pantry boxes, baskets, washboards, crocks and stoneware, tools, iron hardware, and small painted furniture. These pieces appeal to buyers who value visible wear, original paint surfaces, and the evidence of long use, qualities that collectors often describe as patina.

Enamelware is another specialty. Also called graniteware or agateware, enamelware consists of steel or iron vessels coated in porcelain enamel, mass produced in the United States from the mid nineteenth century onward. Coffee pots, roasters, basins, colanders, ladles, and pails were made in white, gray mottled, cobalt and white swirl, red trimmed, and other color combinations. Because enamelware was inexpensive and widely used, it survives in quantity, but pieces in unusual colors or uncommon forms, and those with minimal chipping, remain in demand among collectors and among buyers assembling farmhouse style kitchens.

Vintage kitchenware rounds out this part of the stock. That category typically covers hand crank eggbeaters, flour sifters, rolling pins, cookie cutters, butter molds, mixing bowls, canning jars, wooden handled utensils in green, red, or cream paint, and tin and aluminum kitchen gadgets from the early and middle twentieth century. Many of these items are still functional, and buyers often purchase them for use as well as for display.

Pottery, Glass, and Advertising

Country Farm Designs carries McCoy pottery, one of the most widely collected American ceramic lines. The Nelson McCoy Pottery Company of Roseville, Ohio, produced jardinieres, vases, planters, cookie jars, and kitchen items for much of the twentieth century, and its matte green, yellow, pink, and brown glazes are instantly recognizable to collectors. Cookie jars in novelty shapes and planters in animal and floral forms are among the most frequently sought pieces, and condition, mold number, and glaze quality all factor into value.

Depression glass is also part of the mix. Produced in large quantities during the 1920s and 1930s, often distributed as premiums in cereal boxes or given away at movie theaters and gas stations, depression glass came in pink, green, amber, blue, and clear, in patterns such as Cherry Blossom, Madrid, Princess, and Royal Lace. Collectors frequently build sets one piece at a time, which makes shops with rotating glassware inventory a regular stop.

Vintage advertising items are a further category of interest. This can include tin signs, product tins and boxes, store display pieces, dairy and feed store memorabilia, thermometers, and packaging graphics from regional and national brands. Advertising collectibles are prized for their graphic design and typography as much as for their history, and local or Pennsylvania connected brands often carry added appeal for area buyers.

Quilted Textiles and Country Decor

Alongside the antiques, the business offers quilted textiles including placemats, table runners, and wall hangings. These sewn goods complement the primitive and country furnishings on hand and give customers a way to coordinate a room without hunting for antique textiles, which are often fragile and difficult to find in matching sets. Quilted runners and wall hangings are commonly made in seasonal patterns and traditional pieced blocks, and they remain a practical purchase for anyone decorating a dining room, kitchen, or entryway in a country or farmhouse style.

The combination of old and newly made goods is typical of country shops in the region, where dealers often pair genuine antiques with handmade decorative items so that customers can furnish a space at a range of price points.

Who Shops Here

The customer base for a business of this type generally includes several overlapping groups:

• Collectors building specific categories such as McCoy pottery, depression glass patterns, graniteware, or advertising tins
• Homeowners and renters decorating in farmhouse, cottage, primitive, or country styles
• Interior designers and stylists sourcing props and accent pieces
• Dealers and resellers looking for inventory
• Gift shoppers seeking something unusual, practical, and locally sourced
• Visitors to the Kutztown area exploring the region's antique shops, auctions, and markets

Location and Visiting

The shop is located on Noble Street in Kutztown, a borough in northeastern Berks County positioned between Reading and Allentown along the Route 222 corridor. Kutztown is home to Kutztown University and hosts the Kutztown Folk Festival each summer, both of which bring steady visitor traffic to the borough. The surrounding area includes farm country, small towns such as Fleetwood, Topton, Lenhartsville, and Maxatawny, and a dense concentration of antique shops, auction galleries, and flea markets, including the long running Renninger's market in nearby Kutztown.

Because inventory at antiques businesses turns over as new items are acquired through estates, auctions, and private sales, the selection on any given day differs from the last. Repeat visits are part of how collectors shop in this field. No phone number is listed in the directory entry for Country Farm Designs, so prospective visitors are advised to confirm current hours and availability before traveling a long distance, particularly around holidays, festival weekends, and the slower winter months when many country shops adjust their schedules.

Buyers interested in a specific maker, pattern, or category may find it worthwhile to ask about items not on the floor, since dealers frequently hold additional stock in storage or can keep an eye out for requested pieces while buying at auction.