Hidden Mickey In the Sawn Balusters At Port Orleans Riverside

As part of building our #NewOldFarmhouse out in Downers Grove (I posted about the sewer and water main installation here on the blog earlier this month), we're thinking about including a big, deep front porch that provides a lot of appeal from the street and gives us something we loved in our old place at 274 a place to gather and spend time in the mornings.

As part of that new porch design, we've been look at something called Sawn Balusters.  Those are the parts that connect the top and bottom of the front railings.  Sawn is different than what they called "turned".

Turned balusters are either square or cylindrical and are exactly that:  turned on a lathe or cut from a piece of wood.  Sawn balusters are common from the earlier part of the 20th century and are flat, not turned.  They can be of various thickness.  We've worked with our builder to come up with a custom pattern for them (more on that in a different post), but they can take the form of anything you'd like.  Check out some example patterns here.

The reason I bring this concept up is that photo above:  that's the luggage cart at Disney's Port Orleans Riverside resort.  On the back of the golf cart they use to pick up your bags and transport them to/from your room, they've built out a little flatbed with some custom sawn balusters.  They're fitting with the theme and feeling of the resort, but they've also incorporated a 'hidden Mickey' into the balusters.  Pretty awesome.

We've noodle'd with the idea of sneaking in a small hidden Mickey in the tile work in one of the kids bathrooms but I'm thinking that incorporating it into the sawn balusters on the front porch is a bridge too far for us.

Next time you're down at Port Orleans Riverside (or...frankly, I'm thinking they're using the same design on the carts at French Quarter) at WDW, check out the sawn balusters.  They're one of those little touches that make you smile and make Disney....Disney.