"I have found just the house!" A Bungalow story

A friend was telling us their future daughter-in-law was driving around looking at houses and came in excited. "I've found just the kind of house I want! It is great!" So the two piled back into the car and she headed to house she had seen.

As our friend sat beside her in the car, she realized she knew the area, and mentioned she had friends in this section of town. As the car slowed down and the younger woman pointed in glee at the house she had seen, our friend had to laugh because it was our house!

There is just something about a arts-n-crafts bungalow.......

Days Off

It is Saturday morning after a grueling week and I have been lingering over a 1907 copy of "Days Off" by Henry Van Dyke (NY: Charles Scribner's Sons). The book is a work of art with full color cover and spine - flowers on a field of gold foil done in an abstract that appeals.

A collection of short stories....voices from another time. The first selection is "Days Off" and contains wisdom about relaxation. "You see it is the change that makes the charm of a day off. The real joy of leisure is known only to the people who have contracted the habit of work without becoming enslaved to the vice of overwork..."

Excuse me now why I take a hot cup of coffee and do something different....it is my day off, after all.

Cure for Modern Ugliness

William Morris said it all: "Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful." This quote conveys the basic tenet of belief regarding the bungalow and the guiding principle for a simple and peaceful existence. Many designers of the Arts and Crafts movement believed in a balance and harmony between form and function. This often created an organic structure that, even years later, would continue to immediately welcome people under its roof. This simplicity is often in opposition to the desire to "Tuscanize", "Bordelloize", and "Modernize" to the extreme. Over the years bungalows and mission homes have been robbed of the features that made them unique: pillars were replaced by Spanish iron grilles, wide open porch rooms were turned into walled dens, and the exposed beams, fine woods, and lights yanked out. Hiding, and sometimes dying, beneath layers of popcorn ceiling treatments, cheap shag carpeting, and mock neo-victorian many a bungalow awaits being discovered by someone with a discerning eye. Somewhere one of these American beauties awaits rescue....will you be a hero?

Accessories of Style

"Mission", "Arts & Crafts" and "Bungalow" are terms referring to several styles with some common values. The accessories are unique and often very diverse.

Paintings were generally the "en plein aire" variety made popular in the west and in California. This style emphasized capturing the play of natural light on a landscape. Artists such as Birger Sandzen are an early example of this style incorporating as it does the light and texture of the American experience.

Furniture was minimalistic and reminds of the mission style of Southern California, but also the simplistic grace of Shaker manufacturing.

Value of Light and View

Adding Living Space Outdoors

The arts and crafts movement was in reaction to the closed in and isolated existence of the Victorian era. The movement removed the heavy drapes and , literally, let the light into the house. Coinciding with a health and fitness movement sweeping the land the houses benefited
from lots of light and windows. There was also an emphasis on the benefits of fresh air and the
importance of blending the interior home with its exterior setting. The result is often increased living space and an environment that keeps things in balance.

Bungalow Lifestyle & Values

Every space- even a garage entry - becomes an opportunity to connect with nature and to bring peace and harmony into life.

Fireplace: A bungalow feature

The fireplace for most designers of the arts & crafts movement was the heart of the home.

Around the fireplace, in reach of the crackling, warming flames, the cares and burdens of the outside world could be shrugged off.

Harking back to the earliest of human memories the fireplace was

seen as a necessary component for a true home.

Often flanked by built in, glass fronted bookcases, the fireplaces of

many bungalows still retain the certain something that embraces

the soul and warms the heart.

Bungalow Lifestyle & Values

Books About Bungalows

Some personal favorites:

Bungalow kitchens. Powel and Svendsen. Gibbs Snith, 2000.
Bungalow colors, exteriors. Schweitzer. Gibbs Smith, 2002.
The Bungalow: America's arts and crafts home. Duchscherer and Keister. Penguin, 1995.
Updating bungalows. Connolly and Wasserman. Taunton Press, 2002.
American bungalow style. Winter. Simon and Schuster, 1996.
The Arts and crafts movement. Sommer. Barnes and Noble, 2003.
Craftsman collection: 170 house plans in the Craftsman and Bungalow Style. Home Planners, 1999.
In the arts and crafts style. Mayer. Chronicle Books, 1992.
Stickly style. Cathers and Vertikoff. Simon and Schuster, 1999.