Hewn and Hammered

remodel snapshots

A bit of digging around over at Flickr found three large groups (agglomerations of photos from dozens of different users) devoted to remodels. Many of the remodels documented are in and of historic homes, and some are better than others.

here are a few favorites (links are at the bottom):

1. 2003-2006, 2. A cabinet with glass doors and light makes a nice addition to the otherwise clean kitchen, 3. wide br, 4. Feb 28 2008 010, 5. my kitchen confession, 6. another view of the shelves , 7. before & after bedroom, 8. br stair, 9. my own new kitchen, story to come, 10. The Arch, she is done!! 02.15.08, 11. Quality - 05 - Seamless Copper Rain Gutter and Downspout, 12. Our New Old House AFTER- Living Room, 13. fixing the lights, 14. Our New Old House AFTER- 2nd bedroom, 15. Basement Remodel, 16. Guest Bathroom, 17. Kitchen, 18. Stair Railing

Panama Pottery in Sacramento, CA

Sacramento's Panama Pottery has been producing simple, Arts & Crafts inspired decorative pottery and a huge range of plain old terracotta (in dozens of shapes and sizes) for many generations. My friend Michael Kressner recently visited their shop and took some terrific photographs:

photography bits & pieces

To fill a few minutes while I'm off recovering from the holidays:

• a gorgeous bungalow photographed by Eric Rudd - digital (raw), 10 second exposure
• our friend Hustler of Culture toured Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollyhock house
• pretty light fixtures in Blue K Design's bungalow kitchen
• The Arts & Crafts Home has a whole gallery of great contemporary Craftsman kitchens
• it took me a few minutes to realize that the rooms pictured here were "roomboxes," or dollhouse-sized dioramas

happy accidents: bird spirit

Reader Russ Billington writes:

I thought you might like this - I took it this morning whilst basking in a rare ray of November sunshine. It might even bring a smile to your members. I call it 'Bird Spirit', but it is such a happy accident that the nail was hammered in at just the right place and the smear of putty round the hole just accentuates the rusting nail head. It's an old potting shed in the back yard. I better take my medication now..

You can also see some of Russ' wonderful lettering and painting work at Ford Craftsman Studios, one of my favorite retailers of home decoration. There are also a few very nice bits of free period artwork in editable vector forms on Russ' own site.

more Los Angeles bungalows

As a gift to the hundreds of visitors streaming in from Curbed today, I give you a slideshow of Craftsman bungalows in Los Angeles, taken from Flickr:

a new picket fence from scratch

Reader and compulsive rehabber Matt Wyczalkowski writes in with another recent project. This time, as part of a general yard upgrade, Matt built a beautiful Craftsman-style picket fence from scratch. A Flickr photoset documents the project from start to finish. Matt, any time you want to come visit Sacramento, I have plenty of jobs I need done...

Hewn & Hammered on Flickr, redux

The Hewn and Hammered pool over on Flickr continues to grow. We now have many hundreds of photos of fixtures, remodels, historic homes, furniture and more. Here's a little slideshow (thanks to Paul Stamatiou for showing us how to do it):

we're #1 (for houseporn, at least)

I noticed today that we were getting an awful lot of visitors who found us from Google searches for "houseporn." 200 today alone! After checking, I found that we were the number 1 result for this rather odd search term. Not that I'm complaining.

So, to accomodate all of you, some very G-rated houseporn (my favorite kind):

This was created with BigHugeLabs' neat Mosaic Maker. Too bad it doesn't generate a clickable html/javascript mosaic!

The photographers are as follows. Click on each link to see the original photo:

1. Heintz Art Metal Collection, 2. details, 3. IMG 1431, 4. Detailed woodwork, 5. Our Dining Room, 6. Arts & Crafts door, 7. Secessionist style Art Glass Door, 8. Plinthy, 9. Roycroft Hanging Lantern, 10. MG 0447, 11. Rockridge - 30, 12. Kitchen Remodel - After, 13. Maybeck church

Hewn & Hammered on Flickr

We have had lots and lots of additions to our photo pool on Flickr; if you want to see pictures of A&C neighborhoods all over the country, interior and exterior remodels, new homes and all sorts of other bits and pieces, please come on over and visit. Flickr accounts are free, too, so feel free to make your own and share your photos with us!

Arts & Crafts at the Met: my pictures

I have a few pictures of Arts & Crafts furniture in the Metropolitan Museum's collection (and the Frank Lloyd Wright room, a few lamps - including a Greene & Greene ceiling fixture - and some other neat stuff) from my recent trip to Manhattan.

Here's the full set; the Met pictures are mixed in with some family pics, hopefully you won't mind wading through a few of those.

new bungalow kitchens on Flickr

Several recent remodel shots / sets on Flickr for those of you looking for inspiration:

• Jon Caves' photos of his new kitchen – nice cabinetry!
• a nice white-on-white kitchen with some nifty subway tile
• Liz Crawley's recent kitchen renovation - a huge improvement!
• a pretty butter-yellow kitchen at the Gladstone bungalow
• Kali documents much of her 1927 bungalow, including the wonderful, bright kitchen
• Eva Nichole is selling her Ferndale bungalow, with new stainless appliances and very nice cabinetry
• David Erwin's custom home is a bit more contemporary, but his new tile backsplash would be beautiful in any home
• DJensen's Minneapolis bungalow has some really nice kitchen cabinets; I wish there were more pictures!
• WroughtCopper is documenting every aspect of her kitchen renovation - and it's shaped up quite well

the bungalows of Sacramento, California

I spent part of the Thanksgiving weekend driving around my neighborhood - midtown Sacramento - and taking pictures of some representative homes. I'll expand the gallery soon to include some of the many great Mission and Italian Revival homes in the area, and of course lots more Craftsman stuff.

carved door, Berkeley CA

Saw this terrific carving on Acton Street in north Berkeley, California the other day; nobody was home. Anyone familiar with this craftsperson's work? Let me know if you think you might know who is responsible - I'd like to see more of his or her work.

The carving is not particularly deep, yet the details all really stand out - not sure if it's the light or the wood or a combination of the two, but the delicacy of the design is visible all the way from out in the street. every detail of the irises is clear, as well as the gently scalloped hex-pattern in the ground behind them.

TurnHere Brings Neighborhoods to Video

TurnHere ("short films - cool places") is a well-organized library of short video snapshots of residential neighborhoods around the world, mostly shot and narrated by the people who live there. This would be the perfect tool for real estate agents - especially those who handle lots of corporate inter-city relocations - to help their clients pick where they want to concentrate a property search. It's also a great way for real estate voyeurs like us to peek into neighborhoods throughout our country and the rest of the world.

Here's Albany, California, where I grew up; one of my dad's favorite restaurants; and my wife's favorite deli. Pasadena has several films, including one that touches on the Gamble House; you can poke through almost every San Francisco neighborhood in a few dozen short bites, and even take a walk through downtown Santa Barbara - a town with some of the nicest bungalow-full neighborhoods on the west coast.

It'd be great to get more architecture-centric tours - maybe video versions of your own home town's historic home tours? - up on the site. Every film on the site was shot and edited by volunteers, though, so there's certainly plenty of room to contribute an architectural tour of your favorite bungalow neighborhood.

Set in Stone and Tile

The Los Angeles Times has a nice photo album of shots taken at historian Robert Winter's Pasadena home. There are a number of nice pieces of Batchelder tile, a wonderful cave-like living room full of great rugs and furniture, and more. There's also a neat photo of the Lloyd Wright House  which follows the six of Winter's home (it relates to the article in the latter link).

If Winter's name rings a bell, then you've probably read at least one of the books he's made with longtime collaborator, photographer Alexander Vertikoff- The Architecture of Entertainment: LA in the Twenties, American Bungalow Style, Craftsman Style, Batchelder Tilemaker, and plenty more.

Highwater Bungalow, Sacramento

Seen on a drive through an east Sacramento neighborhood recently. Apparently, the homeowner wanted to make it even taller (amazing that the city allowed this to begin with...). The neighbors "talked him down" (ouch, bad pun, sorry). Note that it will be the tallest structure within several blocks, and is totally and completely out of character with the rest of the neighborhood - every single house on this street is a modest bungalow on a relatively small lot.

I noticed the owner kept the electricity connected and the front porch light on; maybe he's worried that a low-flying plane might hit it.

It will be interesting to see how the project turns out!

Recent Flickr Finds

Lots of great new additions to Flickr lately - there are thousands of images added every day to the immense collection here; much of it is pretty badly tagged, so who knows how many neat Arts & Crafts related photographs are really here - I can only search for those that are well-tagged. Here's what I found today:

• an amazing Batchelder fireplace;
• Greg E continues to document the re-bungalowization of his home; here are pictures of his beautifully-refinished hardwood floors, and a neat staircase project. He's also got plenty of pictures of his new doors and hardware installation;
• a neat tile frieze in Roadsidepictures' photostream;
• Allan Ferguson's many pictures of North Park bungalows in San Diego;
• there are plenty of shots of new & remodeled kitchens;
• Hali-Mel's new Shaker cabinets;
• my good friend Dean's new kitchen;
• NancyUSA's kitchen cabinet plans;
• an interesting double-level plate rack;
• user HistoricDundee has lots of pictures of bungalow and other architectural detail in Omaha, Nebraska's Historic Dundee neighborhood;
• user Merideth has new pictures of her ongoing Spanish Revival bungalow restoration in the East Bay; her place is really shaping up, and
• user 1921Bungalow has many photos of his/her namesake.

International Arts & Crafts at the de Young: photographs

Barbara Traisman, Senior Media Relations Officer at San Francisco's recently-reopened (and absolutely stunning) de Young Museum, has supplied us with a number of high-resolution images from their upcoming International Arts & Crafts show. The exhibit is on loan from the Victoria & Albert museum in London, and you may remember the short preview from last week. Please do check out the photographs!

Rejuvenation Hardware on Flickr

I've said it before: oh, how I love Portland's Rejuvenation Hardware. Not only do they have one of the best collections of period Arts & Crafts lighting available anywhere (all of which is sold through their wonderful catalog, which I always look forward to!), but they also have a wonderful showroom in Portland. The showroom, though, sells an awful lot more than just lights and hardware. Furniture, signage and mantels, grills and registers, architectural salvage - all sorts of treasures! Flickr user Madduxdavid recently visited the shop and took these great pictures - you should stop by, too, if you visit Portland.

San Francisco Arts & Crafts on Flickr

Flickr user Ceriess has a gorgeous collection of Grueby, Faience and other A&C pottery; I'm also trying not to be jealous of the beautiful Stickley bed, magazine rack and other furnishings in his especially attractive 1910 San Francisco home (and that view!).

Matt Jalbert photographs

Matt Jalbert, a photographer and graphic designer living in California, has a wonderful portfolio of images of the Gamble House. Many of the photographs were taken during the recent exterior restoration.

Jalbert, incidentally, has also designed websites for The Craftsman Home, Whit McLeod, and The Arts & Crafts Press. He is also the creator of an A & C dingbats font.

Melba Levick, photographer

Photographer Melba Levick has probably shot more Spanish / Mission revival homes than any other photographer anywhere. She's the author of over 40 books, including Japanese Style Gardens of the Pacific West Coast and Paradise Found, as well as Mexicolor and Casa California (the last two were particularly useful when planning restoration of my own 1920s Mission Revival bungalow here in Sacramento). Her site includes a number of galleries related to the themes of her books (missions / Japanese gardens / Spanish-style homes / "Mexicasa"), all of which are definitely worth visiting. You can also order prints of individual images online.

Bechtle Bungalows & Flickr, too

"Enough with the Flickr posts," I'm sure you're all saying to yourselves. Ah, but this is more than just another Flickr post. Because I found a great album of East Bay bungalow pictures ("Springtime in Berkeley") taken by Flickr user Jonathan, aka Curiousyellow. But does the neatness of this little synchronicity end there? No, it does not. Because Jonathan is also an aficionado of the work of the great photorealistic painter Robert Bechtle, who features such homes in much of his work, and he has written several good articles on Bechtle and his work.

Portland bungalows on Flickr

Mim Z. has a wonderful Flickr album full of Portland bungalow photographs - take a look.

Flickr dot com

My latest internet obsession is the magnificent timewaster called Flickr, a sort of democratic and open photo organizing/sharing application. There are social aspects of the system I've hardly explored, such as discussion groupson any of hundreds (or thousands?) of topics. One great feature is the ability to label your own photos with tags. I myself haven't yet used tags, although I have uploaded a number of my own photographs (I use it primarily to share photos with my family and friends so they won't be all that interesting to you, reader x). Luckily, a lot of people do use tags, and a quick search of the craftsman tag gives us photos of kitchen remodels (here are more), beautiful houses, restoration projects (lots and lots more. Searching for other tags gives us even more, like this little Craftsman gem in Los Angeles' Los Feliz neighborhood and these compact Craftsman; some blurry furniture; architectural detail;  Missions in Carmel and Houston; A & C frescoes; a very pretty Prairie vase; ad infinitum.

And as of today, Hewn & Hammered has its own Flickr group, a collaborative supplement to our photo albums here, and any Flickr member (basic accounts are free!) can contribute photographs!

photo album additions

We have a few new additions to our photo albums, including some photographs sent in by Christopher Campbell in our Westwood Park album. If you can supply a few photographs of interesting historical homes in your area, we'll set up an album for your neighborhood too! I would really like to feature photos of interesting interiors, remodel / restore projects and interesting external detail; please forward such images to us! OK, I'll stop harassing you about this now.

Tom Stangeland & Steve Helberg:Arts & Crafts Master Artisans in Pacific NW

When we moved into our home in 1998, we decided to furnish our main floor with Arts & Crafts furniture. We saw Tom Stangeland's Greene & Greene dining room table (modeled on one in the Blacker House in Pasadena) at NW Fine Woodworking here in Seattle and this was (to quote Casablanca) the "beginning of a beautiful [creative] friendship."

2005 bungalow calendar

This is awfully pretty - Douglas Keister and Paul Duchscherer (the pair responsible for many books on the subject) have collaborated on a 2005 calendar full of photographs of great American bungalows.