Gaga for Bungalow / Craftsman / Mission

[scotrace]

I used to dream of building a 1700's colonial, like this:

It didn't work out. I still have boxes filled with detail photos I gathered, brochures, catalogs, etc. I have a full set of drawings for such a house. Ah well. I settled for building this:

But we've been living in our American Foursquare for 18 years, and the Arts & Crafts style has really grown on me. So much so that I have been slowly adding A&C details to the house to make it even more plainly that style. This winter may see some paneled walls go up.

What I really want is a Morris Chair! Who wants an ugly old Lazy-Boy when you can have this? And the arms will hold a book, a pipe and a drink nicely!

I had thought to build such a chair, but I think the skills needed are really just beyond me. I designed and built a television cabinet a couple of years ago in the Mission style. Now we get some of the great magazines* that have come out that are full of cool pottery, lamps, copper, etc.

These days, this is the dreamhouse.

Anyone else LOVE this stuff?? Let's see your collection!!

*(Style 1900, American Bungalow)

 

[Cracker]

Nice chair. A friend of mine in grad school in the early 90s bought and restored one just like it. Sadly, prices have skyrocketed since then, making affordable originals hard to find. Thank you, Barbra Streisand.

 

[imoldfashioned]

Scotrace, did you know that Hometime did a series of shows building your dreamhouse? http://www.hometime.com/Admin/shopsite/dvd_6205.htm They've got study plans and other accessories too. Lots of fun and I love the Minnesotan accents-makes me homesick.

I'm another one who loves Arts and Crafts and particularly bungalows. I've got the full run of American Bungalow magazine--it's one of my prize possessions.

When I was in the market for a house I specifically asked to see bungalows but the style isn't especially popular in Boston. I did see a tiny one that needed to be completely redone for $550k at the height of the real estate madness out here. My dream is to win the lottery and find a cute little bungalow by the ocean in Maine.

Sites I like:

http://www.bungalowcompany.com/
The Warren Hile Studio--I covet his desk; several years ago it retailed for $12k

 

[BellyTank]

Scott- I had a set of 2 Morris chairs and a chaise; the chairs had a seat piece with a curved frame and the "leg part" had a rack and bar to adjust the height/lean. Native NZ timber and olive-green velvet.

I'm going to post you the book my Brother wrote on Bungalows in NZ.
AandC-a-go-go. If you're ever in NZ, you'd love to see his house, with collection of period fittings, modern, architectural additions and hundreds of Holophane lamps. He even has wood panelling...

You'd love the NZ Bungalows and Villas and Cottages, with the beautiful NZ native timbers, elegant build and colonial kitch touches.
I have some photos of NZ houses from my trip this year- must upload them.

Remind me to post you the book-

Bungalow
Bill

 

[kpreed]

I lived for a time in a small (600 sf) cabin in the Redwoods that was very arts & crafts. It was built in the 30's with that look and I really miss that look, if it only was a bit bigger...

 

[Cracker]

I have lived in two A&C-ish E20c neighborhoods (Boylan Heights, Houston Heights), and I do enjoy it. We live in a 1920 bungalow today, though not necessarily furnished as such inside.

However, as an old architectural historian of colonial Virginia and North Carolina, I'd rather build your first choice, Scotrace. I always fancied the single- or double-pile center-hall plan, such as...

Tuckahoe Plantation, Goochland Co., VA...

...or perhaps a right fine hall-parlor brick pile of the "Federal" period, such as...

the Isaac Taylor House, New Bern, NC

 

[David Conwill]

I’ve long wanted a Bungalow or a Foursquare. Preferably something in the style of the Aladdin Company’s Brunswick or Hudson. The Marsden is nice too.

Alas, while the sales literature is well preserved (mostly at my alma mater, Central Michigan University), the blueprints were apparently destroyed some time after the traditional house style fell out of favor in the 1940s.

My wife and I have recently been dreaming of building a modern bungalow built in the country. We want a little less space, and something that was freshly made to our specifications. We’ve been feeling like prisoners in our old house lately.

-Dave

 

[dhermann1]

In Chautauqua Institution there is a house that is now the United Methodist Missionary Home, but was originally built as a summer home by Clement Studebaker, of the famous buckboard wagon company (oh, yes, and cars as well). It is a magnificent Mission style house with neat details inside.
This picture is from a calendar that a local Studebaker enthusiast club took of their Studeys in front of the Studebaker house.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

I, too love Arts and Crafts and Bungalow Houses. We had a couple growing up and I am trying to buy one right now. They have a certain charm that I just really love.

 

[vitanola]

I'm greatly enamored with the Craftsman aesthetic, and so of course also dearly love most architecture of the early Colonail period, say up to about 1720.

note the picturesque effect of the Fairbanks house, or the charming interiors of the Hudson River Dutch homes. The less formal iterations of Colonial Revival interior decoration
can have a distinctly Craftsman feel, and many country pieces are quite at home in a Craftsman interior.

 

[mrbieler]

We live in a 1938 bungalow built for Douglas Aircraft management over at their old Santa Monica facility. Fun little house that works for us. Would prefer it somewhere else the way LA is, but the house itself is nice.

Loved the older homes when I lived in the NE.

 

[listenone]

Nice dream, hope you can do it

 

[StraightEight]

This was our 1924 bungalow in Ann Arbor before we moved to stucco box land (LA), plus our '38 Buick. Really miss that place. And the car.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

This is the fixer-upper I'm trying to get my hands on right now.

 

[David Conwill]

StraightEight that place is gorgeous. I really love the period-style interior. Modern, overstuffed furniture always looks kind of out of place in the modest interior spaces of older homes.

Tom, that place looks like it has great potential. I am absolutely nuts about exposed rafter tails. To the point where I don’t think I could ever do gutters on a house that had them.

-Dave

 

[AtomicEraTom]

I am fond of them, too. With my love of the fifties, I will probably replace the awnings with nicer ones and leave the lannon stone facade, but the place definitely needs a good repaint, a new roof, and some landscaping. For $35,000 I won't complain.

StraightEight that place is gorgeous. I really love the period-style interior. Modern, overstuffed furniture always looks kind of out of place in the modest interior spaces of older homes.

Tom, that place looks like it has great potential. I am absolutely nuts about exposed rafter tails. To the point where I don’t think I could ever do gutters on a house that had them.

-Dave

 

[David Conwill]

I always wondered what that stone veneer was called. It's probably the most heavily abused element in buildings these days. It gets no respect and is often painted. I kinda like it, though I like to think if I owned that place I would have the guts to reopen the enclosed porch, which would sadly necessitate the removal of the stone.

Still, if I owned a midcentury ranch or commercial building, that stone would stay.

-Dave

 

[MPicciotto]

Some of the stone veneer is called "Formstone" or at least when it's applied over original brickwork on South Baltimore row homes it's called that. Gutters are a PAIN in the behind. Much better to have a ground level gutter and just sweep the leaves occasionally then going up on a ladder to clean them.

Matt
Who will be moving in a couple of years to an early 1940's house but can't help but install some A&C influences in it.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

I'm also a junkie for mid-century homes. I looked at a ton of ranch homes. They're not common around here, and it's not worth moving to Milwaukee to live in one!

I always wondered what that stone veneer was called. It's probably the most heavily abused element in buildings these days. It gets no respect and is often painted. I kinda like it, though I like to think if I owned that place I would have the guts to reopen the enclosed porch, which would sadly necessitate the removal of the stone.

Still, if I owned a midcentury ranch or commercial building, that stone would stay.

-Dave

 

[Oldsarge]

In SoCal, we are rather the heart of the Arts and Crafts bungalow country. Should you come down for a visit, don't forget to spend some time driving around Pasadena and Bixby Knolls (Long Beach). And you absolutely must visit the Gamble House.