I’ve mentioned in previous posts that we are restoring this house, by which I mean that we are repairing windows and woodwork, restoring original tile, replacing modern fixtures with original antiques, and when feasible, using paint and stain colors that would have been appropriate for a 1930 house. However, all this talk about restoration is a little misleading, because the Arts & Crafts style, which was all the rage in the 1900s through the early 20’s, had started waning in popularity by 1930. By the early 30’s, designers had adopted a Colonial Revival style, and home magazines were urging their readers to paint their “dark and old-fashioned” Stickley furniture and wood trim, so our Arts & Crafts style would have been considered dated by 1930. So why, you might ask, did we choose to decorate A&C?
Even though Jasun and I are sticklers for historical accuracy (me perhaps more than Jasun), we’re also both proponents of the idea that a house’s interior design should match its exterior. There’s nothing more jarring than entering a colonial style house with ultra-modern furnishings, or entering a contemporary home with country furniture and stencils everywhere. Our home is a Tudor Revival bungalow, and the clean lines, emphasis on handcrafted workmanship, and simplicity of the Arts & Crafts movement appealed to us and complemented our home’s faux-beamed exterior. So before we performed any historical research or stripped our first layer of paint, Jasun and I knew that we wanted to decorate the house in an Arts & Crafts style.
From a little investigative work, however, we do know that our wood trim was originally stained in the living room and dining rooms, and probably the hallways too, although the trim was painted in the bedrooms, kitchen, and bathrooms. This model would have been consistent with Arts & Crafts design, which stipulated that gathering areas such as the dining room and family room would have a warmer feel, with walls painted in olives, yellows, or other muted colors to highlight the richly-stained woodwork. Personal areas, such as bedrooms, however, were almost always brighter, with walls painted in cream, white, or wall-papered, and trim painted in whatever color suited the owner.
This picture from an Aladdin Homes catalogue shows colors popular at the time.
There's something earthy and elemental about these colors, and I love the warmth that they project. In retrospect, I think that we probably should have gone with one of the lighter shades of yellow for the family room and dining room to make the rooms just a little brighter. However, our version does make you feel as if you're enveloped in a burning ember during the grey Pennsylvania winter. We call it "cozy."