This weekend we stepped out on a drizzly Sunday morning to take a drive down to another historic district, for a walking home tour. Lots of new ideas are dancing around my head because of it. We're in the process of restoring our own 1914 Craftsman bungalow, and the list of things to do is almost unbearable. But after a day full of wandering around in other people's houses, I have a kind of renewed faith in the restoration process. Some of the homes we toured were even once condemed. I've found it takes a lot of vision and self sacrafice to restore an old home, and once you've tasted the process...you have instant admiration for others who've done the same.
Most of the homes we visited were from the arts and crafts period of design, where the focus was more in the simplicity of design itself. Traditionally in this style, walls weren't papered rather they were painted solid colors with unpainted woodwork. The idea was to let the beauty of every object shine through. Porches were originally painted with colors of nature in mind, the ceiling a light blue to mirror the sky, the floor a soft green or brown like the earth. I found it interesting, that in the victorian period gardens were never set against the house, there were seperate spaces alloted for that. Whereas in the arts and crafts period (those who were rebelling against the victorians) nature was brought closer to the front door and things were planted closer to the home.
There are so many time periods at play, in our own home...I couldn't possibly follow the rules of just one. So I tend to make it up as I go...finding solace in the eclectic nature of so many different eras combined. I found that many of the homes we visited held that same conception of what makes a home.
Click here to see more photos from the tour.
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posted by Liquid Sky Arts at 9:28 PM
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