When I bought my 1910 Craftsman, my dear mother loaned me the money for the down payment. Shortly before the first payment was due, I found the perfect lamp for the library table in my entry. Its price was exactly the same amount as what I owed my mother that month, & after the restoration & the buying of furniture, I did not have the funds for both. With great reluctance I called her & asked if I could delay paying for a month. She gasped loudly, then expostulated, “Oh, Suzanne, you know the importance of correct lighting!”
I think I insulted her. This was a woman who had crystal chandeliers in her bathrooms. The sweet little Art Deco lamp that we had purchased together had traveled to 3 of her homes as she aged & downsized, each time being placed with much discussion & hung with great reverence.
So, yes Mama, I do know the importance of good lighting.You raised me right.
The woman who purchased my house bought the library table & the lamp because she could not imagine that anything could be more perfect in the space. Well, yeah.
Many other people think that lighting is important so I am going to allow them to explain it you.
THE VIDEOS- Arts & Crafts Lighting
An Interior Lighting Tip from Brett Waterman (1:15)
Old California
Here’s Brett sounding like my mother.
Brett Waterman Discusses Arts & Crafts Lighting (3:31)
Old California
I love Brett’s sincerity & passion as he talks about A& C lighting.
Arts & Crafts Lighting (2:03)
Active Interest Media
A basic overview of A&C lighting.
Arroyo Craftsman (6:39)
Betsy Levin
Craftspeople at work.
Mission Oak Arts and Crafts Style Lamp by Ragsdale (1:11)
Ragsdale Home Furnishings
Handmade from the most beautiful quartersawn white oak.
How did the Arts & Crafts Movement swim to America from England, & why did it look so different here?
Because of the vision of Gustav Stickley who went to Europe to study the movement where it originated, but felt that, “There are elements of intrinsic beauty in the simplification of a house built on the log cabin idea.” Stickley transmogrified the art of Morris & friends into an American aesthetic while retaining Morris’ insistence on the value of honest materials inspired by nature, crafted by hand.
I was originally rather partial to English Arts & Crafts. When I furnished my 1910 Craftsman, the first 2 pieces of furniture that I loved with very different- one was English A & C the other was American Craftsman. They were destined for the same location in the dining room & I had to make a choice. I knew that this choice would determine the direction of every other piece & I agonized until my knees hurt from shifting from foot to foot on the concrete floor of the antique mall.
Because so much has been written about Stickley, I’m not going to even try to say anything new. I do recommend visiting Craftsman Farms & I highly recommend their online classes. Yes, they cost $ but those funds support the museum & the classes teach you everything you could ever want to know about the A & C Movement & about Stickley.
THE VIDEOS- Gustav Stickley & the American Arts & Crafts Movement
Gustav Stickley: American Craftsman (0:57)
Arts & Culture Guy
Another wonderful way to learn about the man as well as his art, is to watch the documentary film Gustav Stickley- American Craftsman. Below is a trailer for it. It follows his life, delves into his philosophy of life, work & beauty & its manifestation in his furniture, his magazine & his marvelous department store. You can purchase it on Prime. It’s a stellar production.
Gustav Stickley and the American Arts and Crafts Movement- Exhibition Tour (7:46)
The San Diego Museum of Art
A tour of an exhibition of Stickley furniture, showing the evolution of his design over the years.
Gustav Stickley- Crazy influencer and the making of the Craftsman style home
Brent Hull (9:13)
In this video, Brent describes Stickley as “an inspiring genius and reckless businessman who changed design and architecture,” & discusses his influence which is still felt today.
Tip: Watch all my preservation videos on YouTube HERE!!!
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“Organic buildings are the strength and lightness of the spiders’ spinning, buildings qualified by light, bred by native character to environment, married to the ground.”
Frank Lloyd Wright, architect
Rather than trying to compose an educational post, I have curated this group of videos on Wright for 3 reasons, the main one being that no one explains Wright’s philosophy & work with more clarity than the man himself.
#2, nothing expresses his genius better than the buildings themselves. (How could you use words to describe Fallingwater? I stammer in my head just considering it!)
#3.These students & scholars of Wright possess 1,000 times more information & insight that I do & they have produced fascinating footage, including tours of his most iconic buildings, that will both inform & intrigue you. I spent a couple afternoons watching these videos & feel that I now understand this complex genius. My appreciation of his work has soared!
HEARING THE WORDS OF WRIGHT & SEEING HIS GENIUS BROUGHT TO LIFE
Frank Lloyd Wright: America’s Greatest Architect? | The Man Who Built America (59:33)
Timeline – World History Documentaries
This video is narrated by a Welsh architect who explores the influence of Wright’s Welsh background as he travels across the United States, visiting homes FLW designed & built. His commentary allows us to deeply understand the influences & philosophy that guided Wright’s eye & hand.
A Conversation with Frank Lloyd Wright (30:59)
Manufacturing Intellect
An interview in 1953 with Hugh Downs about Wright’s thoughts on American life & architecture. As always, Wright’s words are powerful & illuminating.
Frank Lloyd Wright and the Prairie School (53:15)
Manufacturing Intellect
This charming video features a soliloquy critiquing the architecture of the time, seguing into his design philosophy. Delivered in Wright’s own words, it is a charming peek into his brilliance & arrogance.
TIP: I have many beautifully done videos on my playlist from how to repair windows to the history of the Arts & Crafts Movement. Watch themHERE!
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Bungalow Heaven, a neighborhood of 800+ historic homes in Pasadena, CA, truly is a paradise. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places, the area was built between 1900 & 1930 & designated in 1989, as a local landmark district. Thankfully, this status has been instrumental in protecting it from the pop design of HGTV.
I discovered Bungalow Heaven when I lived in Pasadena. Though occupying only 6 blocks by 6 blocks, entering its streets, you are completely immersed in the period. Even the historic vibe of the whole, beautiful city doesn’t smoothly ease you into this perfectly preserved jewel box of a neighborhood. Holy DeLorean, it’s a time machine!
Thanks for much of this wonder can be given to The Bungalow Heaven Neighborhood Association. BHNA is a crackerjack, non-profit organization of volunteers dedicated to the preservation of the homes & enhancing the lifestyle of its district. When we shakily formed our first home tour committee in nearby Eagle Rock, the historic community where I lived to the west, it was suggested that we volunteer as docents for the BH tour so we could learn what to do. I had been on their tour several times & had admired it from my event producer’s eye, but due to being dazzled by the charming bungalows, I hadn’t really paid much attention to the workings of the tour machine.
Like the rest of the organization, it was finely-tuned & well-oiled. The tour, only one of the group’s many activities, is a massive undertaking due to the amount of volunteer coordination & the directing of the hoards of attendees. They also have to ensure the protection & comfort of the homeowners, so each task is clearly delineated & drilled in the weeks before the tour. It was great to receive this training & experience & provided us with the template that we used to form our own fledgling committee.
My wood flooring company was privileged to restore many of floors in Bungalow Heaven. Please understand that we had moved from a bungalow neighborhood in Phoenix, but we had never experienced such wonders as we saw here. I was introduced to clinker brick, to Arroyo rock & I was treated to my first inglenook in BH, in the home of a flooring customer. My husband requested that I be given a tour of the home & they graciously agreed. I was enchanted. When I learned about their yearly home tour, I was thrilled to be able to enter these homes that were so carefully restored & preserved, beautifully furnished, with most decorated in the A&C style.
WHAT MAKES BUNGALOW HEAVEN SO SPECIAL?
Bungalow Heaven is the poster child for the Arts & Crafts Movement. Though the Movement’s origins are in England, both its aesthetic & its philosophy were brought to the United States in the early 1900’s & California heartily embraced them.
The natural materials revered by the Movement are abundant in the state. In the forests grew acres of fir, oak, redwood & Ponderosa pine providing lumber for building. California’s mild climate lent itself to the idea of living with nature, allowing houses to have many windows & sleeping porches in which to spend hot summer nights.
The nearby Arroyo Seco, Spanish for “dry gulch” runs 8 miles through Pasadena & provided beautiful stone for building & adorning houses. Pasadena’s beautiful topography, rich soil & mild weather provided the perfect setting in which lush vegetation flourished.
Pasadena spawned & inspired the applied artistry of people such as The Greene Brothers, who designed the Gamble House to enhance the setting & honored the natural environment in every detail. The extraordinary work of Pasadena resident, Ernest Batchelder, tile-maker, is seen in many homes in the neighborhood.
Additionally, the modest homes of Bungalow Heaven were within the reach of the working class. People of moderate means could afford to live in a beautiful city with views of the San Gabriel Mountains, enjoy well-built homes with a variety of attractive details & friendly front porches, & had the added benefit of being near transportation, commerce & job opportunities.
This wonder, a piece of Pasadena that is Bungalow Heaven, is an amalgamation of the history, the homes & the neighborhood spirit. Read about it in this informative book, view it on a driving tour or, catch their spring home tour!
TIP: Read about other preservation groups holding wonderful events in Southern California, click, HERE!
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Brothers Charles & Henry Greene can be understood as men through the study of their Arts & Crafts architecture. As with all artists, their creations were born of their unique viewpoints of life, tempered by their educations, their personal relationships & professional experiences, & the cultures & technologies of their times.
At the same time, each creative expression contributes to the personal evolution of the individual. You can see this clearly in studying the works of any artist over their lifetime. The viewpoint does not remain stagnant, as evidenced by the often radical changes in style over the course of the artist’s career.
For an architect the quantity of these in-flowed influences is magnified by their medium- clients, contractors, topography, tradespeople, materials, climate & cost overruns, oh my! Each of these leave their mark on the soul.
These videos are about the most well-known works of the Greene’s. I believe this medium with their virtual, docented tours to be the next best way of experiencing & understanding any piece of architecture. They tell the story of the Brothers Greene through the magnificent Arts & Crafts architecture that they designed.
THE VIDEOS- Charles & Henry Green Arts & Crafts architecture
Though I am an admirer of the Brothers Greene, I am not an expert, nor a scholar, nor do I have sophisticated video capabilities so I prefer to let them do the teaching & they do it exceedingly well.
Arts & Crafts architecture of Greene & Greene including The Gamble House, CALIFORNIA episode (3:03)
Craft in America
A short video with some beautiful shots expressing how the California lifestyle influenced the design of the house.
A Portal – the Gamble House front door (9:50)
The Gamble House x
Jennifer Trotoux, Director of Collections & Interpretation, gives an overview of the artistry and construction of the front door of the Gamble House. Wherever you are, you will be transported to the entry of the house & learn so much about the design & the crafting of this beautiful portal.
The Thorson House Tour- A Greene & Greene Ultimate Bungalow (19:16)
The Wood Whisperer
A close look at the many refined & delicate details through which the Brothers Greene, took items of utility & made them things of beauty, including their version of recessed lighting!
Greene & Greene’s Bungalow for Robert Blacker (10:44)
Hoosierwoodcraft
A short history of the Greene Brothers & some images of the Blacker House.
Two Sides of the Pacific: Japan and the Architecture of Greene & Greene (1:18:15)
The Huntington
Looking at Japan through the lens of the Brothers Greene, a fascinating talk by Edward R. Bosley, Executive Director of The Gamble House on the influence of Japanese design on Charles & Henry & the reception of their work in Japan.
I invite you all to visit the Gamble House at your earliest opportunity. Sign up for their mailing list so you can stay informed of their wonderful array of activities.
STAY IN THE BUNGALOW KNOW!!!
Sign up for our newsletter & receive our FREE E-book, 7 VITAL Things to Do Before You Hire a Contractor.
When I bought my 1910 Craftsman, my dear mother loaned me the money for the down payment. Shortly before the first payment was due, I found the perfect lamp for the library table in my entry. Its price was exactly the same amount as what I owed my mother that month, & after the restoration & the buying of furniture, I did not have the funds for both. With great reluctance I called her & asked if I could delay paying for a month. She gasped loudly, then expostulated, “Oh, Suzanne, you know the importance of correct lighting!”
STAY IN THE BUNGALOW KNOW!!!
How did the Arts & Crafts Movement swim to America from England, & why did it look so different here?
“Organic buildings are the strength and lightness of the spiders’ spinning, buildings qualified by light, bred by native character to environment, married to the ground.”
Bungalow Heaven, a neighborhood of 800+ historic homes in Pasadena, CA, truly is a paradise. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places, the area was built between 1900 & 1930 & designated in 1989, as a local landmark district. Thankfully, this status has been instrumental in protecting it from the pop design of HGTV.
Like the rest of the organization, it was finely-tuned & well-oiled. The tour, only one of the group’s many activities, is a massive undertaking due to the amount of volunteer coordination & the directing of the hoards of attendees. They also have to ensure the protection & comfort of the homeowners, so each task is clearly delineated & drilled in the weeks before the tour. It was great to receive this training & experience & provided us with the template that we used to form our own fledgling committee.
Additionally, the modest homes of Bungalow Heaven were within the reach of the working class. People of moderate means could afford to live in a beautiful city with views of the San Gabriel Mountains, enjoy well-built homes with a variety of attractive details & friendly front porches, & had the added benefit of being near transportation, commerce & job opportunities.
Brothers Charles & Henry Greene can be understood as men through the study of their