The Arts & Crafts and Craftsman styles
Over the years we’ve run into a couple of whole house rasised ranch remodels and whenever I see them I more often than not visualize them redone in the Arts & Crafts and Craftsman styles (think Greenes & Greenes Gamble House for starters).
We’ve got another one on the table and while I have a few books in my library: In the Arts and Crafts StyleView Image and Stickley Style: Arts and Crafts Homes in the Craftsman TraditionView Image, I really need to get a lot more visual referenes so last night I ordered Greene and Greene: MasterworksView Image, Greene & Greene: Creating a Style View Image, and what look to be a couple of pattern books Shop Drawings for Craftsman Interiors: Cabinets, Moldings & Built-Ins for Every Room in the HomeView Image and Shop Drawings for Craftsman Interiors: Cabinets, Moldings & Built-Ins for Every Room in the HomeView Image.
As you can see from the ‘Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought’ recomendations on those book pages there a lots more books out there on the style and it’s related styles so I wondering anyone have any personal recommendations? In particualar I looking for books with photos and illustrations of trim details, doors, and cabinetry.
Also does anyone know of any good sources for photos on the web I can take my client and future clients through?
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I know by your profile that you've been around since 2002 and have 2880 posts but I feel that I've gotta call you out on this one :)
If you're going to use the Amazon Associates program to make some extra coin, why not maximize your revenue by linking to bigger items?
Can someone please buy this Unisaw through this link so I can make some money Delta 36-R31 Unisaw Table Saw - it's a great saw for cutting white oak for your Craftsman trim or furniture.
cheers - mark
(edited to add smiley)
Edited 11/7/2007 11:32 am ET by markg11cdn
I don't have info, but it's a beautiful style- what I would go for in another life, life without the 300-year-old house.
Actually, I've decided that AC/C is the right style of light fixtures for my house, as it was first electrified around that time.
Way to go!
Here are two photos of the house in question exterior which I think they will start to make a move on modifiying next summer to de-raised-ranchify it.
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We'll be doing the main stairs and entry hall in another week or so and I post photos of the look we working on. We'll then start to move through the rest of the interior space by space slowly changing over the style to a Geene & Greene inspired Art & Crafts look.
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This will be an interesting thread - thanks!
Good "bones" there for A&C conversion, I'm thinking.
Will be a pain, getting into the overhangs--but not as bad as not having them to start with.
Now, whether to have a balanced, open gable front porch, or to have one that is "slid" away from that tree, might be an interesting thing to map on the photos.
Usually, for a good craftsman "look" most of the changes are internal; correcting the exterior trim on that one would not be tough (unless the soffits are bad and they'd like mock exposed rafters, or such like).
But, not having those details like good tall wainscots, or built-ins in at least the public areas on the inside "kills" the gain on exterior looks (or does to me).
How "in to" the style are the clients? Like, are they long-time American Bunglow subscribers? (Said magazine is online, if that helps any.) Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)
"I don't have info, but it's a beautiful style- what I would go for in another life, life without the 300-year-old house."
Like you, I really appreciate the Art & Crafts look, but my 170-year-old house is not the venue for it. But I feel the utilitarian simplicity of Shaker-style furniture and built-ins demonstrates a similar philosophy, and blends in nicely.
A key difference, of course, is that the Arts & Crafts designs celebrated the joinery and structural components. In contrast, beautiful dovetail joinery, for example, in Shaker work is usually hidden in the traditional way.
A long-time mentor and friend of mine derides the Arts & Crafts design and workmanship as "Woodworking 101," clunky and unrefined. I understand his view, but quietly disagree!
Oh, sorry, I don't have any books suggestions for Jerrald!
Allen
WNYguy - "A long-time mentor and friend of mine derides the Arts & Crafts design and workmanship as "Woodworking 101," clunky and unrefined. I understand his view, but quietly disagree!"
I can see that possibly being said, more specifically, perhaps of the Mission style but I don't think you can look at Greene & Greene Arts & Crafts and say that honestly at all. Have him look at some of the work Interior Photographs of The Gamble House and say unrefined with a straight face. What does he think of Frank Lloyd Wright? I'm with you on that one for sure.
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Jerrald, I suspect my friend would dismiss the Gamble House details as clunky and boring. The flat stock and eased edges evokes the visage of a seventh-grade shop project. The lack of mouldings creates an overall unrefined appearance, lacking in the subtle play of light and shadow that so enlivens a fine classical interior.
On Frank Lloyd Wright: "Over-rated egotistical quack." "Falling Waters? No, it's Falling House. Flawed engineering and poor aesthetics."
My friend's design for altering a raised ranch (like your project) would likely call for six-over-six windows, eave returns, an embellished entablature with cornice mouldings and frieze, and lime-mortar-pointed stone veneer for the foundation ... yes, turn it into an 1830s Greek Revival!
I remember years ago he mocked up what he would do with one of those aluminum-sided raised ranches with the flush eaves (very little roof overhang), and that was to create the appearance of a high masonry foundation and add classical mouldings for a simple Federal-style house.
Now, some might make the argument (regarding your project house) to preserve what appears to be an intact c.1970 raised ranch ...
Allen
Edited 11/7/2007 11:31 am ET by WNYguy
"Now, some might make the argument (regarding your project house) to preserve what appears to be an intact c.1970 raised ranch ...
Allen"
LOL!
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Jerrald has laughed it off, but there's nothing wrong with preserving the Ranch house. It was a viable style for many people for many years and I suspect that the style will be in demand sometime in the future.
Let's not forget that before this Arts and Crafts revival that's going on now, Gustav Stickley closed up shop and died almost broke and forgotten because people were no longer interested in what he was selling.
Your friend may find the A&C style as boring. That's his opinion.
He may find Frank Lloyd Wright an egomaniac. That's probably true, like almost all creative geniuses.
To Jerrald, try American Bungalow magazine. It's full of sources, pictures, and techniques for the A&C movement that you should find of interest to your project.
"She wrote a long letter, on a short piece of paper." Traveling Wilburys
"there's nothing wrong with preserving the Ranch house"
I mentioned that viewpoint seriously, but also well aware of the irony. So I found the chuckle to be an appropriate response.
Ditto on your comments about styles coming and styles going. Also "American Bungalow" magazine. I have a few issues on my shelf ... lots of great photos.
Allen
although i am an A/C fan ..i find the Gamble house " clunky"
I love Shaker, too, but even it is "too modern" for my circa 1695 house - which doesn't stop me from using it. You'd have to call my decorating style eclectic - I try for 'comfortable & attractive' eclectic.
I have my grandmother's Stickley-style sideboard, bought new when she married in 1906.
http://www.amazon.com/Making-Authentic-Craftsman-Furniture-Instructions/dp/0486250008/ref=sr_1_1/103-0670656-2699863?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1194453995&sr=8-1
Although G&G are often referred to for the Craftsman style, don't dismiss the work of Stickley. Much cleaner lines and no uneccesary details like G&G. They are still in business too. You could order a catalog from them, it's full of photos. Obviously it emphasizes the furniture but you still get some great shots of the rooms that they are in.
I'm not dismissing Stickley at all and in fact I hope to bring them down to the White Plains Stickly Audi & Co. showroom sometime next week so that they can start to think about how to appoint the furnishings in the new spaces.
In fact I told them a story of how a couple of years ago one of my (cheapskate) bicycling friends called me up to go look at the bathroom remodel he wanted to do and when I got there he made a point of showing me a little childres desk that he had picked up at a tag sale and was using a hallway side table. He told me how it was this dirty old oak so he sanded it down, filled the grain and then painted it with white high gloss enamel. I looked at it for a second, pulled open the drawer, and saw the Stickey stamp and told him just what he really done.
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Jerrald,
How about this site -- http://www.stickleyhomeforsale.com/
It's a house built by Gustav Stickley in Morris Plains, NJ. They've had the house for sale for some time, as I recall running across the site a year ago.
Might even be close enough for a day trip for you. Here's a story from the NYT on the house as well -- http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/09/realestate/09NJZO.html
Hope that's helpful.
Best,
Steve
Thanks FR, my client talked about building a studio office above the garage and the dormer look in the photo in the Times article illustrates what I was thinking they should be going after in terms of the look. What to do about the brick veener on the existing house though????
And on a completly different subject (hijacking my own thread) do you recall a ways back in some topic here we started to talk about Content Management Sytems? Are you familiar at all with Expression Engine? If so whaduhya think of it.
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Hmm, my first thought on the brick veneer would be to cover it with a stone veneer. I'd consider wrapping the whole first level with a fieldstone face to give it some consistency. But I have no idea if it would be easier to remove the existing brick, or furr out the other three walls before applying the stone. I remember the CMS thread. But I've never heard of or used Expression Engine. Seems to be a land between a blog that you can also build a small site out with (like WordPress) and a full blown CMS (like Joomla or Drupal). And given that all of those are free and work very well, I'm not sure why anyone would want to purchase EE or pay a subscription fee for core updates. What are you looking to do??
FatRoman - "Hmm, my first thought on the brick veneer would be to cover it with a stone veneer. I'd consider wrapping the whole first level with a fieldstone face to give it some consistency. But I have no idea if it would be easier to remove the existing brick, or furr out the other three walls before applying the stone."
A stone veneer is a consideration (a la something like Cultured Stone) but we also have a technique we do in house to make fake rock that we might do too.
"I remember the CMS thread. But I've never heard of or used Expression Engine. Seems to be a land between a blog that you can also build a small site out with (like WordPress) and a full blown CMS (like Joomla or Drupal). And given that all of those are free and work very well, I'm not sure why anyone would want to purchase EE or pay a subscription fee for core updates. What are you looking to do??"
We were looking at Joomla, Drupal, and Post-Nuke to fill the gap between Wordpress (which I love) and the Sirius Enterprise Portal, a ColdFusion based CMS my brother's company developed (it powers EMSVillage.com and a couple of hospitals) and a couple of friends ours who have worked with those other CMSs simultaneously recommended Expression Engine so were going to give it look. So I was just wondering if you had run across it in your experience and knew anything about it.
I recently redid one of my sites using Wordpress as a CMS so the guys could add their own content to it without munging up the site's design but they haven't done anything with it so since I'll be working with EE for another client I was thinking I might deploy it on Paradigm Projects so that I could have multiple blogs set up for various project-client-trade contractor communication while controlling access and adminstration all from a central interface.
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Jane Powell has several books, mostly on decorating related topics, for bungalow buildings. They have them at the bookstore at the Gamble House, or you can get them directly from her. I'm pretty sure Amazon has them too.
Sounds like a road trip to Pasadena is order. The Stickley showroom at the factory is a real treat and is just around the corner from you in Manlius NY near Syracuse. Back issues of American Bungalow may be a source of good ideas
Bruce
Bruce - "Sounds like a road trip to Pasadena is order."
Actually I just had a JLC friend who lives out there say that to me and I told him if my brother and I can free up the time this January we were going to go to make a trip out there to attend the Macworld Conference & Expo and for me making a trip around that area to see the architecture (he gave me this list) would be great. Now we just need to free up that week. As for American Bungalow I have a lot of back issues I'm going to dig out of the archives in the basement maybe tomorrow. I'll be searching all my FHB back issues too in that I clearly recall a great article from years ago about a Green & Greene house on the coast I'll want to look at again.
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Here's a link to my webpage on the subject - it contains several links you may find interesting. My own interests lean more toward the artistic, philosophical, and biographical aspects of the Greene brothers, as opposed to the actual details of construction.
http://www.bakersfieldremodel.com/Greene_and_Greene.html
CaliforniaRemodelingContractor.com