Arts and Crafts Styles: Craftsman, Prairie and Four Square J. M. Edgar, CMC, CRC
The Arts & Crafts period from the turn of the 20th century to World War II is unique in American architectural history for two reasons. First, it was the only period in which houses that ordinary people Photo: Lancaster County Register of Deeds Craftsman Clapboard Bungalow The classic clapboard 1-1/2 story Craftsman bungalow on Park Street in the Near South. could afford were enriched with all manner of finely crafted detail. Rich wood trim, art glass and colorful tile mosaics has been used in houses for a long time, but only the Rothschilds and Rockefellers could afford them. The rest of us had to do without — at least until the Arts & Crafts movement made rich detailing a mainstay of home design.

Second, all of the Arts & Crafts architectural styles — Prairie, Craftsman, Mission, Four Square — are purely American styles. Unlike previous house styles that were adopted from European models, Arts & Crafts homes are completely homegrown. No other nation, with the exception of our Canadian neighbor has anything like them.

If you are fortunate enough to own an Arts & Crafts home, you own a gem — a true American original — full of hand-crafted details that are rarely seen in modern housing. That 6,000 square foot Mac-Mansion that your boss just bought is full of 1/2" gypsum board walls, painted MDF mouldings and carpeting over OSB subflooring. Yours is full of thick, plaster walls, varnished quarter-sawn oak mouldings with oak strip flooring over a thick pine subfloor. Of course, your floor squeaks and his doesn't, but you have to put up with a few little quirks to live in a work of art.

Arts & Crafts Philosophy
It began as a rebellion against heady excesses of the late Victorian age.

The Victorians celebrated the abundance made possible by mass production and industrialization. Inexpensive turned mouldings could be made by machines in previously unheard-of numbers and could be easily shipped anywhere in the country on its new new railroad system. They were used with ever-increasing elaboration to embellish Victorian homes. By the end of the 19th century, ornamentation had reached its zenith in the elaborate Eastlake style house, and people were beginning to grow tired of it. (For more information on Victorian house styles, see: Victorian Styles: Queen Anne, Italianate, Gothic Revival and Eastlake.) In fact, by the 1890s a great many people had finally had enough of industrialization. There was a widespread and growing rebellion against the numbing imensity of massive mechanization and a longing for a earlier, simpler time.

The revolution began in England, where industrialization was the most advanced and its side effects the most onerous. Largely inspired by the writings of John Ruskin, an influential moralist and social critic of the time, the Arts & Crafts was just one of many forms of rejection of the dehumanizing effects of the early Industrial Age, the factory system and mass production processes. Earlier days of villages, craft shops and artisans were thought healthier and more humanizing than assembly-line work in factory towns shrouded in smoke and dust.

All of these movements failed. The Industrial Revolution did not go away, or even slow down. But before finally dying out around 1910 the Arts & Crafts movement in America spawned a stunning revolution in architecture and design that largely dominated the 20th century until the 1950s. Since this period is when most prewar Nebraska homes were built, the Arts & Crafts home styles are generously represented in our older urban neighborhoods.

They lasted just 50 years, then, with the end of the 2nd World War, the Arts & Crafts styles styles quietly died. Challenged to build huge numbers of houses to meet the ravenous Postwar appetite for new housing, homebuilders quickly abandoned the leisurely, hand-crafted detailing of the Arts & Crafts period. It was just too time consuming and had to go in favor of mass production techniques that built an average of 5,000 sturdy new homes in a single day. It was sad to see such wonderful craftsmanship go by the wayside, but it was time. It was a new era. American had changed, and so had its housing needs. The legacy, however, is still with us in the form of thousands of Arts & Crafts houses throughout the country and especially in the Midwest. (For more on postwar modern housing, see Postwar Architecture: Cape Cod, Colonial and Ranch.)

Ancestor Styles
No architectural style is born in isolation. It borrows from earlier styles, emphasizing some features, deemphasizing others until a new, identifiable style emerges. The Arts & Crafts styles are no exception. While the Arts & Crafts Movement provided the philosophy and rationale, the nuances of the architecture were taken from a great many sources: late Victorian shingle-style and other purely American influences such as Shaker and Southwest Spanish Mission and some distinctly Asian influences, particularly the broad horizontal lines, low roofs and use of well-crafted natural materials characteristic of the traditional Japanese house.

Photo: Lancaster County Register of Deeds Craftsman Bungalow Another classic Craftsman bungalow on Sheridan. Slightly more upscale that the example above, all of the typical design elements are represented: Low hip roof, open rafter tails, heavy brick piers supporting the porch roof, and art glass windows in the hip dormer. The Craftsman, Prairie and Four Square styles also borrow freely from each other. Although distinct and identifiable styles, with some common characteristic features such low pitched hip roofs, minimal decoration, and extensive hand crafting, they each have elements unique to their style. But they blend into each other to such an extent that it is often impossible to cleanly classify a particular house as one or the other style. A Craftsman bungalow with Prairie elements is as common as a Prairie house with Craftsman elements. Four square houses freely purloined elements of both.

Arts & Crafts architecture also borrowed liberally from Art Deco, Art Nouveau and other "modernism" decorative styles — and just Sears Model 102 House Kit Sears, Roebuck & Co. sold thousands of Arts & Crafts kit houses from 1908 to 1940. They arrived in two boxcars and included a 75 page leather-bound assembly manual. as freely were borrowed from by modernist designers. So while these uniquely American styles are identifiable and excellent examples of each can be found in Nebraska communities, most Arts & Crafts era houses are hybrids of the three main styles — incorporating many of the best features of each.

The Craftsman House There are a number of different craftsman-style houses, the American Foursquare is actually a craftsman-style house. But the most popular Craftsman home was the simple 1-1/2 story bungalow. In fact, for most people, "bungalow" and "Craftsman house" are synonymous terms. Just about every Nebraska village and town boasts at least one bungalow. Bungalow designs were spread by the practice of using mail-order plans available from illustrated catalogs. A variety of firms offered pre-fabricated homes, which were shipped by rail and assembled on site by the owners or local builders.

Bungalows were modest, inexpensive, low-profile houses faced of brick, wood siding, or stone Wood siding was often applied in contrasting wood bands or courses separated by wide horizontal trim boards. Characteristically, they possess broad gables or hip roofs, usually with one or two large front dormers. Other typical decorative elements include brackets (actually called "corbels") under the eaves and open rafter tails, prominent chimneys, and overhanging eaves, up to 36" wide.

The bungalow style has its roots in the native architectural styles of the Bengal in India. During the last decades of the 19th century, English officers had small houses built in the "Bangla" style. The houses were one story with tile or thatched roofs and wide, covered verandas. The style was introduced to American architecture in 1906, through an article that appeared in The Craftsman magazine. It was adopted by period architects such as an answer to the need for small, affordable homes, and rather quickly became a staple of homebuilding in America.

Bungalows feature low pitched hip roofs and deep eaves with exposed rafters, wide, open front porches with heavy masonry or wood piers. Windows are abundant and distinctive: "4 over 1" (4 panes in the upper sash to one pane in the lower sash) or "6 over 1" double-hung. These are now commonly called "Craftsman" windows.

Interiors are composed of an open floor plan of airy rooms with simple surfaces of plaster and wood. Living and dining "rooms" are often divided by low wood and glass partitions rather than walls. Built-in cabinetry, beamed ceilings and simple wainscots are typically seen in living and dining rooms. Art glass might be used throughout the interior in dividers and cabinet doors — more likely in architect-designed houses than in builder-designed or kit houses. The front door or a window facing the front of the house would typically be glazed with a stained glass art work of some kind. Arts & Crafts Resources
Associations
The Arts & Crafts Society

Historic Chicago Bungalow Association

Twin Cities Bungalow Club

Furnishings
Darrell Peart, Furnituremaker Beautiful hand-made reproduction furniture of the California Arts & Crafts period, with heavy emphasis on Greene & Greene influenced stylings.

Thomas Strangeland, Artist Craftsman Beautiful and authentic period furniture (see photo below).

Ephraim Pottery Arts & Crafts style pottery.

Jax Rugs Reproduction period carpets and rugs.

Mission Studio Fine furniture and lighting in the Arts & Crafts style.

Modern Bungalow Colorado's largest collection of authentic Arts & Crafts and craftsman home furnishings.

Tile Restoration Center Reproduction Arts & Crafts tiles.

The Craftsman Home Arts & Crafts furniture, lighting, ceramics, artwork, textiles, metalwork and interior design services.

Rejuvenation For lighting, hardware and house parts plus a raft of ideas and illustrations, we know of no better place than Rejuvenation.

Oak Park Home & Hardware Oak Park Home & Hardware specializes in lighting products in the spirit of Arts & Crafts, Mission, Prairie, Bungalow, English Tudor, Tudor Manor, and Spanish Revival styles.

Pratt & Larson Ceramics. Finely crafted art tiles.

More resources from American Bungalow Magazine

Publications
Bungalow Shop Books: Perhaps the definitive source for books in print about Arts & Crafts period architecture arranged in collections by architectural style.

American Bungalow Magazine: Rated by the Chicago Tribune as one of American's top 50 magazines, American Bungalow magazine is published in the interest of preserving and restoring the modest American 20th century home, the Bungalow, and the rich lifestyle that it affords.

Style 1900 Magazine: Style 1900 is a quarterly magazine exploring the antiques, architecture, philosophy and personalities of the Arts & Crafts movement in America and abroad. It covers Craftsman, Mission, and Prairie style and the distinctive California homes of Greene & Greene — but also foreign Arts & Crafts such as the Glasgow School, Jugendstil, the Vienna Secession, British Arts & Crafts, and Art Nouveau, as well as the work of modern-day craftsmen inspired by the Arts & Crafts spirit.

Arts & Crafts Homes Magazine: Is a publication that grew out of Old-House Interiors magazine, founded in 1995. The quarterly covers contemporary practitioners as well as the historical antecedents of the continuing Arts & Crafts movement.

Web Resources
Antique Home: Vintage Home Resources From 1900 to Mid Century for owners of vintage homes.

Hewn & Hammered: A somewhat organized hodgepodge of everything Arts & Crafts, with emphasis on California mission.

Prairie House This house in South Lincoln was built in 1991 in the Prairie Style by the current owner. Its kinship to the Craftsman style is very evident, but it is typically less rectangular and often organized around a central chimney. Prairie houses featured very strong horizontal lines emphasized by flat or low roofs with extended eaves. Unlike Prairie style houses that were almost always designed by an architect, Craftsman houses, like Four Squares (see below) were "just built" — often from widely available pattern books. A builder got comfortable with a certain style and floor plan and built the same house with minor variations in detail over and over again — often on the same block. (For more information on how most pre-war homes were built see A Brief History of Homebuilding.)

The house's condensed floor plan made use of all available space. A single living room replaced the front and rear parlors, entry hall, and library characteristic of the Victorian house. The living room always had a fireplace, often set in a niche called the "inglenook". It opened directly into the dining room, which also served as a multi-purpose family room. The dividing wall usually was only five feet high so the rooms were connected visually. The kitchen connected to the dining room through a swinging door that provided easy access but kept food odors out of the rest of the house. (These have usually been removed now that kitchen ventilation is available, and most are lost, but the swinging door hardware often remains attached to the door jamb.)

The Prairie House The Prairie Style house is a product of the Prairie School of architecture. This new style of housing was coined the Prairie Style after a 1901 article in the Ladies Home Journal by Frank Lloyd Wright entitled, "A Home in a Prairie Town."

It was a new look for a new century. Low, ground-hugging houses with refreshingly spacious interiors under sweeping roofs, leading to terraces reaching out to nature, all dressed in the colors of the prairie in autumn and simplified with built-in furniture. A group of idealistic young architects in Chicago, led by Frank Lloyd Wright, had succeeded in their quiet revolt against the fussiness of Victorian houses. Gazing toward the horizon, they saw the prairie as the perfect metaphor for redefining the American home.1
Prairie Folk House Here is a very rare example of a Folk Prairie House in South Lincoln. Structurally it is similar to an American Four-Square including its boxy shape and low hip roof. But both the style and placement of windows and absence of gables are identify the house as Prairie. Folk houses were often build without aid of an architect using a kit or builder familiar with the style. Prairie Style architects sought to redefine American housing by designing houses with low horizontal lines and open interior spaces in deliberate contrast to the Victorian Era's tall, narrow houses with closed-in interiors. Victorian hosing was a creature of Eastern cities with typical narrow lots. Prairie houses were children of the Great Plains which suggested a low, wide structure more suitable to its expansive horizons. Rooms were often divided by leaded glass panels rather than walls. Both American Southwest and Japanese influences are most apparent in this Arts & Crafts style, more so than in the Craftsman or Four Square styles.

The first Prairie houses were usually finished in lime plaster with wood trim or sided with horizontal board and batten. Later Prairie homes used concrete block — a new material at the time. The spacious, open floor plans of Prairie homes took on many forms: Square, L-shaped, T-shaped, Y-shaped, and even pinwheel-shaped. Furniture was either built-in or specially designed by the architect just for the house.

The style was popularized by pattern books and illustrated magazines, but there was never, as far as we can determine, a kit for a Prairie Style House. Few Prairie style homes were built without the involvement of an Architect. They never received the wide-spread builder acceptance of the Craftsman and Four Square styles, and are consequently much less common in our communities. The few that do exist, however, are usually little gems and well worth preserving.

The American Four Square In 1890 there were no Four Square houses in Nebraska. By 1914 there were thousands. Where the style came from is still a mystery. The Craftsman and Prairie styles can be traced to specific architectural schools or historical antecedents. But the Four Square style seems to have no such precise parentage: no renown architectural advocates, no underlying philosophy, no school of thought. It just got built.

Photo: Lancaster County Register of Deeds American Four Square An American Four-Square house with clapboard siding on Harrison Avenue in South Lincoln. In contrast to other localities, Four-Square houses in Lincoln usually did not feature the typical horizontal band between floors nor different siding on the upper storey. Defining a Four Square
American Four Square Boxy Shape: The house is nearly a cube, often slightly deeper than wide to better fit narrow city lots, with two full storeys and an attic with large dormers.

Hipped Roof: Exceptions exist, but most Four Squares feature a hipped or pyramidal roof with wide overhangs on all sides. Rafter ends are typically exposed.

Wide Front Porch: Of the type architects call a "piazza" that extends the full width of the house, but rarely wraps to either side.

Large Windows: Grouped windows became popular with this style, admitting plenty of light. Usually double-hung with single large panes in the bottom sash and vertical divided panes in the upper.

Minimalist Style: There are Four Squares with art glass, bays, and tiled roofs, but in general the “style” of the house is subtly announced in the use of simplified motifs.
Some believe that it appeared when builders squared off the Folk Victorian house, stripped it of its elaborate ornamentation, lowered the roof pitch, extended the eaves and added Arts & Crafts-influenced interior features. (In fact, Northeast Lincoln still has numerous examples of houses that are clearly transitional between late Victorian and the emerging four square style — neither one or the other but containing bits of both.) Others believe it originated in the Colonial Revival school popular at the end of the 19th century. The traditional rectangular two-storey colonial was squared off, its roof lowered and Craftsman detailing applied. Another opinion is that is is merely a simplified Italianate Victorian design.

Still others feel the Four Square is little more than the two story version of the Craftsman bungalow house. Many see distinct Prairie influences in the large rooms and open floorplan; but there is also evidence that the open plan four square house influenced the Prairie style rather than the other way around. The fact is that while there are many opinions, no on knows for sure where the four square came from. We suspect that a great many different influences combined with a large dose of Midwestern common sense intersected to create this distinctive house that has become one of the most widespread and recognizable of American home styles.

The American Four Square clearly a "folk" house. It has no pretensions whatsoever. It is a plain, unassuming and spacious two-storey house with a low-pitched, hipped roof and widely overhanging eaves. Its square or nearly square footprint is perfect for making the most efficient use of narrow city lots. It is obviously designed for prairie Photo: Lancaster County Register of Deeds Four Square Transition This transitional house on Sewell Street still has many elements of the Victorian Shingle Style, including the complex roof and obvious Victorian chimneys. But the basic lines of the American Four Square that it will become over the next decade or so are clearly visible, especially the characteristic boxy shape. weather. The low rise roof collects snow, a natural insulation in the winter, and the wide eaves protect the house from blistering summer suns for which the Great Plains is famous. The term "four square" comes from its square shape and interior layout. Typically, each floor contains four rooms, one neatly tucked into each corner. On the first floor you will find an entry foyer, living room, dining room, and kitchen. Upstairs, three bedrooms and a bath all quietly sit in their own corners.

Arranging each floor in quadrants eliminated the need for long hallways and made the most efficient use of interior space. Simple, symmetrical Four Square homes were less costly to build than earlier, more complicated designs with protruding wings and complex roof lines. The houses are incredibly energy efficient and often designed so that the upstairs and downstairs were distinct heating zones separated by a door at the top or bottom of the stairs. The downstairs was heated by day, and upstairs at night.

Large tracts of Four Squares exist in older Lincoln neighborhoods, particularly in the old "streetcar suburbs" in the Near South, Bethany and Havelock, but the design was universal and can be found in remote farmhouses as well as in the urban core of nearly all Nebraska cities. The Four Square was a popular mail-order era style along with the Craftsman bungalow. Sears alone offered a dozen different kits and other manufacturers as many as twenty. It arrived crated in a boxcar with a "free" assembly manual and all the parts pre-cut and numbered for "easy assembly" (uh-huh).

Four Square houses were built with a variety of exterior finishes, including brick and narrow-strip wood clapboard siding. A few feature shingle siding or stucco, but these are relatively rare in Nebraska. The second story was often finished in a different siding than the first - shingles over clapboard, for example. A wood band usually separated the two treatments. Its entrance was the focal point of the front facade, and it often had a front and sometimes side-hipped dormers in its pyramid-shaped roof. The interior and exterior spaces of these houses were usually linked by a full-width first-floor front porch with massive, square porch supports.

Arts & Crafts Interiors
Morris Chair The slatted Morris Chair and Ottoman, an Arts & Crafts period icon. The defining characteristics of Arts & Crafts interiors are openness, light, distinct horizontal lines, handsome, high-quality materials and lots of hand crafted glass-, stone- and wood-work. The layout of a Craftsman interior was largely dictated by common sense and a drive for simplicity in reaction to Victorian excess. Photo: Taunton Press Inc. Craftsman Interior The Arts & Crafts interior showing typical elements: Fireplace, built-in storage, wood-strip floors and lots of windows. The floor plan is typical of a Four Square or bungalow house. The fixed lite windows with transoms above are unusual and probably replaced the original double-hung windows. Long sight lines gave the viewer a sense that the house was larger than it actually was — a technique still used today to make small houses seem more spacious (See architect Sarah Susanka's Not So Big House design philosophy for 21st century housing that has rapidly become a philosophy of living well amid beautiful surroundings). It is not uncommon to be able to look completely through an Arts & Crafts house from front to back.

The house's condensed floor plan made use of all available space. A single living room replaced the front and rear parlors, entry hall, and library characteristic of the Victorian house. The living room always had a fireplace, often set in a niche called the "inglenook". It opened directly into the dining room, which also served as a multi-purpose family room. The dividing wall usually was only five feet high so the rooms were connected visually. The kitchen connected to the dining room through a swinging door that provided easy access but kept food odors out of the rest of the house. (These have usually been removed now that kitchen ventilation is available, and most are lost, but the swinging door hardware often remains attached to the door jamb.)

Photo: Thomas Strangeland, Artist Craftsman Craftsman Interior The Craftsman living room. Extensive built-ins to reduce the need for furniture were a revolt against the over-furnished rooms of the Victorian era. Less furniture also contributed to the airy and open feel of the house. The middle-class housewife of the Craftsman era did not usually have full-time servants and would be doing most of the domestic chores herself, as well as watching the children and taking care of the garden. These added roles made it Photo: American Bungalow Craftsman Dining Room Typical built-in cabinetry in an Arts & Crafts dining room. important that the kitchen be integrated into the main house with easy sight lines into the dining and living rooms as well as into the back yard. The sink centered on a back window is a Arts & Crafts kitchen feature that has become the enduring custom for all American kitchens. Commonly, the butler's pantry of the Victorian Era was replaced with built-in dining room cabinetry. The kitchen, separated from the main life of the house in Victorian times, became the gathering point of the house, often with a built in breakfast "nook".

Furniture was typically oak and dark, but other native woods such as elm and maple were also used (usually painted). Arts & Crafts color schemes kept the subtle earth tones of the Victorians but in a more monochromatic palette as opposed to the kaleidoscope of contrasting colors on the Victorian home. Colors were often specified by the architect and incorporated into the final plaster coat rather than being painted on. The walls were banded in wood, often at several heights: at the ceiling, above and below the windows and at the base of the wall — a feature unabashedly borrowed from the traditional Japanese house. The banding gave the house a distinct horizontal aspect, visually enlarging it (and discouraging hanging pictures — most Craftsman designers thought pictures were an unnecessary adornment to an already perfectly decorated house). Final plaster coats often contained sand to give them a rough coat to better reflect light and to discourage wallpaper, a Victorian holdover that designers also hated. Built-in cabinets made the home more functional by minimizing the need for furniture. Less furniture contributed to the open, uncluttered, airy look of the house.

The Arts & Crafts Kitchen
The Arts & Crafts era was the beginning of built-in kitchen cabinets to replace movable tables and cupboards, but it was still very rudimentary and not a the modern, fitted kitchen we are used to today. The modern kitchen was Photo: The Art Factory
Craftsman Kitchen Abundant natural light, Arts & Crafts interior details and stone countertops enhance this stunning re-interpretation of the Arts & Crafts kitchen by The Art Factory. largely a development of post-war suburban housing. The modern Arts & Crafts style kitchen did not actually exist during the Arts & Crafts period. What we think of as an Arts & Crafts kitchen is actually a rather recent innovation. Designers took cabinet styles from built-in living and dining room cabinets and reinterpreted the designs for use in a kitchen. It is what a kitchen could have looked like if there were, in fact, modern kitchens in the early part of the 20th century. Photo: Midcontinent Cabinetry 1930s Kitchen The Arts & Crafts period saw the beginning of the modern built-in kitchen. This is a reproduction of a late Arts & Crafts period kitchen using Midcontinent cabinetry in Thermofoil with chrome-edged Formica countertops, accessories and melamine dishware appropriate for the period.

Arts & Crafts kitchens incorporate a number of distinctive door and drawer styles. The dominant styles are are flat panel and bead board. Raise panel and flush cabinet doors are non consistent with the period. Nor are arched doors. Glass panel doors are appropriate, especially art or stained glass. Often the cabinets are painted. But wood can also be left in its natural state or stained and varnished. Oak, elm, maple, and ash are commonly used with oak and elm being by far the predominant woods. A built in drop-down ironing board was a standard feature of the original Arts & Crafts kitchen, as is often reproduced today.

Today's 36" height became the standard for countertops during the pre-war 20th century, although heights of 32" to 38" are not uncommon. Cabinets were often sized by architects to the house owners. Large windows were common in Arts & Crafts kitchens, reducing the space available for wall cabinets. Undercabinet lights were not yet in wide use, so abundant ceiling lights were used to provide working or task lighting (although they largely failed to do so). To ensure enough light, at least in the daytime, sinks and stoves were usually located near windows. (Amazingly, the kitchen lighting problem was not actually solved until the advent of inexpensive small fluorescent undercabinet fixtures in the 1950s.) The Varied Appearance of Oak
Oak boards How oak is sawn affects its appearance and price. Rift oak is characterized by straight, close set, parallel grain; quartersawn by rift grain with perpendicular "flecks" (sometimes called "flakes"). The darker the wood is stained, the more obvious the flecks become.

Oak Sawing Diagram Flat-sawn oak has a coarse arched grain. It is the most common cut because it produces the most usable wood, but it is rarely seen in Arts & Crafts furnishings or cabinets.

Quartersawing wastes more wood and is therefore pricier, but much more authentic. Rift sawn oak is rare. It actually occurs in the process of quartersawing. The center board in each quarter of the trunk is a rift board, the rest are the more common quarter sawn boards. Rift oak is generally more expensive than quartersawn oak.

Cabinets: Craftsman cabinets are very plain but made of well figured, high quality wood. The color and grain of the wood is Craftsman Doors Arts & Crafts cabinet door styles reflect the patterns used in period furniture and window sashes. The door on the left is quarter-sawn white oak. The middle door is plain-sawn and, therefore, not as authentic. The door on the right is cherrywood - rare in the Midwest, but more common on the East Coast. considered all the decoration needed. The doors are flat 1- or 2-panel doors with square, unadorned frames — clearly influenced by Shaker design. Architect-designed Prairie-style cabinets are often more elaborate. Generally, each part of the county used wood that was common to its area. Oak was the most wood of choice in the Midwest: usually red oak either rift cut or quartersawn. Although major cabinet manufacturers use flat sawn oak in most of their Craftsman cabinet doors, it is not actually authentic to the period. Elm and chestnut are also good choices. Maple was used, but it was usually painted. Today Thermofoil is a good substitute for painted Craftsman cabinets. Cherrywood was not commonly found in Arts & Crafts houses in the Midwest, but was fairly common in the East. Similarly, Walnut was more common in the far West and was the staple of Greene & Greene cabinetry and furnishings on the West Coast.

Craftsman Countertop A stone look laminate counter top with wood edge banding to match the cabinetry. Bivel House, Lincoln, Nebraska Countertops: Countertops were usually soapstone or, in later years, laminates, typically with wood banding on the edges. Granite and artificial stone will work if the color is kept dark to look a little like soapstone. Slate countertops were used, but rarely. Zinc and zinc-plated steel are also options (or dull stainless that looks like zinc). Ceramic tile was not often used except in the Southwest, but stone tiles are appropriate.

Flooring: Craftsman Painted Kitchen Painted Arts & Crafts kitchen with shallow custom cabinetry made to fit the space. The bump-out at the sink allows the use of an inexpensive standard sink and full-size faucet. The laminate countertops are a close approximation of soapstone. The angled crown moulding is common in reproduction Craftsman kitchens, but is not strictly authentic. For flooring, strip wood (usually red oak), stone tile (typically slates), or true linoleum are the first choices. Vinyl sheet flooring can simulate linoleum and modern laminate flooring to simulate the look of wide plank wood is also an option. Sometimes wood floors were painted. Cork was also used, primarily in the East.

Mouldings: Mouldings are plain, but of handsome, well-figured wood. Heavy angled crown treatment is inappropriate, although common in reproduction kitchens. Flat ceiling molding is more appropriate. Base molding should be deep, at least 5", and at least 3/4" thick. Banding around the room at the top of the windows is common. The banding forms the top casing of the windows and doors and contributes to the horizontal feel of the room.

Most Requested Feature: We have never seen an original Arts & Crafts kitchen with a glass door. But glass doors were common in built-in dining room break fronts. Kitchen designers simply adopted the style of of these glass doors and Craftsman windows to kitchen cabinets. It may not be original, but it is authentic, and the most requested kitchen feature of Arts & Crafts kitchen renovations. Put a little low-voltage light inside the cabinets, and you have a built in display case for grandma's German china. Photo: Rejuvenation Craftsman Painted Bath A reproduction of an early Arts & Crafts bathroom with white everything set off by hunter green painted walls.

The Arts & Crafts Bathroom
In the early part of the Arts & Crafts era, the bath was merely a continuation of the Victorian bathroom with its stand-alone claw-foot tub and wall-mounted lavatory sink. This was often a very monochromatic room — with a subway tile wainscot, white floor tile and painted white wood trim. Toward the end of the era, alcove bathtubs combined with pedestal lavatories were becoming the standard and bathrooms began to blend in more modern art-deco design elements and modern touches such as a tiled shower and vanities.

Craftsman Mouldings Typical mouldings of the Arts & Crafts era by Jeffrey Gorton. Crown mouldings were usually flat, as shown, rather than angled. Fixtures: Adding Arts & Crafts elements to your bathroom is made easy by the fact that just about every major lighting, faucet and fixture manufacturer offers an Arts & Crafts line with all the modern features that meets current building, electrical and plumbing codes. In addition, there are many sources of original fixtures at local antiques stores, especially those that specialize in architectural antiques.

Heavy, bright chrome was the most common finish for faucets and white enamel for sinks, tubs and toilets. Chrome was a relatively new finish at the time, and expensive. It eliminated the bother of constantly polishing brass fixtures and made bathroom maintenance a lot simpler, so it quickly became the standard. Polished brass would also work well. Toward the end of the period, pastel porcelain fixtures were just starting to become available. These colors, including turquoise, peach and lemon-lemon, were to become closely associated with post-war modernism. Most, however, actually originated during the Arts & Crafts era.

Floors: Photo: Pratt and Larson Ceramics Craftsman Tiled Bath Decorative tiles can add an Arts & Crafts look when carefully combined with modern ceramic or porcelain tile. Flooring should be ceramic tile. Ceramic manufacturers produced distinctive tile colors and designs during the Arts & Crafts period that are forever associated with the era. Characterized by extremely glossy finishes, period tiles are still made by most tile companies as well as boutique tile makes who specialize in period tiles. It is often not possible to use only specialty period tiles without shattering the budget, but a a border or medallion of these period tiles adds a distinctive Arts & Crafts period flavor to a period bath.

Wood bathroom floors were uncommon in the Arts & Crafts period. Wood finishes did not protect the wood well enough for use in a wet area like a bathroom. But great strides in wood finishes now make the use of wood floors practical in bathrooms, and we are seeing more and more wood in designer Arts & Crafts baths. Not actually authentic, but true to the Arts & Crafts philosophy of using natural materials where possible.

Walls: Walls should include a tile or panel wainscot. Tile is more typical, but painted breadboard wainscot was also common. If wainscot was not used, the lower wall was often painted a different color than the upper part of the wall, and the two sections separated with an applied moulding.

Mouldings: All Arts & Crafts mouldings were simple and lacking the often intricate ornamentation of the Victorian Era. But they were almost always heavy and deep. A base moulding 8" tall and 7/8" thick was not uncommon (compared to the current standard of 3 1/2" tall and 3/8" thick). Window and door casing should be wide, often with back banding. Wood mouldings would normally be painted, but sometimes varnished woods typical of the period were used: oak, elm and gum.
Need to learn more about kitchen and bath design? Try these articles:
  • Adapting a Kitchen to a Budget
    A terrific kitchen does not have to break the bank. We may have to get creative and even make a few compromises, but you will end up with a wonderful kitchen that will serve your needs for years to come.
  • The Bathroom Revolution
    The role of the bathroom is changing rapidly. The importance of the bath in our homes has grown dramatically. Spacious rooms, closeted toilets, double bowl lavatories, whirlpool tubs, and recently large walk-in showers have found their way into our homes. No longer just a functional room, the bath is becoming a retreat. How can you modernize your bath into one of these gracious rooms? Find out here.
  • Behind the Scenes — The Hidden Kitchen
    Behind the beautiful new cabinets, under the sparking countertops, beneath the gleaming tile floor are the invisible bones and sinew that make the kitchen work - electricity, venting, heating and plumbing. Find out all that's needed behind the scenes.
  • Cabinet Basics
    There's oak, maple, hickory, ash, cherry. Faced and unfaced. Framed and frameless. Custom, semi-custom and manufactured. MDF, Melamine, Thermofoil, even steel. So many choices. How do you pick the cabinets that are just right for you? Click here to find out.
  • Creating More Bathroom Space
    Our fondness of open spaces within the home doesn't end at the bathroom door. Unfortunately the acreage needed to create that spacious feeling just is not available in many older bathrooms. Often the key to updating a bath is creating more space — or at least the illusion of more space. This article examines where additional space can be found both outside and inside your existing bathroom.
  • Designing Efficient and Effective Kitchen Lighting
    The kitchen uses a lot of energy for lighting. While remodeling your kitchen, you have the perfect opportunity to create a highly efficient lighting system.
  • Finding Some More Kitchen Space
    Learn where to get more space, or at least the feeling of more space for your new kitchen.
  • Flooring Options for Kitchens and Baths
    Wood, stone, vinyl, ceramic tile, laminated flooring. What are the pros and cons of each? Learn the fundamentals of kitchen flooring.
  • How to Measure Your Kitchen
    All the steps required to measure a kitchen explained and illustrated. Learn to measure like a pro.
  • Mise en Place: What We Can Learn from Commercial Kitchens
    Organized to prepare a large variety of appetizing meals at a moment's notice, we can learn a lot about kitchen efficiency from studying commercial kitchens.
  • New and Traditional Countertop Choices
    Is solid surfacing, laminate, stone or tile your best choice of counter top? Or maybe something more exotic. Take a look at the incredible selection of modern counter top materials.
  • Off the Wall Kitchens: Living Without Wall Cabinets
    Wall cabinets are unquestionably useful storage, but with drawbacks. A major disadvantage is that wall cabinets make a kitchen seem smaller by closing in the space at eye level — which is where we subconsciously judge how large the space around us is - and limit the number and size of windows in the kitchen. Can your new kitchen do away with wall cabinets? Probably. Find out how.
  • The Rules of Bathroom Design
    The Kitchen and Bath Association has published guidelines for designing a safe and functional bathroom. Created and maintained by a panel of expert designers, these recommendations should be closely followed in any kitchen plan.
  • The Rules of Kitchen Design
    In 1944 the University of Illinois conducted a study of kitchen design and developed fundamental design principals that are still very much in use today. Here are the rules for designing great kitchens.
  • Selecting Bath Fixtures
    The choices of bathroom fixtures are a little overwhelming. Tubs, showers, sinks, faucets and toilets come in so many shapes, sizes, colors and with such a great variety of features that choosing the right fixtures can be a challenge. Here are some guidelines and suggestions.
  • Sources of Supply: Faucets
    Thinking about buying a faucet? Before your do, see our list of major faucet manufacturers with ratings and guidelines on what to look for and how to select a good, lifetime faucet.
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